People Forget How Good Ulofoshio Was, But Should Get a Reminder
For a month now, University of Washington football has resembled the Academy Awards. Oscar in hand, one talented person after another steps up to a cyberspace podium and offers a heartfelt acceptance speech.
The list includes Michael Penix Jr., Jalen McMillan, Troy Fautanu, Bralen Trice, Zion Tupuola-Fetui and more.
Each of them thanks the others for their support. They insist they'd be nowhere without each other. Consequently, all of these guys each have promised they'll be returning for another big box-office run.
Then there's Edefuan Ulofoshio. Once a leading man, there's not been a peep out of him. No breaking-news Tweet. No fancy graphic confirming his all-out allegiance to Montlake.
Typical of this nuts and bolts Husky linebacker, Ulofoshio simply will show up for the 2023 season without any trumpet-blaring fanfare and dare anyone to try and keep him out of the starting lineup.
At the Alamo Bowl last month, UW co-defensive coordinator Chuck Morrell pretty much made Ulofoshio's I'll-be-back announcement for him when he briefly envisioned what a future Husky defense would look like a few days before the Huskies finished off Texas 27-20 in the Alamodome.
"Right out of the gate, we've got two elite pass rushers and that's a tremendous impact. ... The other guy is Eddie. Just think about Eddie coming back, really just game seven, eight, wherever it's at in there, and kind of on a pitch count when he first came back, and he's back and fully healthy. There's a lot of solid people there."
Ulofoshio offered a glimpse of the playmaker he can be again when the Huskies put him on the field late in the game at Oregon, and he rushed up and prevented a first down deep in Ducks territory. In the Alamo Bowl, he helped set the tone for the rest of the game by rushing up the middle unheeded on the first Texas punt and blocking it with both hands.
After he missed the last half of the 2021 football season and the first half of 2022, people sort of forgot exactly what Ulofoshio was capable of when he's healthy.
He's the guy who was named second-team All-Pac-12 for his sparkling four-game performance during the height of the pandemic.
Ulofoshio, whose name in Nigerian translates rightfully to "unafraid of war," is the same player who metric-driven Pro Football Focus singled out as the nation's top returning linebacker approaching the 2021 season.
He's also a proven talent who's piled up unreal numbers against some fairly heady competition in his career with 13 tackles against Michigan, 14 against Utah, 16 against Oregon State and a career-best 18 against Stanford.
As a walk-on redshirt freshman in 2019, he even came off the bench against Oregon State and collected 9 tackles, including 1.5 sacks, and was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week. Not bad for a sub.
Remember, because he's been a non-scholarship player, COVID-limited and injured twice, Ulfoshio still hasn't started more than five games in a season at inside linebacker.
Imagine what this guy might be able do in a dozen or more outings as a healthy and confident first-teamer surrounded by a host veteran defenders.
Clearly, Ulofoshio was eager to play a lot more than he did for Kalen DeBoer's defense after getting medically cleared with four games and a possible bowl left to play.
Quizzed prior to the Apple Cup whether he considered himself at full strength, Ulofoshio put his face up close to the iPhone (mine) that was video-taping him and mugged a response as if his coaches were watching that very moment.
"They can definitely play me," he said, drawing laughs as he got closer and closer. "They can definitely play me as much as they want."
What he really wanted to say was as much as he wants.
Ulofoshio will enter the coming linebacker competition trying to play next to or fend off the advances of junior Alphonzo Tuputala, a 13-game returning starter with a mobile 6-foot-2, 238-pound NFL body; USC grad transfer Ralen Goforth, a 6-foot-2, 225-pounder who opened 17 games for the Trojans; and 6-foot-2, 225-pound junior Carson Bruener, a hard-hitting player who carries a 16-tackle, 1.5-sack game against Stanford and a resulting Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week honor on his 2021 resume, plus five starts that season. Those are all high achievers, let alone the newcomers that will join them.
DeBoer might have felt a little cheated when had to go the first seven games without the rehabbing Ulofoshio, knowing he was an elite player and the only inherited talent he hadn't been able to use.
The coach and his assistants this past season were credited with resurrecting Penix as this promising yet oft-injured quarterback and helping him realize his vast potential as the national leader with 4,641 passing yards.
Who's to say the DeBoer staff can't do that with Ulofoshio and make him a Husky headliner again and a surefire NFL prospect?
"I'm feeling great, I'm feeling great," Ulofoshio repeated, as if he still had to convince people of that. "Just in my mind, I'm in a mode [where], 'How can I get better, not like how can I get back?' I'm just fine-tuning like tiny things of what I just want to do."
Send in your Oscar nominations now. Ulofoshio is ready to become an A-lister again.
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