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UW Offers Defensive Lineman from Tuli's California High School

Matthew Johnson already carries an impressive 6-foot-5, 250-pound frame.
Dan Raley|
UW Offers Defensive Lineman from Tuli's California High School
UW Offers Defensive Lineman from Tuli's California High School

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Washington Huskies

Everyone in college football says the difference between the SEC and other conferences, most notably the Pac-12, is high-grade defensive linemen.

Teams from Georgia to Alabama to LSU have hulking players with the propensity for taking over games and dominating everyone in the trenches.

The Pac-12 lately tends to have space-fillers, which is something Kalen DeBoer and his University of Washington football staff are trying to rectify.

It's been a while since the Huskies have pulled in a Vita Vea, Danny Shelton or Greg Grimes, all players who proved disruptive enough as collegians and have gone to NFL careers.

On Saturday, the UW offered Matthew Johnson, a 4-star recruit and 6-foot-5, 250-pound defensive tackle from De La Salle High School in Concord, California. He also holds 10 offers in all, with others coming from Arizona State, California, Massachusetts, Ole Miss, Oregon, Oregon State, San Jose State, USC and Washington State.

Johnson, a Class of 2025 prospect who played for a 10-4 De La Salle team last fall, has two more high school seasons to bulk up.

While Johnson could come off the corner on the college level, and was offered by Husky edge-rusher coach Eric Schmidt, he just as easily could be a down lineman.

He hails from the same Northern California high school that sent Tuli Letuligasenoa to the UW, where the latter enters his third season as a starting defensive tackle.

Johnson carries a long and lean frame that could fill out immeasurably and, along with his athleticism, possibly propel him into that rare air of a game-changing down lineman out West — and in Seattle again.

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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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