SEATTLE — After being committed to USC for more than nine months, four-star prospect Tuli Letuligasenoa will be coming to Washington instead.

Letuligasenoa decided Monday he would back off his pledge from the Trojans to join UW and be part of the Huskies’ historic 2018 recruiting class. The story was first reported by Realdawg.com. It was later reinforced when members of the Huskies’ coaching staff tweeted about the team getting better. Huskies coach Chris Petersen soon followed by tweeting “Woof!!!!” which has become the official sign that they’ve locked up a recruit.

Petersen and his staff have built the best recruiting class the school has enjoyed in the modern recruiting area.

It’s a group that now features 11 composite four-star prospects. Letuligasenoa’s commitment now means UW has the No. 7 class in America going into National Signing Day, per 247 Sports. Both 247 and Rivals deem the Huskies to also have the No. 1 recruiting class in the Pac-12.

Letuligasenoa is rated by Rivals as the No. 10 defensive tackle in America. 247 has him 13th.

The longtime former Trojan commit took an official visit to Montlake in the final weekend leading up to Signing Day.

He’s the fifth Californian in the class and the second UW has recently landed. The Huskies received a commitment Jan. 31 from four-star Anaheim Servite (Calif.) Julius Irvin.

UW wrestled Irvin away from USC and did the same with Letuligasenoa, who raised eyebrows after he didn’t sign with the Trojans during the early period in December.

Adding Letuligasenoa gives the Huskies their first true defensive tackle commit for this class.

Four-star offensive lineman Sam Taimani is listed as a defensive lineman on the team’s official website. It’s also possible the Huskies could toy with the idea of moving Emerald Ridge’s Mosiah Nasili-Liu, who played defensive end in high school, to the inside.

UW now has 12 defensive linemen going into next season.

Washington returns nine starters on defense including senior linemen Greg Gaines and Jaylen Johnson. UW lost star redshirt junior and Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Vita Vea, who declared for the NFL Draft.

Letuligasenoa, who is listed at 6-foot-2 and 305 pounds, led national power Concord De La Salle to an 11-2 season as a senior.