UW Recruited An Entire Secondary, Envisioning These 5 Starting All At Once

Three of them were considered 4-star recruits and all of them stand over 6 feet.

Jeron Jones is one of five defensive backs signed by the Huskies. | UW

Last year, the University of Washington football recruiting spotlight focused on finding people to stock the offensive line, and the Huskies brought in top-rated players such as John Mills and Champ Taulealea among five signees.

This time, the secondary seemed to be the priority, with the UW signing five more prospects to fill out its back row of players.

What Jedd Fisch's staff came up with were a quintet of players who all stand 6-foot or taller, who each likely are versatile enough to play safety or cornerback, and each have enticing high school resumes.

Two of these guys are from California, another from Las Vegas, one from Florida and the other from Tacoma.

Three of them received four stars each from the recruiting services.

They include cornerbacks Rahsjon Duncan, Kasani Jiles, Jeron Jones and Elijah Durr, and safety Gavin Day.

Rahsjon Duncan committed to the UW. | Arizona

Duncan, a 6-foot-1, 186-pound corner from McClymonds High in Oakland, got put through what amounted to a defensive back boot camp. He answered to Marcus Peters, the former UW and NFL coverage guy who's back at his alma mater sharing his knowledge after doing wondrous things.

"He's been coached every day by Marcus Peters on what it means to be a Husky corner," Fisch said of Peters, who returned 7 interceptions and 2 fumbles for touchdowns in eight NFL seasons. "There's an expectation when he walks in the door that he understands exactly what Marcus' expectation is of him."

Again, no pressure there.

The 6-foot, 180-pound Jiles comes off a season in which he had 26 tackles and a pair of interceptions for 9-0 IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and went up against only top-flight teams.

"What I love about these five is they've played against really good competition," Fisch said. "They've been coached really hard."

The 6-foot, 165-pound Jones emerged from his senior year with 49 tackles, 10 pass break-ups and 4 interceptions for a 9-2 Mission Viejo team in Southern California.

"Jeron has gone up against the best competition week in and week out and shut them down," Fisch said.

Gavin Day from Las Vegas is one of five new UW defensive backs. | Day

The 6-foot-1, 186-pound Durr plays for a 13-0 Mount Tahoma team that will play for the 3A state championship this weekend and he was his league's MVP. The Huskies have had a lot of luck finding superior defensive backs in Tacoma, with future NFL players Lawyer Milloy and Desmond Trufant coming to mind.

"We've known about him all along," the Husky coach said.

Then there's Day. He's 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds and makes things happenl. For a playoff-bound Faith Lutheran team, he finished with 101 tackles. 12 tackles for loss, 2 interceptions, 8 PBUs and 3 forced fumbles.

"He's a hard hitter," Fisch said. "He's tough. He's physical. We loved him from the very beginning."

Permitting himself to daydream a little, the UW leader said he could see a day in which all of these guys were starting together.

"All five of those guys are going to give us something special," he said.

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