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Inside The Huskies

Ulofoshio, McDuffie Receive Bednarik Award Recognition

The Husky linebacker and cornerback have been put on the watch list for the nation's leading defensive player honor.
Dan Raley|
Ulofoshio, McDuffie Receive Bednarik Award Recognition
Ulofoshio, McDuffie Receive Bednarik Award Recognition

With the looming possibility that the University of Washington will field a throwback defense this coming season, the Husky stop unit naturally has plenty of potential playmakers. 

Such as Edefuan Ulofoshio and Trent McDuffie.

The UW inside linebacker and cornerback, both returning second-team All-Pac-12 selections, have been named among the 90 players on the watch list for the Bednarik Award — given to the nation's leading defensive player.

Ulofoshio and McDuffie would have loved Chuck Bednarik, one of the nastiest, most violent defensive players to play the game. 

Visible evidence comes in the accompanying Sports Illustrated cover image in which Bednarik, the one-time University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Eagles linebacker and center, celebrates knocking Frank Gifford unconscious.

Bednarik, who died in 2015 at 89, was known as "Concrete Charlie" because he used to work in the offseason for a company that made this commodity plus come up with devastating tackles. He was one of football's last 60-minute, two-way players.

The 6-foot-3, 233-pound tough guy typically used to do locker room interviews while smoking a post-game cigarette.

In later years, Bednarik used to grouse about how he considered the modern-day football players too soft and pampered.

Ulofoshio and McDuffie, two noted tough guys in their own right, likely would have appreciated the older-generation guy's approach to playing a physical style of football had they been able to witness it.

In some circles, Ulofoshio, still a sophomore, is considered the nation's top returning linebacker, though he has just seven career starts.

McDuffie, also just a sophomore following pandemic provisions, is rated as one of a handful of elite college cornerbacks nationally and a strong candidate to become a first-round draft pick.

A year ago, the Huskies likewise had two players chosen to the Bednarik watch list in nickel back Elijah Molden and defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike, who opted out of the 2020 season, and both are in the NFL.

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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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