Coeur d'Alene High junior Blakley commits to play football at Washington

COEUR d’ALENE — Coeur d’Alene High junior Chase Blakley has given a verbal commitment to play football at the University of Washington in 2014, he announced on his Twitter page Tuesday.

"Just committed to the University of Washington!! #UDUB #dawgs #WOOF” he tweeted.

The 6-foot-4, 240-pound Blakley also had offers from Wyoming, Idaho and Eastern Washington. He had made unofficial visits to other programs, including Boise State, USC and UCLA. Coaches from Florida and Oklahoma were in Coeur d’Alene recently just to get a firsthand look at him. He is listed as a three-star recruit by Scout.com.

“I think he just wanted the recruiting thing to be over,” Coeur d’Alene High coach Shawn Amos said. “They (the Huskies) were recruiting him for a year.”

Blakley can’t sign his official letter of intent with Washington until February 2014.

Blakley caught 51 passes for 598 yards and seven touchdowns last fall for Coeur d’Alene.

It has been at least 15 years since a Viking football player has played at the Pac-12 level, Amos said.

“He has the physical abilities to play at that level; he just has to put it all together,” Amos said.