It's Been a Bewildering 24 Hours for Husky Football
Former University of Washington edge rusher Laiatu Latu shows up on social media wearing a UCLA uniform, ex-Husky defensive tackle Taki Taimani in an Oregon jersey. According to ESPN, retained wide-receivers coach Junior Adams appears ready to bolt to the Ducks.
This comes after local 4-star recruit Dave Iuli, a touted Seattle-area offensive lineman, releases a statement insisting he did not badmouth the UW as a newspaper reported.
All of this happens while Alabama, Georgia, Michigan and Cincinnati take the field in a pair of CFP games in which they are practically the only teams in the postseason at full strength, devoid of opt-outs.
Did anyone watch the Sun Bowl and a practically unrecognizable Washington State team, missing nearly a half-dozen players to personal whims or team violations?
Oh, did we forget to mention, those semifinal games were terribly one-sided and practically unwatchable, providing us with yet another, yawn, SEC national championship game.
It's been a bewildering 24 hours for college football, specifically for the UW.
Amid all of this consternation, there was this: MJ Tafisi, the reserve linebacker who bolted the Huskies in the middle of the season and is now at Utah State, sending a very public, unfiltered message via Twitter to Laiatu:
"Get yo money brother!"
No, this is not your grandfather's Husky football anymore, where the fans and the players bonded together to celebrate that occasional victory over USC or UCLA and the frequent one over Oregon or Washington State, and where UW players were better at showing team loyalties and hiding their personal needs.
College football has changed with the pandemic and it's not coming back.
"Get yo money brother!"
Now no one spites any of these athletes for enjoying the newfound freedom to profit off his or her name, image and likeness in college athletics, especially when your sport can leave you permanently unhealthy or maimed for the rest of your life and somebody is cashing in elsewhere.
However, the danger in all of this is completely breaking the model that is college football, shattering it even. We already have the NFL, where each player on the roster is his own little corporation, beholden only to himself while paying an agent to help him make large sums of cash wherever he can find it, and having a personal doctor try to keep him out there as long as possible.
Having two of these very same approaches to football is going to make one of them totally irrelevant. Especially since the NFL seems to insist on a level playing field when crowning champions whereas NCAA football is content to be the SEC and the seven dwarfs.
The attraction to Husky football has been its bonding between the players and the fans, how a legend can be brought back every game to be saluted one more time.
It seems no one is willing to stick around long enough to become a UW legend anymore.
Now we're watching Taimani, after forging a strong relationship with D-line teammate Tuli Letuligasenoa — you know, the Taki and Tuli show — want to come back and beat him.
Then there's linebacker Jackson Sirmon, who answered endless questions about becoming roommates, teammates and friends for life with Edefuan Ulofoshio, and he now could turn up on the schedule and try to best his buddy while wearing a California uniform. Or could he pull on an Oregon jersey, too?
Two things come to mind with all of this turnover and supposed turncoat stuff.
To be fair, none of these UW players signed on to play for Jimmy Lake, let alone Kalen DeBoer, so there are multiple reasons to jump ship. The door is right over there.
Yet what is overly disturbing, and falls on the shoulders of each and every one of these Huskies is they just finished 4-8, the worst record in a dozen years, looking more pathetic with each loss.
We don't hear any of these guys owning up to their team or individual shortcomings and wanting to fix things, just looking to leave. The talent was there, no denying that, but apparently the collective commitment never was.
Do you blame Lake, the players, or both?
A former Husky quarterback, one of those aforementioned legends, offered candidly how he didn't like the false bravado he saw coming from this most recent UW team, of players woofing and taunting and acting like fools, to the point he left a couple of games early and went home.
DeBoer clearly has his work cut out for him, in finding talented players committed to the Huskies, and not the rival down the road, while double- and triple-checking character, guys who can camouflage their get-rich needs, who basically can win again.
If not, Husky Stadium is going to be an empty and cavernous place on Saturdays for seasons to come — Tyrone Willingham showed us that — with fans deciding that one NFL team in town is more than enough.
A year ago, offensive tackle Jaxson Kirkland and tight end Cade Otton were making public declarations about delaying their NFL interests and finishing up at the UW and making one more run for college glory.
Now it's come to this.
"Get yo money brother!"
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