Washington Receives Surprise Visit from 5-Star OL Conerly
Maybe he came inside to just escape Seattle's historic heat wave, but offensive lineman Josh Conerly, likely Washington state's top football prospect for 2022 and a Sports Illustrated All-American candidate, surprised the University of Washington with an unofficial visit.
This is the final recruiting weekend before the NCAA enforced "dead recruiting period" resumes and the Huskies hosted several top players from Texas, California, Utah, Arizona, Hawaii and Washington.
Conerly, a 6-foot-5, 275-pounder from Seattle's Rainier Beach High School, made an appearance and stood out.
"Conerly is one of the highest-rated players in the class of 2022 at any position," said John Garcia, SI-All American director of recruiting. "He's part of the new breed of offensive tackles who are big and quick to help protect QBs against the edge rushers."
Joining the uncommitted Conerly were five other uncommitted players: Ryan Otton of Tumwater, Washington; Texas running back Emeka Megwa, Utah defensive lineman Ben Roberts, Tevarua Tafiti of Hawaii and defensive back Benjamin Morrison from Arizona.
Rainier Beach previously furnished the Huskies with another big offensive lineman in 6-foot-6, 340 pound Nate Kalepo, who Conerly has stated is helping him through the recruiting process.
Conerly reports that he has in excess of 25 offers that he trimmed to 12 in May. The Huskies are battling USC, UCLA, Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Auburn, ASU, California, Oregon and Stanford for his services.
"This was already a very big recruiting weekend for Washington," said Trevor Mueller, Husky Maven high school recruiting analyst. "Add the Rainer Beach big man to the list and it's one of the biggest I can recall in the last 10 years."
Wide receiver commit Germie Bernard of Nevada and QB commit Jackson Stratton from California were also on campus for a visit.
"This could be a glimpse of Washington's offense in a few years with Conerly, Ryan Otton, Bernard, Megwa and Stratton," Mueller said.