Which Washington football recruits compiled the best highlight videos?

Athletes now have more control over what they want college coaches to see and when they want them to see it.

Some just do that better than others. It’s all about the Hudl highlight now — how you compose and curate it before publishing it to Hudl’s website to exist among the millions of other highlight videos from athletes across the country.

With so many ways to compile a highlight video, The News Tribune decided to take the best senior highlights from the best players in the state of Washington’s 2018 class and rank them, based on what were the most watchable.

The most polished highlight film belongs to senior Tre’Shaun Harrison of Garfield High School.

Harrison, who is listed as a wide receiver and defensive back, but is really just an all-around athlete, had a plan.

“The most explosive plays at the beginning,” Harrison said. “All of my good, long runs. Basically, highlighting what I did best this year so colleges can see that first. If it’s too long, I’m already knowing that they’re going to click out of it, so I put all of my best plays at the beginning.”

Harrison had verbally committed to play football at the University of Oregon this past June, but he re-opened his recruitment after coach Willie Taggart left to go to Florida State. Harrison is still considering the Ducks, where he had his official visit this past weekend, but he’s also considering Florida State, Tennessee and Utah.

He said he expects to make a decision by Feb. 7, which is the next National Signing Day.

He had a lot of great plays. Still, his video was 4 minutes, 43 seconds long, which is much shorter than many of his peers and was a conscious choice on his part. Harrison said he was going for, “Something short and sweet, but also entertaining.”

In order to accomplish that, Harrison made sure to carefully edit each highlight to be as brief as possible.

“College coaches don’t want to sit there and watch what happens after the play, like the celebration,” he said. “After I scored, I just cut it off. I’ve seen other kids highlights and they’re like nine minutes long because they have in between plays and celebrations in the end zone. I just felt like there is no need to show that.”

Making a highlight film can be more of a challenge for linemen. Fife senior offensive lineman MJ Ale was able to do it better than most.

Ale, the University of Washington signee who is listed at 6-foot-6, 360 pounds, also kept his video short at 3:15 in length, but packed a lot.

“Everyone knows how big I am, the point of the video was to prove how agile I am and how mobile I can be and how I can explode off the ball,” Ale said. “When we were putting the video together, that was the point we were trying to emphasize to give people idea of how mobile I am and how I can move. That’s what we were aiming for.”

The third play in his film demonstrates his ability to drive the defender until the whistle blows to perfection. Ale kept his block for 37 yards in what was undoubtedly the most impressive play in his video.

“You give me an assignment and I’m going to get it done,” Ale said. “I don’t care if I drive him 15 yards or 40 yards, if the play is still going I’m going to push him until the very end until I hear that whistle blow.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2018 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Which Washington football recruits compiled the best highlight videos?."