Letuligasenoa Regrets Departure of Fellow UW D-Lineman Peihopa
For all the good things that have happened around University of Washington football this season, Kuao Peihopa's suspension and subsequent exit through the transfer portal wasn't one of them.
The redshirt freshman defensive tackle from Makakilo, Hawaii, was a promising player, someone sent onto the field on game day right away and who would have played a lot more in 2021 had he not been injured.
And, of course, he would have contributed quite a bit this past season and into the future had the 6-foot-3, 304-pound Peihopa not crossed a line of no return.
Sources indicate he was insubordinate with a coach, to the point it might have gotten physical, and he was done.
Coach Kalen DeBoer recently said he didn't want to discuss the Peihopa situation until after the season was over. The player himself didn't respond to an interview request through social media after entering the portal.
Peihopa was a media favorite because he was often funny and blunt in his answers about any number of topics.
When fellow defensive tackle Tuli Letuligasenoa was asked about his departed teammate this weekend, he chose his words carefully.
"That's obviously a huge loss and something that we obviously didn't want," Letuligasenoa said of Peihopa. "Hopefully where he ends up playing, it's nothing but the best for him."
Letuligasenoa, also known to play with a high motor but able to control it, said he was able to speak with his teammate before he left Montlake for good.
"I had a brief conversation," he said. "I definitely wished him the best of luck and that was about it."
Football is an emotional and physical sport that can get the best of people and cause someone to lose it. The coaches, of course, try to teach their players self control, especially when in the heat of the action.
Letuligasenoa has been through a lot, joining a UW team that went to the Rose Bowl and faced Ohio State his first season in the program and then fell apart last year leading to a coaching change.
The defensive lineman, however, embraced the changing fortunes of Husky football, finding satisfaction in bouncing back from disappointment and right the program again.
"The struggle is definitely something beautiful and what I love," he said. "Especially seeing what it was when I first came in. It kind of went down a little bit in the middle of my career and we're trying to put it on the up and up."
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