Inside The Huskies

Huskies Lose Second 2026 Commit in Local Linebacker Lugolobi

The suburban Seattle player flipped to Stanford to pursue his football interests.

Dan Raley

Wassie Lugolobi with UW coaches Taylor Mays and Ryan Walters.
Wassie Lugolobi with UW coaches Taylor Mays and Ryan Walters. / UW

Jedd Fisch has maintained that all of that end of the season turnover for his University of Washington coaching staff -- four of his 10 assistants left for other jobs, including three on defense -- wouldn't hurt his recruiting efforts.

That's debatable.

For the second time in two days, the Huskies had a once committed 2026 recruit go elsewhere, with linebacker Wassie Lugolobi flipping to Stanford on Wednesday after being pledged to Fisch's coaches for five months.

The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Lugolobi, a 3-star recruit from Eastside Catholic High School in Seattle's eastern suburbs -- or about 20 miles from Husky Stadium -- committed to the UW the day following its 35-6 loss at Penn State, with his decision in the face of a bad defeat a positive sign in Montlake at the time.

However, Lugolobi never seemed firm on his decision following the first of the year, once the Husky coaches began going elsewhere, posting new offers and potential visits from places such as Michigan and USC on social media.

He joins Esun Tafa, a 4-star offensive lineman from Draper, Utah, as recent UW defectors, with Tafa committing to USC on Tuesday.

On January 24, Lugolobi posed for a photo at his school with Husky defensive coordinator Ryan Walters and safeties coach Taylor Mays, neither of whom were on staff when he committed.

Earlier, he had told Andrew Nemec of High Schools on SI what drew him to the Huskies. He got caught up in the excitement of a big win.

“I’ve been up to Washington five or six times for their home games and the ‘ah-ha’ moment was last game -- it felt like my home," he said, referring to the Huskies' 26-21 victory over USC. "I knew everybody there and it’s my home away from home.” 

Ah ha turned to oh no after UW linebackers coach Robert Bala left the program last month, someone Lugolobi had spoken highly about when he committed..

"They bridged the gap, built a relationship and coach Bala said, ‘I don’t need to go to Florida to get guys that I can get in the home state,' ” Lugolobi said.

Bala, of course, is now coaching at Florida as the Gators' co-defensive coordinator and LB coach.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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