Safety Shaquille Thompson of Grant High in Sacramento Tweeted Monday night that he has committed to UW. He later confirmed the commitment in text messages to a few reporters.

Here is the Tweet.

Thompson is obviously a huge get for the Huskies as he is considered among the top five players in the country at any position and the No. 1 safety (here's his Rivals.com scouting report).

Thompson committed to Cal earlier this month at the U.S. Army All-American Game, but reopened his commitment after Cal assistant Tosh Lupoi was hired by the Huskies. Thompson had already been seriously considering UW even before that, and the switch of Lupoi apparently made the difference. He made an unofficial visit to UW this weekend after having taken an official in September when the Huskies played Cal.

Joe Davidson of the Sacramento Bee Tweeted that Thompson texted him to say that: "It's where my heart is; second highest graduation rate in the Pac-12.'' He also said that Thompson said Washington was a close second the first time around, he really likes Lupoi and the academics, and UW already has on its roster his best friend, safety James Sample.

As for how Thompson will be used at UW, those answers will come more clearly when Steve Sarkisian meets the media on Wednesday. Thompson played quarterback, running back, safety and even punted at Grant. He could play some both ways, maybe getting some Wildcat-type plays on offense. And it will be interesting to see if he'd get a chance in the return game, as well.

Assuming he sticks at safety, he could be an immediate contender for a starting spot alongside Sean Parker, though speculating exactly how everyone will be used is a little hard to do until we know exactly what the defense will look like under new coordinator Justin Wilcox.

UPDATES:

--- Here's a story from the Sacramento Bee on Thompson's commitment.

--- Here's my story on Thompson's commitment for the paper.

--- Here's the report from BearTalk.com.

--- Here's a good article on Thompson from the Bee from last fall.

And here's some video of Thompson, mostly playing offense:

Here's another featuring some interviews of Thompson: