Umu-Cais Wants You To Know His Full Name -- All 12 Syllables

For University of Washington spring football, Tufanua Ionatana Umu-Cais showed up with the longest name on the team, one that goes triple overtime with12 tongue-twisting syllables.

To keep things simple, the 6-foot-2, 312-pound freshman defensive tackle from Englewood, Colorado, had people call him TI.

For practice, he kept things fairly straightforward, as well, when he mixed it up with the others.

"He's strong and he's powerful," Husky defensive-line coach Jason Kaufusi said in April. "You can see when he lays his hands on somebody, he'll get the knock back."

Yet Umu-Cais learned fairly quickly that a show of strength was not nearly enough for him to be a finished product at the Big Ten level.

That only got him halfway to where the Huskies want him.

TI Umu-Cais made a favorable spring first impression as a freshman. | Dave Sizer photo

This is one in a series of articles -- going from 0 to 99 on the UW roster -- examining what each scholarship player and leading walk-on did in spring practice and what to expect from them going into fall camp.

As Kaufusi explained it to TI and fellow freshman defensive lineman Derek Colman-Brusa, the great ones need to not only deliver a blow but follow it up by getting in position to serve up another and another.

"The thing he has to keep working on is he's got to keep moving his feet," the coach said of Umu-Cais. "Whether it was him or DCB, they were so much bigger than the kids in high school and they were able to get way with being big and strong. Now the speed is a little bit different. You've got [John] Milllsie and those guys can move. It's strike and keep moving your feet."

TI Umu-Cais came physically ready to play as a UW freshman. | Dave Sizer photo

In learning the intricacies of his position, Umu-Cais seemed eager enough. For the second practice, he and junior defensive tackle Elinneus Davis were the first position players to walk onto the field following the kickers to get started.

During team play for practice No. 5, he popped up in the hole and dropped touted freshman running back Brian Bonner Jr. for a one-yard loss.

TI Umu-Cais gets in some springtime sled work. | Dan Raley

He looked every bit as good as advertised after the Huskies signed him as the No. 1 recruit from Colorado, wrestling him away from his Deion Sanders-coached Colorado, North Carolina, Oklahoma and UCLA.

He mostly ran with the second-unit defense and he made it easy on everyone by answering to those two letters of his name rather than the full 22.

What he's done: Whereas most freshmen were not in the two-deeps when spring ball began, Umu-Cais was an exception. He more often than not ran with an intriguing front four of himself and sophomore Omar Khan at the defensive tackles, and sophomore Devin Hyde and freshman Ramzak Fruean at the edge rushers.

Starter or not: The Huskies brought in Umu-Cais to be a starter and nothing has changed with that plan. How soon probably depends on when he can get the footwork down and whenever the public-address announcer can rattle off his name without any difficulty.

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