Inside The Huskies

UW Locks Down 'Lockdown,' Gains Commitment from Louisiana Corner

Curley Reed becomes the third player at that position to pledge to the Huskies.
Dan Raley|
UW Locks Down 'Lockdown,' Gains Commitment from Louisiana Corner
UW Locks Down 'Lockdown,' Gains Commitment from Louisiana Corner

Give Kalen DeBoer and his staff credit for making University of Washington football recruiting interesting.

Last December, they signed an Arizona edge rusher who refers to himself as "Showtime."

On Thursday, the Huskies received a commitment from a Louisiana cornerback who advertises himself as "Lockdown."

Showtime and Lockdown, coming to a Husky defense near you.

Curley Reed III, a 4-star prospect from Lake Charles College Prep, which is in a town of the same name some 120 miles from Baton Rouge, chose the UW from among 26 offers, which according to the recruiting websites included home state LSU and fellow SEC schools Auburn, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Kentucky, plus Oregon, USC and TCU.

Reed becomes the Huskies' 18th oral commitment for the Class of 2023, and third cornerback in the mix, joining Diesel Gordon from Seguin, Texas and Leroy Bryant from Fairfield, California.

Securing a third corner had been a bit of challenge for the UW. Local recruits Caleb Presley from Seattle chose Oregon and Jasiah Wagoner from Spanaway narrowed his options to Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas and California, plus Las Vegas prospect Jeremiah Hughes selected LSU over Arkansas, Colorado, Utah and the Huskies.

The only question mark surrounding the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Reed is he's coming off a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) suffered last fall. He played in just one game for a team that featured one of the nation's top running-back recruits in Trevonte Citizen, who went with Miami.

Reed became "Lockdown" after enjoying a sophomore season in 2020 in which he was a productive starter for Lake Charles. He finished with 39 tackles, 3 pass break-ups and an interception for a 10-1 team that made it to the 3A state semifinals.

While still heavily recruited post injury, it's hard to say how much more his recruiting might have blow up had he not gotten hurt. 

Either way, Reed seems driven to succeed and overcome his physical setback, making this clear with an earlier social-media posting that said, "Been down before, came back, shook that off, now we up."

The UW had been as high as 16th or 17th in the national recruiting rankings, depending on who you follow, before recently dropping out of the top 25. 

Lockdown stands to elevate the Huskies once more.

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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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