Late Tuesday night the Washington Huskies sent out an offer to Washington State’s 4-star quarterback commit Sam Leavitt from West Linn, Oregon. The offer signaled the end of the Huskies relationship with their own 4-star QB commit Lincoln Kienholz who was recently offered by Ohio State.
The flip of Kienholz is just one domino in a sequence set of by the Buckeyes losing 4-star QB commit, Brock Glenn, to Florida State.
When the Huskies discovered Kienholz, he was one of the most underrated quarterbacks Washington has recruited in terms of offers. At the time of UW’s offer he was the reigning South Dakota state champion, but was also one of the lowest-rated players on the Huskies’ board– and virtually unknown nationally until he received the Washington offer.
In the middle of spring football this past April, Husky offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb flew to Pierre, South Dakota for an in-person workout with Kienholz. Grubb offered Kienholz on the spot and committed a while later.
It reminds me of the 80’s pop hit by the Human League, “Don’t You Want Me?”. The song details the rise to prominence of an ungrateful cocktail who ultimately leaves him for a bigger, better deal:
“You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met you. I picked you out, I shook you up and turned you around turned you into someone new. Now five years later on you’ve got the world at your feet success has been so easy for you”
On the other side of things, is that Kienholz was always destined to be great, he was just stuck in Pierre, South Dakota away from the national spotlight. He was at the helm of TF Riggs High School’s football team, a true juggernaut in the Mount Rushmore state. With, at the time 3 state championships to his credit, it was inevitable that his resume would get out. Or as the second part of the 1982 smash hit goes:
“I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar–that much is true. But even then I knew I’d find a much better place, either with or without you.”
Sure, the Washington offer legitimized Kienholz, but his body of work spoke for itself. As a the dual-threat QB he has rewritten the state’s passing record book to the degree that most of the records probably won’t be broken in his lifetime
But that brings us to where the Buckeyes had to fill a QB slot for the 2023 recruiting class after the Seminoles flipped OSU QB commit Glenn. For Ohio State Kienholz appears to be an upgrade as he’s currently rated as the nation’s 13th best QB on 247 Sports, while the new Seminoles’ QB commit is 19th.
That leads the Huskies to look to flip their cross-stare rival’s QB commit Sam Leavitt. A fine QB in his own right, the West Linn start listed as a 4-star signal caller and the 10th best QB in the country by On3 scouting service–2 spots behind Kienholz.
With the Cougars’ offensive coordinator Eric Morris taking the head coaching job at North Texas, Leavitt considering Washington seems more likely than a it was a few weeks ago when Kienholz took a recruiting trip to Columbus, Ohio.
Another thing to consider is that the Oregon Ducks recently lost their own offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham to Arizona State. That move was followed by their own QB commit Dante Moore to visit former Oregon head coach Chip Kelly, now with the UCLA Bruins.
If Oregon loses Moore, a native of Michigan, to the Bruins or to a school from his home state the Ducks would likely go after Leavitt.
With the early signing period a week away there’s going to be a lot of activity as things begin to shake out. Check back with RealDawg.com for breaking news.
