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With 4 WR Commits, Huskies Await Decision Of 5th

Osani Gayles from IMG Academy will make his college football decision in two weeks.
Dan Raley|
IMG Academy's Osani Gayles (13) gets tackled by Mandarin's Tamajh Mitchell (7) during their 2025 game in Jacksonville, Fla.
IMG Academy's Osani Gayles (13) gets tackled by Mandarin's Tamajh Mitchell (7) during their 2025 game in Jacksonville, Fla. | Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It would seem the last thing the University of Washington football program needs right now for its 2027 recruiting class is another wide receiver, this after receiving commitments from Dontay Tylson Jr., Tre Moore, Zerek Sidney and Braylon Pope.

Yet the Huskies remain in the running for a fifth pass-catcher in Osani Gayles, a 4-star IMG prospect who this week cancelled remaining visits to Notre Dame and Tennessee after touring Alabama, Stanford and Washington.

He has informed the recruiting websites he will reveal his college destination presumably from those latter three on Saturday, June 27.

The 5-foot-11, 185-pound Gayles, originally from the Los Angeles area, was just in Montlake a week ago getting the full recruiting treatment from wide-receivers coach Kevin Cummings and the rest of the Husky staff.

The natural assumption is Gayles will choose Alabama and former Husky coach Kalen DeBoer because of recent statements he made after looking over Tuscaloosa.

"The culture and how winning of a program they are," he told Rivals. "They've shown they can produce receivers They're up there as 'Receiver U' for sure."

Stanford remains in play with a new coach in Tavita Pritchard, the former Cardinals quarterback and Tacoma product, because Gayles' family lives just 80 miles away from campus in Stockton, California.

Osani Gayles, playing for St. Mary's High in 2023, is grabbed by Vacaville's Evan Blaettler.
Osani Gayles, playing for St. Mary's High in 2023, is grabbed by Vacaville's Evan Blaettler. | CLIFFORD OTO/THE STOCKTON RECORD / USA TODAY NETWORK

Then there is the lure of the Huskies, or more accurately Seattle, where his parents previously lived and the entire family became Seahawks followers.

"We grew up big Seahawks fans and I remember watching that team with Marshawn [Lynch] and the Legion of Boom," Gayles told Whoa Sports. "I think I was around 6. Then I started playing football and I was hooked."

With his 10.78 100-meter speed, Gayes caught 20 catches for 492 yards and 5 touchdowns over nine games this past season for IMG, which typically runs a rush-heavy offense.

Before moving to Florida, he played as a freshman and a sophomore for St. Mary's High School in Stockton and finished with 43 catches for 756 yards and 6 scores in 2024.

What's left for him to decide is whether he continues to play football in the Deep South or whether he returns to the West Coast and plays close to his famlly or his favorite NFL team.

Should he come to Montlake, he would join four fellow recruits who are either 4-star receivers or about to become one.

Gayles will give himself two weeks to think about it all.

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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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