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Inside The Huskies

Huskies Await Saturday Decision for NorCal Safety

Malakai Taufoou, a 4-star recruit, has UW among five final selections.
Dan Raley|
Malakai Taufoou will decide his college destination on Saturday.
Malakai Taufoou will decide his college destination on Saturday. | Taufoou

As of late, University of Washington football recruiters have been booking future voyages a lot like the biblical Noah.

As they load up their Montlake ark, the plan is to go two by two.

Earlier this week, they came up with a perfect match for previously pledged 4-star defensive tackle Jon Ioane from Tustin, California, by pulling a commitment out of fellow 4-star DT Tevita Nonu from Seattle's O'Dea High School.

On Saturday, the Huskies hope to lock down the safety position in a similar manner, by having a pair of high-end, book-end players.

On board is 4-star Isala Wily-Ava, who recently committed to the UW from St. John Bosco High in Bellflower, California.

Deciding his football fate this weekend is 4-star safety Malakai Taufoou from Junipero Serra High in San Mateo, California, who will choose from among BYU, California, Oregon, Penn State and Washington.

Taufoou will reveal his college destination on Saturday at 12:30 PT on Rivals' YouTube channel.

The emphasis has been on defense for the Huskies in filling out their Class of 2027 recruiting class, looking to please defensive coordinator Ryan Walters and give him. plenty to work with in the future.

Nine of their 15 commitments so far have come from defensive players. They have four linebackers under wraps, two defensive tackles, a cornerback, an edge rusher and the aforementioned safety.

If the Huskies can add Taufoou to play side by side some day with Wily-Ava, their defensive front and back rows will be hard to beat in terms of credentials.

Taufoou comes off a junior season at Serra in which he piled up 50 tackles, including 6 tackles for loss, intercepted four passes and broke up 3 passes.

He further showed off his athleticism by taking turns as a rusher and a receiver and supplied 7 offensive touchdowns for his 8-6 playoff team that started slowly and finished strong as a postseason entry.

If he joins the UW, Taufoou can tell the other Huskies what it's like to play at Serra, which once had a quarterback named Tom Brady before he became legendary and all that.

With Taylor Mays as the safeties coach, the UW has tried to use his previous notoriety at the position to chase only elite safeties.

They have Wily-Ava committed in tow and recently lost out on 4-star safety Gavin Williams from La Verne, California, to USC.

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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.

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