This is why Kalen DeBoer brought JaMarcus Shephard to Washington, to recruit elite wide receivers. He did just that with Rashid Williams, a four-star wide receiver out of Pittsburg (Calif.) High School. The favorite target of one of the best quarterbacks in the country, five-star quarterback Jaden Rashada, Williams immediately becomes the highest-rated recruit to commit to DeBoer and his staff, and the first blue-chip prospect to announce he’ll be donning the purple and gold.

The sheer importance of this recruiting win cannot be understated. Washington has been looking to gain some momentum on the recruiting trail, and this is the kind of commitment that can do that. Coming off of a 4-8 season, a recruiting disaster where the majority of the coaching staff was completely apathetic towards recruiting as a whole, and with a new staff coming in from Fresno State is the perfect storm for disaster.

The recruiting department and the coaching staff have been putting in a lot of work to repair relationships and sell a program that looked pretty bleak at the end of 2021. Williams is the perfect example of how much work they’ve put in. He took his official visit from May 13th-15th, and was scheduled to take a few more to other schools in his top six in June, before making his decision on July 1st.

The visit to Seattle went so well that he pushed his commitment date up, and will presumably forgo his other official visits. A lot of credit needs to be given to Shephard, who was heralded as one of the country’s elite recruiters before he was hired. Getting his first blue-chip recruit, especially a player of Williams’s caliber is an exciting look at could be the future at the wide receiver position.

Now the coaching staff needs to keep this momentum going. They seem to be in good standing with a few other blue-chip prospects, and if the Huskies can keep the ball rolling, it could end up paying off in a big way.