With 22 months until the NCAA’s National Letter of Intent Day for the class of 2026, the Washington Huskies have received the commitment from sophomore, Ansu Sanoe.

The 6-1, 210-pound athlete from outside of Portland, Oregon is the first commit for Washington for the 2026 recruiting class.

I expect that the Oregon Ducks will swing for the fences to keep the Rivals’ number 9 athlete in-state.  But he appears to have his sights beyond his front door.

By that, I mean that they will probably offer a pile of money as they have for other Pacific Northwest kids.

Swing for the fences, drop a bag of money–same difference.

But, things are about to be different very soon. New Husky head coach Jedd Fisch has stated that for the Huskies to be competitive in the long run there will need to be some financial commitment in the NIL arena.

That’s not the only thing to change as there’s talk of an summer, early signing day.

It used to be that the signing day would have been in February of 2026.  That date remains, but there’s now an early signing day in December.

Oregon would have plenty of time to counter as it’s a long way to go until February, 2026. It makes sense to allow student-athletes to sign before their senior years to allow them to be laser-focused heading into their senior campaign.

For Sanoe his focus is set on the NFL horizon and not a small bag at his doorstep.  Fisch’s “10x, 20x, 30x”message from his introductory press conference clearly resonated with Sanoe.

“The real money, the real salaries, the opportunity to get a second contract, to make 10x, 20x, 30x what you ever dreamed of,” Fisch said at the time.

Between the the Washington coaches there’s 70 years of first half knowledge of knowing what it takes to get to the NFL.

Oh, and stay there in the case of Scottie Graham his position coach at Washington who played in the league for 7 years.

Yes, there’s still 15 months until what could be a summer signing day for the class of 2026.