By Adam Jude
The Seattle Times
Sam Huard’s family roots run deep in Husky history.
His maternal grandfather, Vince Lorrain, was a defensive back and punt returner for Jim Owens’ Washington teams in the mid-1960s.
More famously, his father, Damon, and uncle, Brock, were UW’s quarterbacks in the 1990s. Damon was the Huskies’ all-time leading passer until Brock broke that record a few years later.
So, naturally, Sam Huard was “fired up,” his father said, to receive a formal scholarship offer from Chris Petersen during a visit to the coach’s office at Husky Stadium on Sunday.
A 6-foot-2, 175-pound sophomore at Kennedy Catholic, Sam Huard is regarded as one of the top high school quarterback recruits in the country. Last year he was named the MaxPreps National Freshman of the Year.
Left-handed like his uncle Brock, Sam has thrown for 7,597 yards and 76 touchdowns combined in his freshman and sophomore seasons, and 247Sports.com ranks him as the No. 1 pro-style QB in the Class of 2021.
“When you watch Huard play, you see his poise in the pocket, the ease in which he goes through his reads, the good arm strength without trying to force throws or show off the arm but the ability to take what the defense gives him,” said Brandon Huffman, national recruiting editor for 247Sports. “He’s got very good feet, can move if he needs to, doesn’t get too high or too low and enjoys the big moments — he’s had a number of game winning drives the past two seasons — with a young team around him.
“And he’s probably not done growing. Physically, he’s got numerous ‘plus’ tools, but it’s his mental makeup that really separates him and already has him as our top pocket passer in his class, with two more years to play high school ball.”
Sam Huard is the latest local quarterback recruit to receive an early offer from the Huskies.
Bothell’s Jacob Sirmon (Class of 2018) committed to UW after his sophomore season, and Graham-Kapowsin’s Dylan Morris (Class of 2019) committed before his junior season.
The growing trend in major-college football is to get the QB in the fold early and then build the rest of the recruiting class around him.
“There’s no harder position to get right. Just ask the guys in the NFL,” Petersen said Monday. “So you’re trying to do homework, and I think there’s certain characteristics everybody’s into besides the physical characteristics. Then you keep wondering how the guy’s going to develop and progress. Some guys do a great job with it and some guys (don’t) — that’s human nature and life and you’re trying to watch that. Yeah, that’s the world we live in in college football.”
Petersen, who by NCAA rule is not allowed to speak directly about recruits, is known to be thorough in his evaluation of recruits and deliberate with the number of scholarship offers he’s willing to extend.
“I said it a million times, I wish we had restrictions on us when we could offer,” he said. “I think sometimes that puts pressure on the kids themselves the earlier they are. I think it changes a lot of things. I think it’s a burden that seems great early on and late it’s not. You’ve seen these guys long enough and you’ve watched guys develop. You’re just trying to put two and two together and see if the math adds up. And if it does, you go.”
Petersen added: “We’re probably one of the few crews that really slows down. We don’t have problems offering early. We’re not just doing it because a guy’s got other offers or anything like that. We just want to feel like we’ve done good homework and the guy would fit us and we like how they play.”
Nevada was the first to offer Sam Huard a scholarship, shortly after his freshman season. Washington State soon followed. The other programs to offer: California, Florida, Tennessee, Texas Tech and Boise State.
And now Washington.
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