![\"marcus_washington_1000x563\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/marcus_washington_1000x563.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Marcus Washington with Kentucky coach Will Stein<\/p>\n
Kentucky offensive coordinator Joe Sloan made a trip to California to watch freshman Marcus Washington throw and liked what he saw so much from the quarterback that he offered a scholarship.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe invited me to do an unofficial visit. I went and they told me about the camp, so I ended up coming back with my head coach,\u201d said Washington.<\/p>\n
That camp was last week and Kentucky coach Will Stein and other UK coaches kept a close eye on the 6-foot-3, 170-pound quarterback from Cajon High School in San Bernardino, Calif., who is 16 years old. He threw for over 1,900 yards and 21 touchdowns in nine games in 2025 and also ran for over 600 yards and five more scores to show he was a true dual-threat quarterback.<\/p>\n
Washington also has offers already from Arizona, North Carolina, Syracuse and Arizona State. Analysts like his quick release and elusiveness. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds at the UK camp, a time he called \u201cpretty average\u201d for him and was not his best.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe camp was really good. All the coaches were great and I got to compete with some elite players,\u201d he said. \u201cThe UK coaches are all very enthusiastic but I was kind of used to that from being around them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He knew Stein when he was the offensive coordinator at Oregon before coming to Kentucky and liked the \u201cvibe\u201d at Kentucky.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coaches are people I can talk to outside of football. I felt comfortable when I first met them all. Also knowing how good they are in their system is really good,\u201d Washington said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what exactly to expect on my first visit to Kentucky. The environment was great. The Kentucky logo is everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington admitted \u201cfighting for a job was rough\u201d last season but he\u2019s expecting to throw for twice as many yards his sophomore season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am just trying to get to a pace where everything is easy for me,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything last year was fast. This year everything is moving slower. This year it is more of a mental thing than physical. I have got the physical part now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The recruiting attention has not bothered Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been dealing with a lot of pressure since I was young,\u201d he said. \u201cI like the recruiting attention and at the Kentucky camp I wanted to show off all I could do so they could really see what all I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He admits Kentucky is recruiting him \u201chard\u201d currently but he\u2019s going to be patient with the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am looking for a school where I have great relationships with the coaches,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Washington grew up playing baseball, basketball and swimming. He recently stopped playing basketball so he could concentrate solely on football.<\/p>\n
He also takes pride in his academics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have always been a 4.0 or 3.8 (grade-point average student) since I was young,\u201d he said. \u201cI take pride in my academics just like I do my athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marcus Washington with Kentucky coach Will Stein Kentucky offensive coordinator Joe Sloan made a trip to California to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-353010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}