UW Fall Camp Moment with the Irrepressible Kuao Peihopa

The redshirt freshman defensive tackle always has something interesting to say.

A somewhat spent Kuao Peihopa walked to Husky Stadium's west end zone, where the media types who cover the University of Washington football team were assembled, and one by one the reporters and camera operators quit what they were doing and gravitated to the young defensive tackle.

Peihopa is unsurpassed in giving UW football interviews. He's so entertaining, he should consider charging for these impromptu sessions. On second thought, considering our operating budgets, maybe not.

It doesn't matter what Peihopa has to say, it's how he says it. Totally unfiltered, brutally honest, sometimes philosophical, often funny. 

The redshirt freshman from Makakilo, Hawaii, could read the 115-player Husky roster for 15 minutes and he would be hilarious. 

On Tuesday, the 6-foot-3, 304-pound redshirt freshman was asked about Ulumoo Ale, the former Husky starting offensive guard turned into a fellow defensive down lineman. 

"M.J. Ale, s***," Peihopa said unapologetically. "You want that guy on your team, I'll tell you that. I mean, the dude's massive, fricking two-time Golden Gloves boxer. You want him next to, you know what I'm saying."

Yes, we do.

Peihopa is one of four players battling for the two starting spots on the defensive line, joining in a competition that involves junior and returning starter Tuli Letuligasenoa, promising sophomore Voi Tunuufi, Ale and himself.

It's a position area that has had a tough time showing its face around Seattle after it was bruised and battered for huge amounts of rushing yards by just about everyone, with teams such as Michigan (343) and Oregon (329) really having their way.

Peihopa made brief appearances in just four games because he was injured much of his first year, which he blames on himself. 

"I was out there not playing real football like I should have been," he said, explaining how he got run over by a teammate and injured an ankle because he was out of position.

As the Huskies try to fix their D-line woes with a new coach in the demanding Inoke Breckterfield, a new attitude and new personnel in Ale and even a healthy Peihopa, only Kuao can explain what's happening in ways that sound like he works part-time as a Buddhist monk. 

"Our D-line has young guys, old guys, but we're all getting coached the same way and coached to do the same thing," he said. "So at the end of the day, we're all the same age in the mind."

That may be true, but there's just one and only one Kuao Peihopa. In the mind, of course.

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