2017 3-star QB Jake Haener Calls UW Dream School; Commits to Washington
Washington has moved quickly to find their quarterback for the 2017 class. Early Saturday morning the Huskies offered 2017 three-star Danville (Calif.) Monte Vista pro-style quarterback Jake Haener, who told Rivals at the time he would make a follow up tweet within the hour.
UW Head Coach Chris Petersen tweeted out his "woof" on Twitter, and roughly an hour later the Cali signal caller made it official.
Haener told Rivals both his mother and grandfather attended the University of Washington, but with the Huskies' being his best commutable offer it was impossible to turn down.
"You know my mom went there and my grandfather went there so it was a no brainer for me," Haener told Rivals following his decision. "I was really excited about it [and] they've always been a dream school for me so I couldn't be happier. I always watched them play and my mom was a really big fan, so the family ties really brought me to Washington football and I went up there a lot for games and fell in love with it."
Sources have indicated to Rivals that Washington wanted to wrap up their quarterback search immediately, and with three-star Newport Beach (Calif.) Corona Del Mar quarterback Chase Garbers set on taking a final unofficial visit to Cal on June 25-26 before committing, they didn't want to wait and see and lose other potential targets.
UW offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jonathan Smith told Haener that they would take whoever committed first, Jack Sears, Garbers or Haener. Once he knew he had the offer the decision was an easy one to make.
"They were talking about it for a couple weeks," Haener said of the UW offer. "Just saying it's going to happen so I was expecting it and they kept their word. They said they wanted be to be their guy and they were fired up. I knew that was the school I always wanted to go to so I didn't take any chances and wanted to commit."
The Huskies have been thought to be in a rather tough spot with this class for the quarterback position, with Jake Browning returning for at least two if not three more seasons as the starter. Couple Browning with Jacob Sirmon, a 2018 four-star pro-style quarterback, already being committed and seen as the likely heir apparent to Browning, it's been a bumpy road for UW and quarterbacks in 2017.
As a junior at Monte Vista High School, Haener threw for 3,005 yards and 35 touchdowns while only throwing six interceptions. The newest Washington commit has not make the trip north this spring, but told Rivals he will be on campus July 15, for the next UW Rising Stars Camp where the Huskies want to get as many commits around other top talent as possible.