Husky Roster Review: Goforth Comes in From Cold to Play at UW

The linebacker was a part-time starter for the Trojans.

Dan Raley | May 19, 2023

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Washington Huskies

On a cloudy afternoon in Husky Stadium, with the temperature never rising above 50 degrees, Ralen Goforth, a warm-weather person through and through, stood on the opposing sideline and shivered.

His visit to Seattle was miserable in every way. His USC football team lost 28-14 to Washington. His body likewise came in a distant second to the Northwest elements.

At the same time, Goforth looked around and noted how the Huskies seemed to have a tolerance to a chilly day, if not revel in it, as if they were hearty Vikings.

"I was telling the guys, the last time I was up here I just remember it was so cold," the linebacker said. "We're all freezing on our sideline and I just looked across the field and everybody was just standing there so calm, cool and collected, like the cold wasn't fazing them."

Yet Goforth, this dedicated Southern California guy, did the unthinkable — he gave up the relentless sunshine and moved to Montlake to finish his college football career, to be one of those durable ones.

Going down the roster from No. 0 to 99, Goforth, who wears No. 10 all to himself, is next up in a series of profiles about each of the Huskies' scholarship players and assorted walk-ons, summing up their spring football performances and surmising what might come next for them.

Ralen Goforth and Edefuan Ulofoshio, if they started together, would make for an extra hard-hitting pair at inside linebacker for the UW.

Early last season, Ralen Goforth intercepted a Rice pass and returned it 31 yards for a USC touchdown.

Linebacker Ralen Goforth played in Husky Stadium in 2019 as a USC freshman and he and his teammates suffered a 28-14 defeat.

Ralen Goforth piled up 149 tackles as a four-year USC linebacker, coming up with a career-best 12 against the Utah Utes in 2020.

Ralen Goforth has fit right in with the Huskies, in this case hanging out with edge rusher Zion Tupuola-Fetui and fellow linebacker Edefaun Ulofoshio.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY / Skylar Lin Visuals

Ralen Goforth gets framed by a coach with a blocking pad during UW spring football practice in Husky Stadium.

Ralen Goforth told how the Chris Petersen coaching staff recruited him for the UW when he came out of high school.

TROJAN HORSE :: Richard Mackson/USA TODAY Sports

Ralen Goforth started 17 of 40 games at USC, opening a career-best eight games in 2021 while appearing in 12 outings.

Goforth, of course, will be a major player on the Husky defense. However, he might not start.

Seemingly, one of the reasons he left USC was because Lincoln Riley coaching staff came in last fall and made Goforth, a hard-hitting starter over two seasons, almost exclusively come off the bench.

He's now in the middle of an intense linebacker competition, maybe the best position battle on the team, that involves returning 13-game starter Alphonzo Tuputala, 2020 second-team All-Pac-12 selection Edefuan Ulofoshio and Carson Bruener, a 2021 five-game starter and a Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week recipient that season.

All four are viable first-team candidates and will pull plenty of game-day snaps, but only two will get their names announced over the public-address system before kickoff.

Four years ago, Goforth and Ulofoshio drew special-teams duty in that USC-UW football game held in a brisk Husky Stadium, Tuputala was in uniform and didn't play, while Bruener still was in high school.

In the recently completed spring football practices, Goforth brought more than his physicality to the scrimmages, even showing the ability to get out and run a little.

"One thing I'm impressed with is he does some good things out in space and that's something I probably didn't know about him," said Chuck Morrell, UW co-defensive coordinator. "But he's also got a box presence."

Goforth has a better appreciation for those wind gusts coming off Lake Washington, swirling around the stadium and keeping things a little on the testy side, especially if they benefit his football team.

RALEN GOFORTH FILE

Service: Playing without a redshirt, Goforth appeared in 40 games for the Trojans and started 17 over three seasons. He opened all five games he entered during the 2020 pandemic season, eight of 12 in 2021 and four of 10 last fall.

Stats: Goforth piled up 149 tackles in his four USC seasons, with a career-high 12 against Utah in 2020 and 11 against Oregon State in 2021, and he provided a 31-yard interception return for a touchdown against Rice last fall.

Role: Ulofoshio and Tuputala ran with the No. 1 defense for much of the spring, but Goforth could move up with an exceptional fall effort and easily be a starter, more likely alongside Ulofoshio.

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Published May 19, 2023

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.