Sting Factor: Sir Mells' decommitment from Washington
When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from 1-10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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MORE STING FACTOR: Anthony Jones' decommitment from Washington
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THE STORYLINE
Henderson (Nev.) Liberty teammates Anthony Jones and Sir Mells committed to Washington on Dec. 19 and their pledges were viewed as a big win for Huskies coach Jimmy Lake early in his tenure.
But after some new offers and some coaching changes on the Washington staff, Jones backed off his pledge in recent days. Mells followed suit as well and reopened his recruitment as well. A third Henderson Liberty standout, four-star receiver Germie Bernard, remains committed to the Huskies and said he’s “locked” in with his commitment.
In recent weeks, Mells’ recruitment has gotten much busier.
Michigan offered Saturday afternoon. Arizona offered Saturday morning. USC, Oregon and others have come on board in recent days.
The first time around, Jones and Mells decided to commit on the same day. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see them go to the same school again but there’s a good chance visits will happen before anybody makes a decision again.
LOCAL REACTION
“Sir Mells made an early pledge to UW when he didn't have offers from other Power Five programs back in December – with his Liberty teammate Anthony Jones. Since that decision his position coach has changed, with Rip Rowan replacing Ikaika Malloe as the Huskies’ defensive line coach, and there is a different defensive coordinator at the helm for UW now in Bob Gregory. Similar to Jones, there could be structural changes to the UW defense and that coupled with new offers from Oregon and USC among others it made sense to reopen his recruitment.” - Lars Hanson, DawgReport.com
Sting factor: 4
NATIONAL REACTION
“Part of the concern when Jones decommitted from Washington over the last few days was that Mells and Bernard could follow since they’re all teammates at Henderson Liberty and a lot of other programs are recruiting all three of them.
“Mells is another big loss for this Washington recruiting class especially as it’s always important to load up along the defensive line and now it looks like USC and Oregon could be major contenders for both Mells and Jones. But it’s also good news that it seems like Bernard is sticking with the Huskies.
“Mells is a big-bodied interior defensive lineman that could see his recruitment take off over the next few months. That means it could be even harder for Washington to get him back in the recruiting class but it’s also early enough in the cycle for the Huskies to regroup and target other prospects.”
Sting factor: 5