National Signing Day Open Thread

The early signing period definitely changed how momentous today is but the coaching staff are still hoping to add a handful of Huskies to the mix for 2019 over the next few hours. Coach Petersen will have his signing day press conference at 2p PT after any potential new Huskies have announced and signed.

Here are the remaining targets with details on when they are planning to announce:

WR Puka Nacua, Orem HS, Orem, Utah

4-star, #22 WR, #136 overall per 247 Sports Composite Rankings

Commitment Time: Nacua is planning to sign at 11a PT. However, as of Tuesday night there were reports that he might not have made his final decision yet and so could still postpone to later in the week.

Edit 6:55a: The Deseret News is reporting that Nacua will not be announcing a decision today. One of UW’s advantages over Oregon is that the Ducks still haven’t hired a WR coach but it appears Nacua may wait until they do in order to have compete information. There is no timetable as of yet on when he may announce a decision.

UW’s Chances: He is currently committed to USC but he took official visits in the last 2 weeks to Washington, UCLA, and Oregon and the buzz suggests that he is deciding between Oregon and UW with USC desperately trying to hold on to him.

LB Henry To’oto’o, De La Salle HS, Concord, California

4-star, #3 OLB, #44 overall per 247 Sports Composite Rankings

Commitment Time: Henry will be making his commitment on ESPN sometime during the 12p PT hour for their signing day coverage.

UW’s Chances: To’oto’o seemed to be a lock to Tennessee after his official visit there last month, especially after primary recruiter Tosh Lupoi left Alabama. But the Volunteers are now rumored to be out of it and it seems like a coin flip between Washington and Alabama. Given the way it turned out the last time the Huskies beat out Alabama for a west coast top-50 overall linebacker it might be smart not to call this one over until September.

LB Daniel Heimuli, Menlo-Atherton HS, Menlo Park, California

4-star, #13 ILB, #199 overall per 247 Sports Composite Rankings

Commitment Time: Heimuli will be signing at 1p PT in a ceremony at his school.

UW’s Chances: Heimuli was considered a near lock to UW, took an official visit to Washington, then cancelled his remaining official visits. I’ll let everyone draw their own conclusions.

Other Commits/Targets

The Huskies got a re-commitment last week from 4-star safety Asa Turner and he is expected to sign with the Huskies today although he hasn’t said specifically what time. It will likely be in the morning given that it doesn’t appear he’s waiting for a ceremony this time around.

Washington pursued 3-star DB Jayden Williams over the last 2 months and were the first program to offer him. He took an official visit to Washington 10 days ago but while in Sea-Tac on the way home he got an offer from childhood favorite and hometown USC. He quickly took an official there and committed to the Trojans last night.

3-star TE Kyle Patterson will be making a commitment at some point today between Washington and Air Force. He is not listed above because at this point it would be a complete stunner if he didn’t select Air Force. It’s hard to argue when you lose a kid to a military academy because he clearly was looking for a specific opportunity that UW wasn’t able to provide. Can’t fault him for that. It appears the Huskies will go without a TE in this class and rely on Cade Otton/Hunter Bryant/Jacob Kizer/Devin Culp next season while taking a pair at the position in 2020.

Without the commitments of any of the three prospects listed above and given the roster changes already announced, by my count the Huskies are 2 scholarships over at the moment. If Washington landed the trio of Heimuli, To’oto’o, and Nacua then they would need to have 5 players transfer or retire during the off-season. There have been a few names rumored as potential candidates to move on but nothing is official so we won’t speculate here.

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Update 8:40a- Asa Turner is a Husky!

The 4-star safety prospect has finally signed his LOI with Washington after a few months of back and forth. You can read more about Asa in our write-up here.

Update 1:14p- Huskies go 1 of 2 with LB Targets

UW gained a commitment from 4-star LB Daniel Heimuli this afternoon while another 4-star LB, Henry To’oto’o instead committed to Tennessee. The Heimuli commitment was expected and it would’ve been an epic shock if he hadn’t signed with Washington today. You can read more about Heimuli here.

The To’oto’o recruitment was much more of a winding road. Alabama was the presumed favorite for much the last several months before an official visit to Tennessee appeared to wow Henry. Then Tosh Lupoi left Alabama and it seemed like the Crimson Tide were out of the picture. However, over the last week the recruiting experts said that Tennessee had fallen away and it was a 60/40 race for Alabama over Washington. And yet, like the red hydroplane at a Mariner’s game, the Volunteers came zooming out of nowhere to secure the commitment today. Given that he ended up at an SEC school and he had such a back and forth recruitment there will likely be questions about what sealed the deal for Henry no matter what he says publicly.

That appears to end National Signing Day for the Huskies. There is still a chance that Puka Nacua ends up wearing purple and gold but there is no timetable as to when we might know that. Coach Pete will have his press conference to discuss Turner and Heimuli plus the recruits that signed back in December at 2p.

Update: 2:50p- Huskies Land Local LB as PWO

Washington received some unexpected but still great news when Bellevue High’s Drew Fowler agreed to become a preferred walk-on at UW. A few weeks ago it appeared that Drew would either be a PWO at Stanford or at Washington but then he received scholarship offers at Utah and UCLA to go along with one at Louisville and it seemed clear that he would understandably choose somewhere else. But he decided the opportunity to stay home and fight for a scholarship would be worth it.

Fowler was rated as a 3-star recruit with a 0.84 composite ranking per 247. It is very rare that a player above a 0.82 ends up walking on let alone someone with both a UCLA and Utah offer. The last player of Fowler’s caliber to walk-on at UW was Myles Bryant and he ended up being a day one contributor and will be a potential preseason all-Pac-12 corner next season. This is great news and helps to provide the kind of depth that keeps programs humming along.