What Should Be Expected From a Healthy Edefuan Ulofoshio?
It has been a long, difficult road on the field for Washington linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio. After coming to Seattle as a walk-on from Las Vegas, he forced his way onto the field and earned a starting spot and a scholarship.
During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, he played well enough in Washington's four games to earn All-America honorable-mention honors from both Pro Football Focus and Phil Steele. Then, after recording 51 tackles over the first six games of the 2021 season, he suffered an arm injury that ended his season.
After Kalen DeBoer and his staff were hired at the end of 2021, Ulofoshio suffered a knee injury during winter workouts. The setback kept him out until Washington's matchup with Oregon State on November 4.
He played in the Huskies' final five games and contributed in a big way, in fact, the coaching staff named Ulofoshio the defensive player of the week following the upset of the Oregon Ducks. Now that he's healthy, he's going to be a big part of the Washington defense in 2023.
The coaching staff brought in transfer Ralen Goforth from USC to add depth to the rotation, but a lot of responsibilities are going to fall on Ulofoshio's shoulders. He's an excellent blitzer and tackler, fills gaps against the run very well and has improved in pass coverage every year.
Excluding true freshmen Deven Bryant and Jordan Whitney, the Huskies have just four veteran scholarship players at inside linebacker, which means Ulofoshio is probably going to have to play somewhere between 70-80 percent of the team's snaps early on in the year.
If Goforth and Carson Bruener can prove that they're ready to take on larger roles, that will go a long way towards making sure Ulofoshio stays healthy for a full season. An available Ulofoshio for the entirety of 2023 is a potential All-Pac 12 player and could be just the addition the Huskies need to see a big improvement on the defensive side of the ball.
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