WSU Football Recruiting: Gardenhire Flips to UW, Mata’afa Commits to WSU as Cougars Continue Crazy Recruiting Week

The Washington State recruiting class of 2014 has been amongst a whirlwind of changes the past week and it continued Monday.

Safety Darren Gardenhire was excited about heading to the Palouse for his college career. That is, until the purple and gold came a-knockin’ from the West side. The Huskies have offered the safety out of Long Beach and Gardenhire subsequently decommitted from Wazzu today:

So congrats to Chris Peterson, that sly dawg. He’s officially a Husky and has ingrained himself into this heated rivalry faster than we could have imagined. I can now dislike him with a clear conscience. Congrats also to Gardenhire, who gets the cool opportunity to play with cousin Dwayne Washington, who is a Husky running back. May you all burn in the fires of a win-less 2014 campaign! Just kidding (kinda).

Meanwhile on to bigger and better things! The Cougars still got good news today, as the second Hawaiian commitment for Leach is on board. Unranked 2-star DE Hercules Mata’afa has committed crimson and will give CF.C a story later tonight so check that out.

Mata’afa is 6’3, 225 lbs out of Lahaina, HI and is known as a physical defensive end. He is the second hybrid-type that Leach has landed from the islands in a few days. Kingston Fernandez was the first, committing Saturday night. Both will be looked at as either defensive ends or BUCK linebackers for WSU.

Oregon State had offered, along with NMSU, UNLV and SDSU. He had also received some interest from Hawaii, USC, Wisconsin and others.

Mata’afa’s junior highlight tape is below.