Inside The Huskies

Texas Edge Rusher Sets Reveal Date, UW Among His Final 4

Zane Rowe from Denton has startling defensive stats from three varsity seasons.
Dan Raley|
Zane Rowe, left, has the UW among his four finalists.
Zane Rowe, left, has the UW among his four finalists. | Guyer

In a month's time, University of Washington football recruiters have elevated the Huskies to the top four for the services of elite Texas edge rusher Zane Rowe.

Now Jedd Fisch's guys will see if they can close the deal.

On Wednesday, the 6-foot-5, 260-pound Rowe from Guyer High School in Denton, 35 miles north of downtown Dallas, announced he will pick a college football destination from among North Carolina, Oklahoma and Oregon on Friday, March 13.

Previously, the 4-star defender had narrowed his choices to the Ducks, the Sooners and and TCU, but he recently bumped the latter for the Huskies and Bill Belichick's Tar Heels.

Whoever wins his services will get a noted playmaker. He comes off a junior season for an 11-3 Wildcats team in which he finished with 72 tackles, including a whopping 26 tackles for loss and 8 sacks, plus an equally weighty 14 pass break-ups, plus 2 fumbles forces and 2 fumbles recovered.

For his efforts, Rowe was named most valuable player for Texas' 6A District 5.

He was just as productive as a sophomore in 2024, finishing with 75 tackles, including 19 TFLs and 9 sacks, with 5 pass break-ups, for a 10-4 team.

As a freshman, Rowe even appeared in nine games and had 23 tackles, including 2 TFLs and 2 sacks, for a 7-4 team.

On April 21, 2024, Rowe surprised his family members by committing to Oklahoma, caught up in the moment and unwilling to wait for his recruitment to play out.

On January 6, 2025, he surprised no one by de-committing from the Sooners as his he piled up 30-plus offers, including schools such as Georgia, Texas and Texas A&M.

Rowe said he wanted to take other visits and didn't want to disrespect the Oklahoma coaching staff, so he pulled the plug on his pledge. It was like a high school guy and a girl deciding to see other people.

The Huskies offered him on May 16, 2025, and have kept after him ever since.

They've recently had decent success pulling players out of the Lone Star state in defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike from Allen, now in the NFL with the Detroit Lions; wide receiver Ja'Lynn Polk from Lufkin (by way of Texas Tech), now with the New Orleans Saints; and edge rusher Cooper McDonald from Haslet, now with the Kansas City Chiefs.

The UW currently has three Texans on the roster in redshirt freshman cornerback Ramonz Adams Jr. from Smithville, sophomore safety Paul Mencke from Cibolo and sophomore defensive lineman Omar Khan from Cypress.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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