Addition of Four-Star WR Puka Nacua Caps Off Impressive Week For Washington
SEATTLE – Outside of the cold and snow blanketing the city of Seattle and the surrounding area in Western Washington, the last seven days have been rather good for UW Huskies fans.
Starting last Sunday (Feb. 3) with former defensive tackle Danny Shelton winning a Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, defeating the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in Atlanta, Ga., the program has been on a successful run.
Three days later, UW announced two more additions to its 2019 recruiting class. Four-star linebacker Daniel Heimuli, a 6-0, 216-pound prospect out of Atherton, California (Menlo-Atherton), and four-star athlete / defensive back Asa Turner, a 6-2 and 199-pound two-way standout from Carlsbad, Calif., signed with the program on National Signing Day (Feb. 6).
The duo faulted the Huskies class up to No. 19 in Rivals team recruiting rankings for 2019, with one more potential addition coming.
Following a split on the hardwood for the UW men’s basketball team in the Desert, losing 75-63 on Saturday at Arizona State following a 67-60 win at Arizona on Thursday, the aforementioned last recruit, four-star Orem (Utah) wide receiver Puka Nacua announced Sunday he would sign with the UW football program.
Nacua, a 6-2 and 170-pound receiver listed as the No. 152 overall prospect in 2019 by Rivals, capped off the week by signing with the Huskies after being verbally committed to the USC Trojans for eight months.
The signing comes one the same day as UW offensive coordinator / QB coach Bush Hamdan’s birthday. Hamdan, who served as the WR coach in 2016, is the only receivers coach to sign a four-star WR under Petersen’s tenure at UW.
Before leaving in spring 2017 to become the Atlanta Falcons QB coach under offensive coordinator and former UW coach Steve Sarkisian, Hamdan secured the verbal commitments of four-star Mission Viejo HS WR Austin Osborne and four-star Marquis “Morgais” Spiker out of Murrieta Valley HS prior to his departure.
In the 2017 recruiting class Hamdan signed four-star receiver Terrell Bynum out of St. John Bosco HS in Bellflower, Calif., his first four-star commit.
Hamdan didn’t play a factor in UW landing four-star slot receiver Trey Lowe later in the spring out of Jesuit HS in Portland, Oregon, the only other four-star WR to sign with the program under Petersen.
Despite the first Pac-12 Conference loss for the Huskies men’s basketball team they still hold a three game lead over ASU, Oregon State and Utah with seven games remaining in the regular season.
Of the seven, four are at Alaska Airlines Arena; vs Utah (Feb. 20), vs Colorado (Feb. 23), vs OSU (Mar. 6) and vs Oregon (Mar. 9). The three remaining road games are at Washington State (Feb. 16), at California (Feb. 28) and at Stanford (Mar. 3).