Al-Uqdah Is All Wired In as Husky Defensive Leader

His nickname is Buddah, not Superman, but excuse Taariq Al-Uqdah if he sometimes feels like he's changing into a University of Washington football uniform in a phone booth, should you remember what that once was.

During spring practice, the former Washington State linebacker turned Husky newcomer sometimes wears a coach-to-player helmet communications system connecting him to new UW defensive coordinator Ryan Walters. It took some adjustment to get him all plugged in.

"It was funny, the first time coach Walters talked to me on it, it kind of scared me," Al-Uqdah said. "Because I wasn't expecting it."

At WSU, that coaching staff preferred to connect with its safeties and cornerbacks over the airwaves rather than with Al-Uqdah and the Cougar linebackers, thinking the defensive backs had the best vantage point of the entire field.

Yet as this linebacker is quickly finding out in Montlake, the Huskies are counting on him to be a defensive leader and make a lot of stuff happen, so the communication lines with him need to be unimpeded.

For this past Saturday's third spring practice, Al-Uqdah was the only veteran UW linebacker available for duty with any sort of lengthy college football resume. He teamed with little-used sophomore Deven Bryant and special-teams leader Anthony Ward.

Sometimes during scrimmage plays, Al-Uqdah was the only player from his position group on the field as the Huskies went with a five-man line and five-man secondary.

Of the other linebackers, Arizona transfer Jacob Manu and touted incoming freshman Zaydrius Rainey-Sale were on the sideline going through rehab exercises as they recover from knee surgeries. UCF transfer Xe'ree Alexander was absent for unspecified reasons.

Washington State linebacker Taariq Al-Uqdah, now at the UW, brings down a Hawaii ball carrier. | James Snook-Imagn Images

Al-Uqdah should have been talking on the helmet communications system with each one of those players, telling them to hurry back, that he's feeling lonely out there on defense.

The 6-foot, 232-pound linebacker from Southern California and Inglewood High School initially described the UW as a "dream school" and received a scholarship offer, but in the end Jimmy Lake's Huskies went in a different direction.

So Al-Uqdah turned to WSU and last season as a third-year sophomore led the team in tackles with 75 and intercepted three passes, returning one of them for a touchdown against Oregon State.

With the the Cougars going through a coaching change this offseason, he entered the transfer portal and got a much more serious offer to join the Huskies.

"I wanted to play on a big stage," he said.

Al-Uqdah now does this with a little bug in his ear, hearing from Walters and still getting comfortable with the process.

"The other day, he was cracking jokes," the linebacker said.

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