Minnesota Kept Its Distance From Jacob Manu

The Husky linebacker had just 2 tackles against the Gophers last weekend.

UW linebacker Jacob Manu either is frustrated or can't hear the radio connection in his helmet, or both. | Dave Sizer photo

Against Minnesota, the University of Washington football team was low on rushing yards with just 40 on 27 carries, yet that was to be expected with four running backs out with injuries.

The Huskies likewise had just a pair of catches against the Gophers secondary from their three freshmen wide receivers pushed into action, but youth does tend to get in the way at times.

However, the stat that really stood out from this past Saturday night for its meagerness was this one: Jacob Manu, 2 tackles.

Must be a typo.

Maybe missing a 1 in front of the 2.

No, it happened in the Huskies' 27-24 defeat to Minnesota, where the normally Manu-led UW defense and its leader were less than stellar.

The 5-foot-10, 225-pound tackling machine had one solo tackle and one assist, which was overly surprising.

This was a guy who piled up 116 tackles in 2023 at Arizona, averaging nearly 9 a game that season.

For his five-year career to date, counting both Huskies and Wildcats games, Manu averages 6.5 an outing.

"If that's the only time he's done it, I would say it's a fluke," defensive coordinator Ryan Walters pointed out. "He was physical in the run game and meeting force to force on the offensive linemen, which alllowed others to make plays."

Jacob Manu tries to bring down a Minnesota ball carrier in open space. | Dave Sizer photo

This is a guy who has 10 tackles or more in eight games, with a career-best 14 coming in 2024 against Northern Arizona and current UW teammate Alex McLaughlin.

In 2023, he had four games of 12 tackles each against Mississippi State, Stanford, UCLA and Colorado.

Why, in his two outings against the Huskies as an opponent Manu came up with 10 tackles each time.

Yet against Minnesota, he didn't ring up his first tackle until the middle of the second quarter, when he hauled down running back Darius Taylor on a 4-yard gain.

Manu didn't show up on the stat sheet again until the middle of the fourth quarter, when he shared in another tackle of Taylor, this one for a 7-yard loss with edge rusher Isaiah Ward involved.

To which one could surmise that Minnesota did a more than reasonable job of limiting Manu's effectiveness.

Jacob Manu is shown directing traffic against Utah State. | Dave Sizer photo

Or it was just the luck of the draw as to where the ball went on the field and it wasn't at the Husky captain.

Or, this might sound blasphemous, but Manu, like the rest of his UW teammates against the Gophers, had an off day.

"As a team, we just need to do our job better, at a high level," the linebacker said, seeming to agree in the Minnesota postgame, "and make the plays we're supposed to make."