Inside The Huskies

Tale of the UW Football Tape for 2 Ngata Brothers

One was a Husky linebacker and the other will run the ball in Montlake.
Dan Raley|
Tale of the UW Football Tape for 2 Ngata Brothers
Tale of the UW Football Tape for 2 Ngata Brothers

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Washington Huskies

The University of Washington football team has its second Ngata brother over the past seven seasons, with one beginning his career in Montlake and the other choosing to end his there.

Ariel and Daniyel.

A linebacker and a running back.

Both highly recruited players, each drawing initial offers from the Huskies.

The 6-foot-3, 218-pound Ariel Ngata played inside and outside linebacker for the UW in 2017-2019 before transferring and finishing up his career with a pandemic redshirt and two seasons in the Big Sky at Sacramento State.

Daniyel, a 5-foot-9, 187-pound rusher, spent three seasons at Arizona State before joining the UW this spring.

Both list Reno, Nevada, as their hometown, yet each played their schoolboy football for Folsom High in Folsom, California.

Ariel Ngata was the first player to bolt from the UW roster once Jimmy Lake replaced Chris Petersen as the head coach.

Daniyel is one of several players to leave Arizona State after Herm Edwards was fired as coach during last season.

In redshirting and playing two Husky seasons, Ariel Ngata never faced Arizona State, which wasn't in the UW schedule when he got on the field.

For the Sun Devils, Daniyel competed against the Huskies twice, winning both games. In 2021, he rushed two times for 10 yards in ASU's 35-30 victory at Husky Stadium and last fall he had four carries for 39 yards, breaking a 26-yard gain, and scored once in his team's 45-38 win in Tempe.

Coming off the outside, Ariel Ngata started 10 games for a 12-1 Sacramento State team in 2022 while using up his six years of college eligibility. He finished with 32 tackles, including 5 tackles for loss and 4 sacks.

Daniyel carried 54 times for 272 yards rushing and his one TD this past season, and left the desert with career rushing numbers of 136 rushes for 689 yards and 6 scores.

  

Ariel Ngata played in 17 games overall for Sacramento State after the pandemic wiped out the entire Big Sky football season in 2020 and he had surgery for an Achilles tendon tear and missed part of 2021.

Daniyel Ngata comes to the Huskies after appearing in 26 games for ASU and starting twice. 

Ariel Ngata wore No. 52 when he pulled on the purple and gold, while Daniyel now answers to 21.

Ariel participated in roughly 250 fall, spring and bowl practices at the UW, while his little brother has logged three Husky workouts so far.

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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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