Huskies Continue to Mine Arizona for Football Talent

When the University of Washington football team starts playing for real this month, an Arizona-produced quarterback will hand off to an Arizona running back, at least when he's not throwing to one of two receivers originally from that state.

And when they push the ball into the end zone, the Huskies will trot out their place-kicker from Scottsdale to cap off the successful drive with an extra point or maybe settle for a field goal if they don't get that far.

And when they want the ball back, they'll ask one of their two ballhawking safeties from Arizona to go get it.

In all, the UW has eight players on its roster from the Grand Canyon state, with countless others who played for Jedd Fisch at the University of Arizona before all of them came to Montlake.

From the Phoenix area specifically, the Huskies have found ready talent for a lot of their key roles.

"It's really interesting because Arizona has become such a good place to recruit," UW wide-receivers coach Kevin Cummings said. "Some of our best players on our team right now are from the state of Arizona."

So it should be no surprise that the UW extended a scholarship long ago to 4-star receiver Zerek Sidney from Desert Edge High School in Goodyear, Arizona, and will host him for a visit on Sept. 27 -- on the weekend Fisch's team faces Ohio State at Husky Stadium.