Skip to main content
Inside The Huskies

Bulabalavu Second Husky HS Signee to Land Elsewhere, Commits to USC

The defensive lineman picked up 42.5 sacks in two seasons.
Dan Raley|
Bulabalavu Second Husky HS Signee to Land Elsewhere, Commits to USC
Bulabalavu Second Husky HS Signee to Land Elsewhere, Commits to USC

In this story:

Washington Huskies

At the same time the University of Washington was introducing Steve Belichick as its new defensive coordinator, the Huskies parted ways with one of their top defensive recruits.

On Tuesday, defensive lineman signee Ratumana Bulabalavu, who asked for his scholarship release following the coaching change from Kalen DeBoer to Jedd Fisch, revealed he will transfer to USC.

The 6-foot-4, 260-pound Bulabalavu from the Army and Navy Academy, which is a military boarding school in Carlsbad, California, signed with the UW in December. 

The Huskies have had eight of their 15 high school signees enter the transfer portal and lost two so far, with Arizona edge rusher Noah Carter last week committing to Alabama and DeBoer. 

Bulabalavu joins a USC program that fired defensive coordinator Alex Grinch the day following a 52-42 loss to the UW at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Trojans since have hired D'Anton Lynn away from crosstown UCLA. 

"They see me as a combo, outside-inside player," Bulabalavu told 247sports. "They want a dynamic defensive line that is both athletic but also very heavy up front to compete in the Big 10, so I’ll move around from tackle to edge.”

Bulabalavu piled up an astounding 42.5 sacks over the past two seasons for the academy. The Huskies got in on him early as this Southern California player with raw talent developed himself from a 2-star recruit into a 4-star prospect. 

He'll sign a new national letter of intent with USC on Wednesday.

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published. Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook by searching: Inside Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12

Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on Twitter: @DanRaley1 or @UWFanNation or @DanRaley3

Have a question, direct message me on Facebook or Twitter.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Football