Inge on Injured LB: 'Every Coach Wants Someone Like Edefuan'

Edefuan Ulofoshio is everywhere during University of Washington football practices. Clutching a script. Talking to teammates. Consulting with coaches. Tempted to run alongside his teammates.

Usually dressed in a purple T-shirt and shorts while everyone else wears a helmet and shoulder pads, Ulofoshio remains intimately involved in everything going on in Husky Stadium even while he rehabilitates a surgically repaired knee.

This is his football team and everyone knows it.

The junior linebacker from Las Vegas was the first to make friends with Cam Bright, the Pittsburgh transfer and basically his game-day replacement, showing him around and taking him to the best hamburger joint in town.

Ulofoshio is the second-team All-Pac-12 selection who one morning was not too big to share himself with a walk-on player as they headed to practice and encourage the other guy to do what he did — make the coaches give him a scholarship.

Kalen DeBoer's coaching staff hasn't had a healthy Ulofoshio since it arrived in Seattle, with the Husky defensive leader recovering from arm injury suffered against UCLA before he tore up a knee in winter workouts, but every last coordinator and assistant knows what he's all about.

"Edefuan is one of the best leaders on the football team so he is the captain of the team, from my mindset as a coach," co-defensive coordinator William Inge said. "Being able to see him and his influence that he has on the guys is a great blessing.

"Every coach wants someone like Edefuan in your program. It's great to have him with us."

The top returning linebackers 💥 pic.twitter.com/KWxO8wijzD
— PFF College (@PFF_College) August 26, 2022

Early in the week, Ulofoshio was named to the second unit of the AP preseason All-America team — a huge honor, considering that he's currently injured with his return date undetermined.

On Friday, Pro Football Focus, with its elaborate metrics, showed Ulofoshio to be the fourth-highest graded returning linebacker (73.2) in the nation, even after appearing in just six games in 2021. The only ones rated higher are North Carolina State's Drake Thomas (80.0), Syracuse's Mikel Jones (75.6), Mississippi State's Jett Johnson (74.7) and Clemson's Trenton Simpson (also 73.2).

Ulofoshio won't be back until well into the second half of the season and might not play in more than a handful of games, yet people so respect his ability they can't hand out accolades without including him.

Typical of Ulofoshio, the unassuming football standout acknowledged while walking off the field on Friday that he didn't learn of the AP attention showered on him until 48 hours after it came out.

Meantime, Inge relishes the idea of watching this exceptional Husky linebacker take the field for the first time and show him and the rest of the new staff what he can do.

Of course, they will press Ulofoshio to be even better than he's been, if that's possible.

"I think, as he knows, he's got to come out here and perform and do his job and play to the level of expectations that he has set," Inge said. "It's great seeing him do his things and his process right now because, we know, mentally he'll be ready to go."

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