UW's Ulofoshio Likely Won't Return to Play Before November
Each of the past two weeks, the University of Washington football team returned a headline player to active duty, sending surgically repaired offensive tackle Jaxson Kirkland and running back Richard Newton into games.
So what about the third wheel of this talent-laden yet injured troika, Edefuan Ulofoshio?
It won't be soon for the highly decorated Husky linebacker, who continues to rehabilitate an injured knee— Ulofoshio still is at least a month away from playing again, according to Husky coach Kalen DeBoer.
"[We're] really expecting. him to play at some point this season; that's certainly the expectation," DeBoer said of the 2020 second-team All-Pac-12 selection. "I don't expect it in the next month. I would be hoping after that we could start talking week to week, and sometime day to day."
Considering that timeline, Ulofoshio, a 6-foot-1, 235-junior from Las Vegas, at best would be left with regular-season games in November against Oregon State, Oregon, Colorado and Washington State, plus a possible bowl game.
Still very much involved, Ulofoshio was spotted in pre-game warmups last Saturday standing next to edge-rusher coach Eric Schmidt and chatting him up while watching Stanford players get ready for kickoff.
The news is slightly better for a battered Husky secondary, which was missing three starters for last weekend's game against Stanford in cornerbacks Jordan Perryman and Mishael Powell, and safety Asa Turner.
Perryman is expected back for Friday night's game against UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Turner is a possibility. However, Powell has been ruled out again.
"Perryman is really close," DeBoer said. "He's the closest out of all of them. We're really hopeful and expecting him to be able to be back out there this week. We felt that way even this last week."
The Huskies used the 6-foot-7, 340-pound Kirkland, a two-time All-Pac-12 selection, for two and a half quarters, built a big lead and swapped him out for Troy Fautanu. The coaches chose not to send Kirkland out there again after building a big lead over the Cardinal.
"Part of the plan just was could we get to a spot so we could him out for a series or two so he could finish strong?" DeBoer said. "The the lead became what it was. It was on us coaches to do that [sit Kirkland]. We're looking at the big picture with him."
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