Kevin Smith, WR

Kevin Smith is a four star WR prospect who has verbaled to UW. He has some great physical tools, but is still pretty raw. As you can see in the highlight video, he has pretty good speed, great balance, does a great job going up to get jump balls on fade routes into the endzone, and has good body awareness.

Once again, he looks like somebody who might be able to contribute on special teams, as well as maybe some time at a slot WR. He was offered scholarships to UCLA, Arizona, and Colorado, but Chose UW after watching them destroy WSU 30-0.

Here are his highlights from his senior season.

Kona Schwenke still deciding

It appears that he is being patient, and will most likely wait until LOI day to make his commitment known. Here's a highlight video from ESPN. We'd love to have you in purple and gold Kona!

UPDATE:

It now appears that Kona Schwenke did not take his scheduled trip to UW after visiting Notre Dame. This is understandable seeing that making two cross country trips in two days if pretty difficult.I'm still holding out hope though that Haouli Jamora has convinced him to come to UW. I guess we'll just have to wait till signing day to see what's going to happen.

Kona Schwenke coming to UW?

In a surprise move that has surprised a lot of people, BYU has pulled their scholarship offer to 4-star verbal commit Kona Schwenke. This comes after BYU laid down an the ultimatum that he would lose his scholarship offer if he chose to pursue trips to both ND and UW.

Total Blue Sports reporter Brandon Gurney, has written an article detailing how all of this went down.

Cougar fans, are already in full meltdown mode.

If Schwenke indeed chooses UW, it will be quite the recruiting coup for Coach Sark, who has detailed the teams need to be deeper on both the offensive and defensive lines.

I'll keep tabs on this story, and may be posting more about Kona Schwenke if it appears that he is going to sign with UW.

Deontae Cooper

Washington RB commit Deontae Cooper has already enrolled at UW, after graduating early from Citrus Hill. He could very well be the gem of this years class. His bio on his scout page says that he owns the California state record for carries in a game when he had 59 carries for 412 yards and four touchdowns against Great Oak in September of 2009. As a junior, Deontae Cooper stood atop the state leaderboard in rushing yards with 2,953 yards and finished second in touchdowns with 47. Ran for 1,212 yards and 18 touchdowns during his 2007 sophomore season, helping lead Perris (Calif.) Citrus Hill to the CIF-SS title.

My thoughts:

Upon looking at the film available on Deontae Cooper, you can see that he has good field awareness. He is patient enough to let plays develop and follows his blockers very well, waiting for either a cutback lane or a gap to explode through. He knows how to make tacklers miss without having to expend a lot of energy and he has a nice burst which gets him into the secondary quickly.

While the transition from high school to college is a very large adjustment, the fact that he has enrolled early will help him tremendously. As you can see in his Go Huskies exclusive, he is pretty slender. Having the opportunity to participate with the strength and conditioning program at UW will help him bulk up over the next nine months. He is listed at 195 lbs, but looks more like 180. I would expect to see him at about 195 by the time the season starts though, which is a good weight for him at this point.

While he is an impact player, unless he can break into the special teams unit as a returner, I would guess that the best course of action for him would be to redshirt his freshman year, seeing as we already have Chris Polk entrenched in the starting role at RB. That being said, Deontae Cooper has a very high upside, and could eventually surpass all of Polk's accomplishments as a RB.

Have a look at the next great UW RB in his highlight video.





Go Huskies exclusive

Donald Butler is movin on up (the draft boards)

According to Ed Thompson, the Scout.com senior NFL analyst, one of the surprises of the senior bowl has been our very own Donald Butler.

"There was no doubt that Butler was a capable and reliable college linebacker, but compared to the rest of the list, he was considered by some to be "just a guy" who would be a late-rounder or undrafted. But after watching him in action this week, our eyes were opened by his focus, intensity, tackling technique and good instincts. He's easily in the top half of this year's group of Senior Bowl linebackers."

Here's to hoping he finishes out the week on a high note with a great performance in the Senior Bowl, and the moves on to a successful NFL career.

This will bring a smile to your face

Let the Heisman hype begin!

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