UW Spring Preview: Healthy Ulofoshio Changes Everything at LB
No one on this University of Washington football team has ever wanted it more than Edefuan Ulofoshio — and there are some highly motivated guys up and down that roster.
Chris Petersen didn't give him a scholarship but he was forced to play Ulofoshio in games at inside linebacker, even start him, before that could be rectified.
Name another football walk-on at any school in the conference who has come off the bench and been named Pac-12 Player of the Week?
Jimmy Lake felt compelled to give Ulofoshio his long overdue financial aid and even make him a cornerstone of the Husky defense, only to lose the veteran playmaker against UCLA at the halfway point of the ill-fated 2021 season.
After not starting a UW game for 20 months, guess who looks absolutely ripped in video coming out of winter workouts?
Answering to his third Husky coach in Kalen DeBoer in his sixth college football season, Ulofoshio should reclaim his first-team assignment and, if all goes well, turn the defense up a notch.
With UW spring football practice getting an extra-early start on March 6, we take a look at each position group going into the 15 workouts that include a spring game, and the linebackers are up next.
People seem to have forgotten what Ulofoshio, the man whose name in Nigerian is translated to "Unafraid of War," is all about on the football field since the Huskies have gone 19 games now without him in the starting lineup.
Pro Football Focus, which works on metrics in its analysis, called Ulofoshio the top linebacker in the country entering that 2021 season, but with no recent discernible stats, he's sort have disappeared from the national conversation surrounding the position. Even a month ago, some wise-guy Husky fan remarked online that the kid from Las Vegas by way of Anchorage, Alaska, simply was too slow to be an elite player. Yeah, supposedly so is Bobby Wagner.
With Ulofoshio rehabbing two separate injuries that required surgery, it's easy to forget how intuitive and aggressive he plays.
After all, this 6-foot-1, 235-pound senior already possesses two of the top five single-game tackle performances in UW football history.
Ulofoshio's 18 tackles against Stanford in 2020 rank second only to linebacker Michael Jackson's 20 piled up against Washington State in 1977. His 16 against Oregon State in 2021 trail only Jackson, himself, linebacker Clyde Werner's 17 in the 1969 Apple Cup and are tied with teammate Carson Bruener, who had 16 against Stanford in 2021 — while subbing in for the injured Edefuan.
EDDIE AND THE BRUISERS
No, a healthy and determined Ulofoshio, who has 157 career tackles, not only greatly improves a Husky defense that lacked turnovers last season, it makes the front four and the secondary a lot better.
OK, so who lines up next to the totally recovered No. 48?
Junior Alphonzo Tuputala deserves every opportunity to hang on to his job. He's one of just two returning defensive players who started all 13 games for DeBoer's staff last fall. He was named All-Pac-12 honorable mention following his first season as a starter, solid but not flashy. He's actually started one Husky game more than Ulofoshio.
He finished second on the team last season in tackles with 71, came up with 6.5 tackles for loss and 3 sacks and recovered a fumble.
Yet the 6-foot-2, 238-pound Tuputala likely will have to be much better than that to hold off USC transfer Ralen Goforth and a former starter and highly aggressive player in Bruener.
The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Goforth, who played high school football at the SoCal St. John Bosco powerhouse with former UW cornerback and current Super Bowl champion Trent McDuffie, comes to the Huskies with 17 starts and 40 games played for the Trojans. He left USC after Lincoln Riley's new coaching staff made him come off the bench. He has 149 career tackles entering his fifth college season.
Bruener, a 6-foot-2, 225-pound junior, should never be counted out of any competition. He's had moments of brilliance, earning Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week honors in 2021 for his 16-tackle, 1.5-sack, forced-fumble performance against Stanford. He came up with a 50-yard interception return against Oregon that same season. He's appeared in 24 games, starting five times.
These top four players collectively bring 121 games played and 47 starts to the linebacker table.
Add to this group a JC transfer in Demario King, who went through spring football last year only to get hurt and miss the regular season, and pair of touted incoming freshmen from Southern California in Deven Bryant, yet another St. John Bosco product, and Jordan Whitney from Pacifica High in Oxnard.
The 6-foot-3, 212-pound King brings size and speed that prompted the UW coaching staff to move him from Cerritos JC safety to inside linebacker once in Montlake. He should be finally ready to go and challenge for playing time.
Bryant comes to the Huskies as an extremely aggressive type along the lines of a Bobby Wagner, Whitney as another noted speedster. They cover a lot of ground and had 96 and 149 tackles last season, respectively.
Four coaching staffs ago, the Huskies were fortunate to pull a top-notch linebacker pair out of Los Angeles in Azeem Victor and Keishawn Bierria, who arrived at the UW in 2013 and eventually became starters together. They were capable of running sideline to sideline. They were a big reason the Huskies advanced to the 2016 College Football playoff. Bryant and Whitney should try and model themselves after those two and their success.
Behind these seven scholarship linebackers is Drew Fowler, a walk-on who is noteworthy to the competition because he's appeared in 25 games, including all 13 last season, and he always seems ready to play.
The Husky defense stands to be a lot more fearsome with a fully recovered and motivated Ulofoshio anchoring the second row again. Whoever starts next to him, whether it be Tuputala, Goforth or Bruener, will be the winner of one of the great competition battles of the spring and fall.
UW LINEBACKER CANDIDATES
Edefuan Ulofoshio, 6-1, 235, Sr., 31 games played, 12 starts, 2020 All-Pac-12 second team
Alphonzo Tuputala, 6-2, 238, Jr., 26 games played, 13 starts, 2022 All-Pac-12 honorable mention
Carson Bruener, 6-2, 225, Jr., 24 games played, 5 starts
Ralen Goforth, 6-2, 225, Sr., 40 games played at USC, 17 starts
Drew Fowler, 6-1, 218, 25 games played, no starts, walk-on
Demario King, 6-3, 212, Jr., ready to debut
Deven Bryant, 6-0, 210, Fr., ready to debut
Jordan Whitney, 6-2, 205, Fr., ready to debut
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