“Look out the window,” Washington offensive line coach Scott Huff told Paki Finau when he stepped off the elevator and into the football offices.

“I walked up to the window and looked out at the lake,” the 6-5, 265 offensive lineman from Hesperia, California said.  “Wow they weren’t kidding about this being the Greatest Setting in College Football.”

After soaking in the sights he turned back around to Huff who was engrossed in a conversation with some of the incoming freshmen and other current players who were hanging around the coach.

“He was over greeting his players like they hadn’t seen them in forever,” Finau recalled.  “He said, Paki, take a picture of me with this guy.’  It was one of his incoming linemen.”

Listed as a top 20 interior offensive lineman in the country, he said that he was treated like everybody in the room shared the last name Finau.

“I spoke with Troy Fautanu and he said that Coach Huff treats his players like they’re family–all of the time.” Finau said.  “The way that he acts with you on the visit is the same way he acts when he’s coaching you.”

And that’s regardless of stars or on a players best day or worst day.

“Coach Huff even told me straight-up, ‘Paki, I don’t even know how many stars you have, if you have any.’  He said he doesn’t care about that,” Finau recalled.  Those comments by Huff were followed by a presentation of offensive linemen that he’s put into the NFL.  “Some had zero stars, some were 4 stars.”

The view of the lake, the Dawg Pack, the family atmosphere were a surprising but in-coming freshman Zach Henning may have been the biggest surprise of the day.

“He’s hella tall, hella big,” he said.  “I was like, ‘dang, this guy’s an incoming freshman?’,” he said of Henning.

He got to meet many other current Husky offensive linemen but that conversation with Fautanu and one later with incoming freshman offensive lineman All-American Landon Hatchett stood out.

“Landon was telling me about his recruitment and why he chose Washington,” he said.  “I want to become an early enrollee and he was one and we were both just going back and forth of how I can be eligible to do that.”

Overall, the visit exceeded his expectations and moved the Huskies from being in his top 10 to being one of his top three schools of interest.

“I’m basing that on seeing how they do everything and them telling me how much of a priority I am for the program,” he said.

His personal priorities are at his school of choice are first, “how they treat each other being a part of the culture where we have each other’s back”

At his high desert school of Oak Hills the past two seasons he’s experienced a culture shift and recognizes that Washington’s culture is the real deal at every level.

“Our program was like Washington’s where we came off of a rough season, we got a new coach and a new culture,” he recalled.

The rough patch was 6 wins between 2019 and 2020.

“His second season we made history going 11-1,” he said.  “I recognize the culture at Washington because it’s like ours.”

That one loss was the state championship final against Bishop Amat in the quarter finals of the Division 2 Quarter Finals of the 2022 CIF Southern Section Football Playoffs.

“I also met the strength and conditioning coach (Ron McKeffery).  He’s a great guy,” Paki said.  “All of the players were telling me that he’s a big name in college football.  He was telling me how he personalizes a program for each person.  He keeps track of your weight, your numbers like bench press.  It’s a lot of stuff that’s useful for the players.”

He agreed that the results of Washington shifting from a power run team to a passing offense were the proof of the players were saying was true.

After taking in the Husky basketball game against Arizona with their group Paki mentioned to Huff that he wanted to go down by the water.  Huff let the group know that they’d catch up with them after their little detour.

“We waked down to ‘The Cut’ then down to the old shell house’,” he said.  “I was thinking about jumping in the water but it was kinda cold and Coach Huff said he would get in trouble so I didn’t.”

He got the idea from his conversation with Landon Hatchett.

“He told me he jumped in on his official visit,” he said.  “So when the weather’s nice and the time is right I’ll do that!”

Landon even invited him back as his host for his official visit.

Paki’s dad even noticed how Washington felt different than other visits.

“They didn’t just treat me like family but my dad and my coach,” he said.  “We didn’t just talk about football, though.  We talked about him fishing and how he did events with his O-line.”

His dad noticed that Huff didn’t feel like a football coach–“like he was just another guy.”

Just another guy who churns out NFL talent every year.