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This season the trio of Rome Odunze, Ja’Lynn Polk and Jalen McMillan have been tearing up college football.
Washington has had some great receivers over the years. Reggie Williams, Jermaine Kearse, Dante Pettis — just to name a few. That said, what the Huskies have right now is unprecedented in school history. Three of the best receivers in the nation, all of whom are one day destined to head to the NFL, and they’re all on one team at the same time.
Michael Penix gets a lot of deserved credit for making this tick, but he has the perfect receiving corps for his skillset. This season the trio of Rome Odunze, Ja’Lynn Polk and Jalen McMillan have been tearing up college football — making it near-impossible for defenses to cover all three men at the same time.
It’s still worth pondering: How did Washington end up with all this? If we were talking about Alabama, Georgia or Ohio State then having such a rich amount of talent at receiver would be understandable, but for the Huskies to have all this at once — well, that’s special. So how did such an unlikely school craft the best receiving room in all of college football?
Rome Odunze’s path to Washington
A four-star recruit out of Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, Odunze’s frame was built for wide receiver. A 6’3’’ athlete with brilliant straight line speed, he was a player who had no shortage of offers.
Alabama made a strong pitch for Odunze, and for a time it appeared he would head to the Crimson Tide — but ultimately Washington convinced him to come and play for them. The biggest differentiating factor was that while many believed Odunze should add more weight to his frame in order to out-muscle defensive backs at the point of attack — Washington WR coach Junior Adams wanted to accentuate his fluidity.
Odunze would go on to add only 10 pounds to his frame during his time at Washington, instead focusing on becoming quicker and leaner. Now he’s Penix’s best deep threat who excels at almost everything.
How Ja’Lynn Polk came to Seattle
This very different path than the other two big Washington receivers, Polk didn’t garner nearly as much attention out of high school. The Lufkin, Texas native was a three-star recruit who chose to stay in his backyard, committing to Texas Tech.
It wasn’t until 2021 when Washington saw the promise. Polk entered the transfer portal without a massive resume, but he had traits the team coveted. They didn’t just want speed, but quickness. Polk had a myriad of problems with his game surrounding ball security, but his ability to shake defensive backs at the top of his route.
Immediately upon transferring Polk proved he could be a difference maker. He only caught five passes his first year, but proved his deep threat ability by averaging 22.8 yards per catch. It’s only been up since then, and now he represents another arrow in Penix’s quiver.
Landing Jalen McMillan
This was by far Washington’s biggest get. After landing Odunze the week before, the school followed up with another highly coveted WR in Jalen McMillan, another target of Alabama’s.
The shared DNA with both recruits was their ability to separate. While Odunze did this more with size in high school, McMillan did so with quickness. What this represented was a cohesive offensive vision to make a quarterback’s life easier. The team found players with the ability to shake their DBs and find holes, particularly in zone coverage — which is something they’ve done all season long.
McMillan might not have the production, but his game-breaking potential as third receiver could be the difference maker in the national championship game. In many ways Michigan’s ability to cover McMillan might decide it all.
Who was the genius who put this together?
It’s here we circle back to former Huskies WR coach and offensive coordinator Junior Adams. Now with Oregon, Adams was a recruiting God who not only understood the skills of his target players, but how to allow them to play their brand of ball while helping Washington.
Stealing two top receiving prospects out from under Alabama is one of the great “what ifs” in college football. The Crimson Tide have struggled to find great pass catchers in recent years, while Odunze and McMillan have been tearing it up.
Adams is now the OC/WR coach with Oregon, and guess what? He’s still doing his thing. He recently got two more four-star WRs to commit to the Ducks in Jeremiah McClellan and Ryan Pellum, who chose Oregon over LSU and USC respectively.
This is a coach who just knows how to use players and is fast becoming one of the most influential recruiters in college football. For now he’ll be watching, as he sees the trio of players he brought to Washington compete for a national title.
It’s something we’ve never seen before at Washington, and we might never see again at the receiver position.
