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Influenced by Penix Decision, Letuligasenoa Plans to Return, Too

The veteran Husky defensive tackle will play a sixth season in Montlake.
Dan Raley|
Influenced by Penix Decision, Letuligasenoa Plans to Return, Too
Influenced by Penix Decision, Letuligasenoa Plans to Return, Too

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Washington Huskies

A light mist was falling on Husky Stadium as University of Washington football players made their way from a Saturday practice in Dempsey Indoor to their locker room.

Not a lot was happening for these guys nearly three weeks from playing Texas in the Alamo Bowl until junior defensive tackle Tuli Letuligasenoa let it be known that this wouldn't be his final college football game.

Alluding to quarterback Michael Penix Jr.'s earlier decision to return in 2023, Letuligasenoa matched him and said he's returning, too.

"Yeah, [it] looks like I'm going to come back, especially with Big Mike making that announcement," the veteran defensive tackle said. "For sure, I'm coming back."

Letuligasenoa has played in all 12 games so far, starting all of them except at Arizona State, where he was injured and limited in how much he could play.

His Husky coaches have raved about him, citing his toughness and his ability to get in everyone's way in the gaps. He's accumulated 30 tackles, including 4.5 for lost yardage, and amazingly knocked down four passes this season.

The 6-foot-1, 307-pound Letuligasenoa from Concord, California, has played in 40 Husky games spread over five seasons and started 23 times.

Letuligasenoa said he's met with UW coaches to break down his NFL possibilities and everyone concluded he could use another college season to increase his draft stock.

"It's probably the best plan for me," he said.

Of course, it seems as if everybody on this UW team with a decision to make is considering playing with Penix one more time.

"For sure, such a key guy like that making his decision so early," Letuligasenoa said. "Right now, basically it just gave the whole team that faith on basically doubling down and coming back, so yeah."  

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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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