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Inside The Huskies

Tafai Becomes Second UW Offensive Lineman Starter to Turn to Portal

The Southern California product opened four games late in the regular season at left tackle.
Dan Raley|
Kahlee Tafai pass protects in the Huskies' 49-21 loss at Oregon.
Kahlee Tafai pass protects in the Huskies' 49-21 loss at Oregon. | Skylar Lin Visuals

The University of Washington offensive-line makeover continued well into the night after transfer portal opened on Monday, with left tackle Kahlee Tafai becoming the Huskies' second starter from this unit to submit his name.

The 6-foot-5, 330-pound redshirt freshman from Los Angeles joined starting left guard Gaard Memmelaar in what has become the very busy free-agency arm of college football.

Together with graduating senior center D'Angalo Titialii, the UW now stands to lose three starters from the last third of the season, which isn't all that surprising considering the struggles these guys faced against the Big Ten's better teams -- for instance, giving up 10 sacks to Oregon in the recent 49-21 loss in Eugene.

Tafai was part of a three-headed rotation at left tackle, with fellow redshirt Soane Faasolo starting four early games, junior-college transfer Maximus McCree opening four games in the middle of the schedule and Tafai getting his shot by starting the final four games of the regular season.

With Tafai still very much in individual development and frankly not in peak physical condition, it's sort of puzzling as to why he would leave the UW after making so much progress over the past month.

However, new UW offensive-line coach and offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll acknowledged late in the season the staff preferred to have Tafai under 330 pounds, his listed weight but still probably not an accurate number.

Tafai came to the Huskies from Southern California and redshirted his first season without appearing in any games. He appeared in eight this season and remains on the roster heading for the Sun Bowl and a game against Louisville.

The transfer portal remains a huge temptation to players everywhere across the college landscape these days, with more than a dozen Huskies choosing this route over the last few days.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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