"I

called coach Neuheisel and he was pretty excited about it", Walter Winter

told Realdawg.com after having given his verbal commitment to Rick Neuheisel, "I

got my offer in a letter, it didn't take long to make up my mind about it".

Winter, who's a 6-5, 235 lb. outside linebacker

out of Juanita high school now joins Casey Bulyca as the second verbal commit to

Washington during the 2003-2004 recruiting season.

"Coach Neuheisel just said, 'I told you that I

wanted to be your coach'. I am pretty happy about it. I figured that if I got an

offer early I would take it, and that's exactly what happened."

Walter said his coach had reported this to the

papers earlier today and that he figured this is how the word leaked out, "I

know one site said they heard it from a reporter at their practice today", he

said--speaking of the Huskies' practice Thursday.

During his junior season, Winter accumulated 72

solo tackles and 22 assisted tackles during his junior season. Is First Team All

League, and already hearing from most of the Pac-10 Northwest and some midwest

schools.