Inside The Huskies

With Ulofoshio, Powell's Heroics, They Should Form Their Own Club

The linebacker came up with a name for this exclusive group.
Dan Raley|
With Ulofoshio, Powell's Heroics, They Should Form Their Own Club
With Ulofoshio, Powell's Heroics, They Should Form Their Own Club

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Washington Huskies

With the wind whipping through Husky Stadium, linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio held court and discussed in his deep baritone voice a football subject with which he is most familiar — the interception return for a touchdown, or pick-6.

The University of Washington team captain was asked about this on Tuesday because he and junior nickelback Mishael Powell now have shared in this exalted experience this season. 

After the Huskies had gone five seasons without one of these defensive gems, Ulofoshio stepped up last month with a 45-yard runback for a score against California, followed by Powell's 89-yarder last weekend against Arizona State.

Ulofoshio was kidded that they should form their own  club to spotlight this sort of UW playmaking excellence, and he agreed, riffing and plotting something on the spot. 

"It's just me and Meesh right now, but he got the little chain and I didn't get the chain; there's no love for that," he said of a makeshift turnover bauble presented to Powell after the game and recently created by his teammates. 

"I'm hoping to have more people in our little, what did they call it like at the airport when they had that old exclusive club? Yeah, the old Diamond Club. That's what we're going to call it."

Ulofoshio was reminded that early in the game UW senior edge rusher Sekai Asoau-Afoa also dropped a potential interception against the Sun Devils with a lot of open field in front of him. 

With a little more dexterity, the Husky defensive lineman could have made the Husky Diamond Club three deep in its membership.

With the rain coming down hard on Saturday night, Asoau-Afoa's near-miss came on the sixth play of the game when he dropped back from the line and briefly had his hands on a ball that, had he maintained possession, could have gone for a 45-yard TD return.

"It doesn't even count, not even for a minute," Ulofoshio wisecracked to media members.

"Even though it wasn't his fault," someone said, maybe taking the weather or a teammate's stray hand into consideration.

"Oh, it was his fault," Ulofoshio said, drawing laughs as he maintained a high standard for joining his Husky pick-6 club.

Meantime, Powell's game-deciding interception return has led to him being named Walter Camp and Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week.

Of course, that comes on top of his membership in the Husky Diamond Club.

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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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