Washington still has roughly four months to continue recruiting four-star inside linebacker Maninoa Tufono.
Chris Petersen also has the highest number of verbal commits, as the 2019 class stands on August 6, compared to any of his four previous recruiting classes at UW at the same time, with 13 prospects pledging their futures to the UW football program.
In 2016 and 2018 the Huskies had 12 commits on Aug. 10 and Aug. 7 respectively, the previous record for number of commits UW has held at this same relative point.
The 6-3, 220-pound recruit from Honolulu, Hawaii announced his verbal commitment Monday morning to USC, choosing the Trojans over their Pac-12 Conference rival UW, and three other finalists; LSU, Texas and UCLA.
It could appear to sting at first glance for fans given he is the son of Albert Tufono, a former LB for the Huskies under Don James from 1983-87 which included the 1985 Orange Bowl victory over Miami.
Albeit still six months from National Signing Day, and four months before 2019 recruits can sign during the early signing period from December 20-22, the Trojans leapfrogged the Huskies in the team rankings with Tufono’s commitment.
UW ranks No. 32 in the country by Rivals for its current group of commits that include three four-star recruits. USC, with an even dozen prospects making the call to head coach Clay Helton, sits at No. 31.
The Huskies have offered eight LB recruits in 2019 according to the Rivals database, two of which have already pledged their future to UW head coach Chris Petersen.
Both three-star Kahuku (Kahuku, Hi.) LB Miki Ah You and three-star Federal Way (Federal Way, Wash.) LB Alphonzo Tuputala made their decisions within a 48-hour period between June 11-12.
Five recruits at the position with UW offers still remain uncommitted, including four-star Atherton (Calif.) Menlo-Atherton inside linebacker Daniel Heimuli, ranked No. 149 in the country by Rivals, who made two unofficial visits during the spring.
The 6-2, 215-pounder made both trips with his high school teammate Noa Ngalu, a three-star defensive tackle who committed to the Huskies back in April. Heimuli’s recruitment blew up during the winter and spring contact and evaluation periods, going from zero scholarship offers to now two dozen heading into his senior year.
Bob Gregory, the Huskies inside LB coach, was the first coach to offer Heimuli, and he told him the wave of schools that would be soon to follow. The two have a strong relationship and Heimuli is expected to take an official visit to Seattle as one of his five available trips.
“One thing that Gregory told me was right when he ended the call, he said ’10 schools are going to offer you in the next five days,’” Heimuli told Rivals back in April, recalling the conversation he had with the UW assistant.
Less than a week later Gregory’s prediction came to fruition.
“That was my ah-ha moment. I got three offers in the span of an hour-and-a-half,” Heimuli added, when realized his recruitment took off. “At that point I was like ‘this is crazy; this is really crazy’. Called my dad after each one of them and he was thinking the same thing. But that’s when I found out it wasn’t going to be just one or two, and that I’m actually a national recruit on everybody’s list.”
UW also has two other four-star ‘backers, De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) LB Henry To'oto'o and St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.) LB Ralen Goforth, still on the board with offers. Three-star Kapolei (Kapolei, Hi.) Peni Naulu, a 6-2, 220-pound LB, and three-star Katy (Katy, Tex.) David Gbenda, a 6-foot, 212-pound prospect also hold offers from the Huskies.
That does not include the recruits that are ranked as defensive ends who are being recruited as BUCK’s, the hybrid LB/rush-end position that Pete Kwiatkowski has made popular at UW.
With those recruits added, namely four-stars Joshua Pakola and Bralen Trice, the outlook isn’t as gloomy as the weather in Seattle is when the recruiting calendar hits the home stretch come November and December.
Pakola, a 6-3, 230-pound defensive end out of St. Francis (Mountain View, Calif.), named UW as one of his seven finalists back on June 19. The other six; Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon, Stanford and USC, have added to their respective classes since he released the list, opening the door for a school like UW that still has open spots.
In a similar position Trice, a 6-4, 230-pound sack specialist from Phoenix, Arizona (Sandra Day O’Connor) named his top five – UW, TCU, ND, UCLA and Oregon – on May 30, and has stated he will take official visits before making his commitment.
Both players are expected to include the Huskies in their visit plans this fall, and with only two defensive line commitments – Sama Paama and Ngalu, both interior linemen, there is still ample room for either, or both, in the 2019 class.
Speaking of time . . . that seems to be the elephant in the room when it comes to UW recruiting.
The Huskies rank fifth in the Pac-12 recruiting standings, sitting behind Oregon at No. 4, Colorado at No. 30, Cal at No. 31 and USC at No. 32. Only the Trojans have less commitments (12) than the Huskies (13).
Justin Wilcox and Mike McIntyre have 17 a piece for the Golden Bears and Buffaloes respectively, none of the conference or the rest of the country holding a candle to Mario Cristobal, who has 19 pledges for the Ducks in 2019.
To put that in perspective, only 12 teams have more verbal commitments than Oregon does and Cristobal has yet to wear the headset or call his first play as head coach.
Above the Ducks that encompass the dozen schools; Alabama (20), North Carolina State, Air Force, Purdue, Miami (Ohio) and East Carolina (21), Clemson (22), Minnesota (23), Texas A&M (24), Ole Miss (27), and Army (42).
It’s not an earth-shattering prediction to say at least 1/5 of the recruits currently committed to those schools will sign with a different program when all is said and done. It’s natural. 17 and 18-year-olds have more contact than ever with college coaches, offers are coming earlier. Change happens.
On the other side Petersen has only had four players commit at one point to UW but not sign with the program.
Since he was hired in Dec. 2013, which includes the 2014 recruiting class forward, Petersen has signed 104 players to UW. (That number excludes quarterback Jacob Eason who transferred from UGA to UW in February, three-star safety Lavon Washington who signed in 2014 but was dismissed before the season began, and four-star 2018 LB Ale Kaho, who has not enrolled at UW or participated in fall camp).
The four is being transparent. Petersen really has only lost two commitments. The first true loss was four-star defensive tackle Marlon Tuipulotu, a prized recruit in the 2017 class who picked UW in the spring before choosing to flip his pledge late to USC.
Connor Wedington, a four-star running back from Sumner, Washington (Sumner), also made an early decision to stay home before Stanford came in with an offer. He de-committed from UW in December and picked the Cardinal in January, after taking official visits to Baylor and offers from Notre Dame and UCLA.
The two other recruits who committed but didn’t sign, three-star QB Jalen Greene in 2014 and three-star LB Nick Bolton in 2018. Greene was originally committed to Petersen at Boise State before he took the job at UW, and initially followed him to Seattle before an offer from USC took him to SoCal.
Of the 13 current commits none have given any indication that they won’t sign with UW, or even consider other offers that come in. That’s why Chris Petersen and his staff recruit in the manner that they do, to position themselves as beneficiaries of the process, or to opposing fan bases, “poachers”, when NSD comes around.
The last six months brought four-star recruits Julius Irvin (safety), Sam Taimani (defensive line), Kyler Gordon (cornerback), Tuli Letuligasenoa (defensive tackle) and Kaho (linebacker) to close out the 2018 class for UW.
184 days from now the 2019 class will be revealed in its entirety. By then not every team will be able to say they’re undefeated, like any program can now with a 0-0 record to start the season.
