Inside The Huskies

Huskies Double-Team Butkus Award with Ulofoshio, ZTF

The UW is one of six schools with two or more players on the linebacker watch list.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Double-Team Butkus Award with Ulofoshio, ZTF
Huskies Double-Team Butkus Award with Ulofoshio, ZTF

Dick Butkus was one of the meanest, nastiest football players who ever took the field, a Hall of Fame linebacker for the University of Illinois and the Chicago Bears, the man who made No. 51 famous.

He was lovingly described by HOF defensive end Deacon Jones as "a well-conditioned animal, and every time he hit you, he tried to put you in the cemetery, not the hospital."

The University of Washington football program had the opportunity to see this madman up close when he led Illinois to a 17-7 victory over the Huskies in the 1964 Rose Bowl.

Two more UW players are getting an updated Dick Butkus tutorial right now after Edefuan Ulofoshio and Zion Tupuola-Fetui on Monday were named to the 51-player watch list for the Butkus Award — given to the nation's most outstanding college linebacker.

Alabama and Georgia have three linebackers included on the Butkus watch list, while the Huskies, Oklahoma, Penn State and Arkansas have two each.

Ulofoshio, in some circles, has been hailed as the nation's top returning inside linebacker and he's considered one of the Huskies' defensive leaders. A 6-foot-1, 240-pound sophomore from Las Vegas, he was named second-team All-Pac-12 last season.

Tupuola-Fetui, of course, is recovering from an Achilles tendon rupture and ensuing surgery, and his nomination may be nothing more than the organization recognizing a deserving player who is unfortunately inactive because of injury. 

The 6-foot-4, 280-pound sophomore from Pearl City, Hawaii, known as ZTF and a first-team All-Pac-12 selection in 2020, is questionable whether he can return in time to even play part of the coming season.

Other Pac-12 linebackers singled out for Butkus recognition are ASU's Merlin Robertson, Colorado's Nate Landman, Oregon's Noah Sewell, Oregon State's Avery Roberts., USC's Drake Jackson and Utah's Devin Lloyd. 

 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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