De La Salle (CA) 4-star defensive tackle, Tuli Letuligasenoa’s recruitment truly went full circle the past year.
The 6-2, 330 lb. new Husky signee started out the process as a top target for the Washington, had UW high on his list early on, took an unofficial up to Seattle — only to leave calling it “the best trip taken so far” — and then came back to California and committed to USC shortly after an unofficial trip.
That’s a long sentence, but this was a long process for Letuligasenoa.
“A couple of months ago I couldn’t have imagined that this would wind up happening”, he said of the change in direction his recruitment took.
The fact is, he just wasn’t quite ready to sign yet on December 20th. There were some doubts creeping in and so Tuli felt he should just wait until he took the official visit — which happened on January 12th.
Next up was a trip to Hawai’i to take part in the Poly Bowl. And that changed everything.
“I was talking a lot to Taki (Sam Taimani) and it was just a great experience”, he said, adding that he also had a chance to talk with Danny Shelton.
After that, the communication with Ikaika Malloe began to pick up again and the pieces began to fall into place. Letuligasenoa was still committed to USC when he took an official visit to Washington last weekend.
“It was great to get back up there and to get a true look at the campus again — and I love the coaches and just loved being there”, he said, “It wasn’t hard to convince anyone really in my family. They always knew it was going to be my decision.”
But the folks who weren’t happy were up in Los Angeles at USC. Contrary to all the rumors out there, the USC coaches were not going to let go without a fight.
Clay Helton went into Tuli’s home two weeks ago and was not at all happy to learn he was going to visit Washington. And there was some attempts to contact him while he was on the UW campus over the weekend.
There have been rumors out of the USC fan base, and some from the Husky fan base, that USC had backed out on Tuli. But that is far from true. One rumor was that USC never sent him a letter of intent.
The suggestion of that is so silly, in fact, that Tuli began to laugh, “USC offered me everything — they definitely gave me everything (including an LOI). They were still calling me this morning.”
But those attempts were futile and Tuli faxed in his letter bright and early this morning. Later, De La Salle had a signing day ceremony, and Tuli was on his way out to celebrate the day with his family when we caught up with him.
One thing that had always been important to Tuli was having a feeling of real comfort and “home” wherever he went. He had thought he found that at USC, but he wasn’t so sure after the official visit. Sometimes, this just happens with a young man.
They always say they want to just have “that feeling” — and sometimes it just isn’t there.
He went to UW on the official visit and found it, “On my visit to Washington I felt all the love and support — and then when they did the in-home and all the coaches were there. That meant a lot. When I committed to Coach Pete he was just going crazy.”
Parting ways with USC wasn’t easy, however. This is the hard part of the process for these recruits.
“They wanted me to do what’s best for me”, Tuli said, “It was hard for me to tell them — and it was hard for them.”
The irony of this is that one year ago, Washington was on the receiving end of a last-minute flip to USC from Marlon Tuipulotu. Some said it was a “payback” to get Tuli at the last minute — but the Washington coaches had Tuli atop their target list from the very beginning, so Marlon or no Marlon, they would have taken the same course to get this lineman into the fold.
The real hero here is Ikaika Malloe — a coach who took a lot of criticism from fans over the loss of Tuipulotu last year. This year he got every guy that was on his board except one.
“I have a great relationship with Coach Malloe”, Tuli said, “I always liked him and he had coached my cousin (Ricky Aliifua) when he was at Utah State and so I know he really looks out for you.”
So for now it’s all about using these next few months to get to his ideal play weight of 315 before fall camp, and just relaxing with the peace of mind that comes only from knowing what the next step will be.
“I feel great, I feel happy that this is over and now I’m ready to get to work”, he said, “It’s been a crazy couple of months…”
