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Inside The Huskies

UW Turns to Cougars for Added Linebacker Help

Taariq Al-Uqdah, WSU's top defensive player this season, will bring his game to Montlake.
Dan Raley|
WSU linebacker Taariq Al-Uqdah, shown here against Hawaii, will transfer to Washington.
WSU linebacker Taariq Al-Uqdah, shown here against Hawaii, will transfer to Washington. | James Snook-Imagn Images

Washington State football coach Jake Dickert left for Wake Forest without warning while the Cougars' playmaking quarterback John Mateer transferred to Oklahoma as expected, because his offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle got there first, all moves that were especially difficult for the Palouse fan base to comprehend.

On Thursday, the WSU faithful received yet another jolt when learning that the team's top defensive player from this past season, linebacker Taariq Al-Uqdah, will end up at the University of Washington, of all places, according to multiple recruiting sites.

Outside of the occasional walk-on who has crossed over, Cougars becoming Huskies has been exceedingly rare.

While multiple WSU players in the transfer portal will play for the Cougars (8-4) in Saturday's Holiday Bowl against Syracuse (9-3) on Friday in San Diego, Al-Uqdah reportedly will not be one of them, choosing to move on.

It was just three months ago that the 6-foot, 232-pound linebacker was at Lumen Field with his teammates, celebrating a 24-19 victory in the Apple Cup that came down to the WSU defense courageously stopping the UW on a fourth-and-1 play at the goal line.

Yet now Al-Uqdah will become the third linebacker in the past week who will move through the transfer portal to Montlake, joining Arizona's Jacob Manu and UCF's Xe'Ree Alexander. Come spring practice, they'll all enter competition to replace graduating Husky starters Carson Bruener and Alphonzo Tuputala, plus departed freshman standout Khmori House, who left for North Carolina and Bill Belichick.

Al-Uqdah, who has two seasons of eligibility remaining, hails from South Central Los Angeles, growing up near the campus of USC, which gave him his first scholarship offer. He attended Inglewood and Narbonne high schools, and played in the Snoop League for entertainer Snoop Dogg.

He comes off a productive sophomore campaign in which he led WSU in tackles with 76 and collected 5 tackles for loss, 5 pass break-ups, 4 fumble recoveries, 3 forced fumbles and 3 interceptions, including a 29-yard pick-6 against Oregon State.

Iniitially redshirting in 2022, Al-Ugdah appeared in 23 games for the Cougars, starting 17, including twice against the Huskies. He had 6 tackles against them at Lumen and another 5 and a pass break-up in 2023 when the UW emerged with a walk-off 24-21 victory at Husky Stadium. Now he's one of them.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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