DeBoer Staff Just Missed Out on Inheriting Motherlode of Defensive Talent

The UW-Cal game brings together five of six all-conference players who were once together in Montlake.

The last time the California and Washington football teams played in Montlake, it was 2021 and Jackson Sirmon and Edefuan Ulofoshio started as Husky linebackers, edge rusher Zion Tupuola-Fetui and linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala were spectators both recovering from Achilles injuries, while edge rusher Laiatu Latu was medically retired and yet another edge rusher Bralen Trice was a redshirting true freshman. 

To consider this collection of talent was together all at once for the UW is mind-boggling if a little breath-taking, with a coaching change, a program downturn and, face it, poor medical advice breaking up this sensational sextet. 

Today, they could get together and hold an All-Pac-12 players' convention, with each of these guys earning some sort of all-conference recognition at the end of the 2022 season.

On Saturday night, five of them will be in uniform and in their full glory at Husky Stadium for the 7:30 p.m. kickoff, with Sirmon a fixture at Cal for two seasons and Trice, Ulofoshio, Tupuola-Fetui and Tuputala either finishing up or continuing their UW careers, while Latu plays for UCLA.

"Those are some really good players," said Kalen DeBoer, who had Sirmon and Laiatu transfer out right as he took over at the UW. "This week with facing Sirmon, you can tell he runs the show. He's got great players around him, too. He really is always in the right spot. You could tell he's heady. ... Yeah, it would be great to have him here, but we don't have him."

Counting Latu, now in his second season at UCLA, five of these Chris Petersen recruits actually played in games together during the 2019 season.

Ulofoshio was the only who started back then, as a walk-on redshirt freshman earning a first-team role for the final three games, including the Las Vegas Bowl. He was promoted following a 9-tackle, 1.5-sack outing as a reserve linebacker against Oregon State and subsequently was named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week . 

Latu was the best of the Huskies' true freshmen, came off the bench in all 13 games and made an immediate impact. That would be the extent of his UW career. He suffered a neck injury in practice and sat out the 2020 and 2021 seasons after the UW sent him to multiple specialists who decided he was done as a player.

Fellow edge rusher Tupuola-Fetui was a redshirt freshman in 2019 who appeared in 12 games, often opposite Latu on the edge.

Tuputala was a true freshman limited to four games that season to preserve his eligibility, yet he took snaps in the Apple Cup against Washington State and in the Las Vegas Bowl against Boise State.

Finally, Sirmon appeared in all 13 UW games in 2019 as a redshirt freshman back-up linebacker, with his season highlight a 54-yard fumble return that came up short of the end zone in the bowl game against Boise State. 

Of the six, Trice, Tupuola-Fetui, Latu and Sirmon each have been singled out as first-team All-Pac-12 players in their careers, while Ulofoshio has been a second-teamer and Tuputala an honorable-mention selection. 

Imagine trying to select starters from this one-time Husky super six and telling any of them they would be coming off the bench on Saturday night against Cal. 

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