For whatever reason, the University of Washington football program hasn’t always been able to connect with recruits from O’Dea High School, which is one of the closest in Seattle to Husky Stadium.
This goes all the way back to Taylor Mays, currently the Huskies safeties coach who preferred to play his college ball for USC, even though his dad, Stafford, was a standout UW defensive lineman.
In more recent years, prominent O’Dea offensive offensive linemen in 6-foot-4, 330-pound Mark Nabou and 6-foot-3, 342-pound Isendre Ahfua spurned the Huskies for Texas A&M.
Nabou, who was once committed to the Huskies, became a starter as a redshirt freshman for A&M in 2023 and returns for a final season this fall.
The Huskies finally reversed that trend of outbound O’Dea players recently signing Fighting Irish edge rusher David Schwerzel, but not before he had committed to Stanford and UCLA.
Now comes Tevita Nonu — considered the No. 1 player statewide — who’s a 4-star recruit for O’Dea and the Class of 2027.
He’s a two-way lineman for the Fighting Irish, though most project him to play defense because of his quickness.
On Wednesday, he revealed his final choices to be Arizona, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oregon and Washington, with his final selection possibly coming within two weeks.
Nonu certainly brings a winner’s attitude to wherever he ends up. As a sophomore and a junior, he shared in O’Dea state championship runs, with the Irish beating Bellevue 38-15 in 2024 and Mount Tahoma 21-14 last December in the title games.
This past season, Nonu was selected first-team All-State and first-team All-Metro as both a defensive tackle and an offensive guard, not to mention he was the Metro Offensive Lineman of the Year.
He appeared in only five games because of a shoulder injury, but it apparently was enough for people to vote him all sorts of accolades.
The Fighting Irish finished 13-1 after losing their season opener to Graham-Kapowsin 40-38 — without their standout lineman.
The year before, Nonu played in nine outings for a 13-0 O’Dea team and finished with 26 tackles, including 4 tackles for loss and 2 sacks.
While he has college choices not unlike the school’s high-end players before him, Nonu took an unofficial visit to Montlake during the recently completed spring practice.
Nine months ago, Nonu might have given a hint on what he’s thinking when he posted the following question: “We staying home?”
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