UW Fresh Start (No. 51): Jordan Lolohea Is Man on New Mission
It wasn't too long ago that Jordan Lolohea was knocking on doors as a Mormon missionary, fulfilling his church obligations.
Before he played his second college football game against Michigan in the Big House last fall, he was just up the road in Detroit, spreading the word of his religion to a major metropolitan city in economic and demographic decay for decades.
It's hard to say which was a more challenging assignment for him. Both activities required great commitment.
Either way, Lolohea voluntarily put his football career on hold at the University of Washington for a couple of years and he's doing what regularly happens to players at BYU, Utah or Utah State who go on missions — he's working diligently trying to catch up to everyone else.
As one of the older guys on the Husky roster, this 22-year-old outside linebacker from Salt Lake City remains one of the younger players due to his football experience.
Whereas his UW teammates have followed the normal progression of going from high school football to the college game, and continually building muscle, Lolohea lost all of his size as he worked on behalf of his church.
Missionaries don't lift weights. There's no time, no Church of Latter-Day Saints gym membership. It took the full calendar year of 2020 for him to build back up to his current 6-foot-2, 265-pound frame.
Lolohea had to learn to hit people again while all padded up. Discover how to do it using college technique. Compete with players just as good as he once was or even better.
New Husky coach Kalen DeBoer and his staff hope to reap the benefits of a more football savvy Lolohea, someone who was signed by Chris Petersen's staff in 2017, permitted to delay his Montlake arrival for 36 months and first joined a program headed up by the since departed Jimmy Lake.
Less than a month until spring practice, we're offering intel and observations gathered on the UW football personnel in a series of stories on every scholarship player from No. 0 to 99. We'll review each Husky's previous starting experience, if applicable, and determine what comes next under DeBoer.
As is the case with any coaching change, it's a new football beginning for everyone, including the Huskies' No. 51.
Lolohea appeared in 10 of 12 Husky games last fall as a reserve coming off the edge and logged 9 tackles. While teammtes such as Cooper McDonald, Ryan Bowman, Zion Tupuola-Fetui, Jeremiah Martin, Bralen Trice and Sav'ell Smalls each took turns as starters over the past two seasons, Lolohea did his best to keep up as a fill-in.
In the Utah schoolboy ranks, he was a fearsome player who piled up a state-leading 23 sacks for the 4A state champion and 14-0 East High Leopards ... six years ago.
Late last spring in practice, Lolohea showed the game was coming back to him from an emotional standpoint. He traded harmless shoves with veteran center Cory Luciano that immediately escalated to violent roundhouse swings.
Defensive prowess runs in the family. His father, Al Lolohea, was a Utah defensive lineman who lettered for the Utes in 1987. Sadly, the older Lolohea passed away at home in 2016, three days following Christmas with Jordan and other family members surrounding him. He was 60. He never got a chance to see his son pull on a UW uniform.
After losing his father, this young Jordan Lolohea likely needed a spiritual escape at that time. When signed with the UW five weeks later, he got emotional at the ceremony as he spoke about his father.
Still just a sophomore in Montlake, this Lolohea will attempt to close the gap even more with his teammates who have played all along without interruption.
If nothing else, his presence helps solidify the once strong connection between his high school and the UW that has eroded some.
At one time, he was one of four East High products who were playing for the UW or committed to join the Huskies, along with Taki Taimani, Voi Tunuufi and Ben Roberts, all defensive players.
Lolohea and Taimani, a defensive tackle, were senior teammates together on the East state championship team. However, Taimani bailed on the Huskies following last season and his own spotty play and transferred to Oregon looking for a new start. Roberts rescinded his oral commitment to Lake's coaching staff and signed with the Ducks, too.
That leaves Tunuufi, a promising player and fellow sophomore, to carry on with Lolohea in Seattle.
UW Starter or Not: As he enters another spring practice, Lolohea is probably the fifth player in line competing for the two outside linebacker spots, so he's got work to do. Realistically, he's still someone relegated to a catch-up mode for another season, but good enough to get on the field as a rotational player in the meantime. The bottom line for him will be sacks. Start piling them up, and the big minutes will follow.
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