Versatile Ioane Will Bring Tackling, Not Passing, Talents to UW

Jon Ioane wore a thick black brace covering his left knee and a thin red towel sticking out of the back of his football pants when he trotted out to quarterback the Tustin High Tillers in 2024 in an early season game.

Nothing unusual there except at 295 pounds the 6-foot-3 Ioane might have been the heaviest signal-caller that anyone in the Southern California football stadium that night had ever seen while he took the field as an emergency fill-in.

As the game unfolded, he did everything that other, lighter quarterbacks would have done, which was take shotgun snaps, fake handoffs to his running back and loft touchdown passes long and short as this unusual but necessary replacement.

On Thursday, this extremely versatile football player from the Class of 2027 revealed on YouTube through 247Sports he will share himself with the University of Washington football program, only as a defensive tackle, which is his specialty.

Put it this way, Demond Williams Jr. won't have to worry about keeping his job as a senior starting quarterback when Ioane joins the Huskies the season after next -- but the other defensive linemen might have trouble holding him off.

"Physically, I think I'm up there with about anyone," said Ioane (pronounced U-Wan-EE).

Get over here!!! Four⭐️ defensive lineman @jonnioane powers his way through for a sack to force a punt from Capo Valley

3Q: Tustin 14, Capistrano Valley 7 pic.twitter.com/nnyvbRCoMS
— West Coast Preps Los Angeles (@LA__WCP) October 31, 2025

A 4-star prospect, Ioane became the UW's 10th oral commitment for 2027, seven of whom are defensive players.

He picked the Huskies from among 24 suitors, an impressive list that included Miami, Michigan State, MIssouri, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas A&M, USC and others.

His finalists were California, Penn State, Stanford, UCLA and the UW.

The attraction to Ioane is his filled-out frame that comes with a certain measure of quickness that gives him playmaking potential.

Blessed and honored to have received a d1 scholarship to the university of Washington!! GO HUSKIES 🟣⚪️@ballhawk_8 @chawk_4 @uw_football pic.twitter.com/G6XL3q9Eb5
— 𝑱𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒐𝒂𝒏𝒆 (@jonnioane) May 10, 2024

He hails from Tustin, a city of 80,000 in Orange County that has Interstate 5 cutting through it and claims several celebrities as natives.

The famous include actor Cuba Gooding Jr., who was memorable for his role as a pro athlete in the film "Jerry McGuire" who uttered the infamous line "Show me the money!"

Maybe that will be Ioane's battle cry if he pans out as expected.

Jon Ioane of Tustin is 6-foot-3, 290-pound sophomore DE who was used last night as a QB after the QB Tustin thought it was going to have this season (ASU bound Michael Tollefson) ruled ineligible for season. https://t.co/K1btMPKGqB
— Cal-Hi Sports (@CalHiSports) September 7, 2024

This past season for a 9-2 Tustin team, Ioane finished with 50 tackles, including 14 tackles for loss and 4 sacks, and added 3 pass break-ups, a forced fumble and 21 quarterback hurries while playing in 10 games, according to Max Preps.

As a sophomore, he lined up at defensive tackle, offensive tackle, tight end and as that quarterback.

He finished with 52 tackles in that 2024 season, which included 9 TFLs and 8 sacks, plus 4 forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a pass break-up.

As for being that impromptu passer, Ioane finished with 31 completions in 47 attempts for 475 yards and 7 touchdowns, plus he caught a 6-yard scoring pass. He's probably done pulling that offensive duty.

UW coach Jedd Fisch and his assistants have been recruiting him since they were at their previous stop and that resonated with him.

"I'm a big relationship guy and that's a staff I've known since they were at Arizona," Ioane said.