The Huskies were unable to land safety Gavin Williams, who committed to the USC Trojans
The Washington Huskies football team came out on the losing end of a competitive recruiting battle for a blue-chip defensive back. To make matters worse, the Huskies lost the recruiting battle to a Big Ten rival.
Four-star safety Gavin Williams opted to commit to the Southern California (USC) Trojans on Sunday.
Williams' commitment to the Trojans falls in line with what most experts expected. Rivals.com's prediction model had USC with a 93.4% chance to land him and Washington with a less than 1% chance to land him.
Williams will be staying home by joining the Trojans. He attends Damien High School in La Verne, Calif., which is 35 miles away from USC's campus in Los Angeles.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound defensive back finished his junior season last fall with 63 tackles, including five tackles for loss, eight pass breakups, three forced fumbles, two interceptions and one fumble recovery.
Williams is ranked as the 159th-best overall player, 11th-best safety and 14th-best player in California in the class, according to the 247Sports Composite.
Williams would have been the highest-ranked recruit in the Huskies' '27 recruiting class if the team was able to flip him from the Trojans.
Despite losing out on one of the best safeties in the class, Washington was able to add to its secondary over the weekend.
The Huskies landed three-star safety Isala Aisa Wily-Ava on Friday. Wily-Ava is ranked as the 414th-best overall player, 38th-best safety and 36th-best player in California according to the 247Sports Composite. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound safety picked UW over other finalists Arizona State, BYU And Arkansas.
Currently, Washington's '27 recruiting class is comprised of 14 commitments: Wily-Ava, four-star defensive lineman Jon Ioane, four-star quarterback Blake Roskopf, four-star wide receivers Zerek and Braylon Pope, three-star tight end Zach Albright, three-star running back Jeremy Adeyanju, three-star interior offensive lineman Reis Russell, three-star defensive lineman Matamatagi Uiagalelei and three-star linebackers Isaiah Leilua, Ethan Coach, Justin Coach and Titus Osterman.
That crop of recruits currently ranks 13th in the nation among '27 recruiting classes, according to 247Sports.
The 12 teams ranked ahead of the Huskies are, in order: Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, USC, UCLA, Penn State, Florida, Miami, Ohio State, Kentucky, Oregon and Minnesota.
Other notes
-- Washington has been identified as finalists for a string of four-star players in recent weeks. Four-star defensive lineman and O'Dea High School (Seattle) student Tevita Nonu has UW as one of his finalists.
-- Four-star wide receivers Osani Gayles, Dontay Tyson Jr. and Tre Moore have all named UW as one of the final teams they're considering. The Huskies are also ramping up their recruitment for four-star pass-catcher Zion White.
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