Hats Off to Tunuufi: He Plays Fearlessly and Wherever Needed

Jedd Fisch's staff prefers not to pigeonhole this guy and uses him everywhere.

Voi Tunuufi loses his helmet as he picks up a sack against Northwestern. / Skyar Lin Visuals

Voi Tunuufi's gold helmet came off and went bouncing across Husky Stadium's artificial surface in an ominous manner, almost like a severed head in a horror film.

Yet it was the 6-foot-1, 282-pound University of Washington defensive player who was scaring people. This past Saturday against Northwestern, Tunuufi made the visiting Big Ten team feel downright uncomfortable.

First off, he didn't let his wayward football hat make him any less aggressive or fearless on this particular play. With his head exposed, he kept his arms tightly wrapped around quarterback Jack Lausch and pulled him to the ground for a 7-yard loss and sack No. 11.5 of his college football career.

"He continues to do a lot of things in disruption," said UW coach Jedd Fisch, using his best movie trailer voice.

When the UW-Northwestern game began, the Huskies might have felt at a disadvantage on defense. They were missing edge rusher Zach Durfee and free safety Makell Esteen, both multiple-game starters this season and out with injuries, plus team captain and senior linebacker Carson Bruener was coming off the bench after damaging a shoulder the week before, leaving the Apple Cup midway through the fourth quarter and not coming back.

Preparing for Friday night's game against unbeaten Rutgers (3-0) in New Jersey, Tunuufi looks a little on the smallish side, but he's quick enough and strong enough to consistently make a difference on the Power 4 level. If anything, opponents underestimate him and he makes them pay for not knowing any better.

"He gets on the field and he's disrupting the timing of the quarterback," Fisch said. "He gets on the field and he's disrupts some of the zone-blocking schemes because he's quicker than most defensive linemen at his position."

Said defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, "He doesn't fit a mold and that's what I like about him."

Voi Tunuufi gets himself ready to play in warm-ups at Husky Stadium. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Meeting with the media on Monday, Fisch, without having to think about it, offered up Tunuufi's defensive stat line against Northwestern: 4 pressures, 3 tackles and that hat-less sack.

In 2021, Tunuufi started a pair of games as a Husky freshman, with his first game-opening assignment ironically coming against Fisch and the coach's first Arizona team in Tucson and he next got the call in the infamous Oregon game that led to the firing of his Husky coach, Jimmy Lake, for shoving a player on the sideline among other missteps and the offensive coordinator, John Donovan, solely on performance.

This playmaking defender was reliable enough back then, though he actually didn't draw another game-opening assignment until the recent Apple Cup against Washington State and then last weekend against Northwestern.

Voi Tunuufi stares across at an Eastern Michigan opponent. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Lake's staff made him exclusively a defensive tackle. Kalen DeBoer's coaches tried to put him solely at edge rusher. Fisch's staff chooses to use him inside and out, standing up and down in a stance, however it can.

"When you have a guy with that flexibility, it gives you a lot of opportunities," Fisch said.

And this persistent and tough-minded Tunuufi will do all of this with or without wearing a helmet.

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