Letuligasenoa, Ulofoshio Reclaim Husky Starting Jobs

The UW's two defensive mainstays served as reserve players against Arkansas State.

Dan Raley | Sep 21, 2021

Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

After pulling reserve duty against Arkansas State, defensive tackle Tuli Letuligasenoa and inside linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio have returned to the University of Washington starting lineup for Saturday night's game against California, according to the team depth chart.

Both players surprisingly were relegated to back-up roles for the Huskies' 52-3 victory over the Sun Belt team.

However, UW coach Jimmy Lake indicated following the game that the 6-foot-1, 235-pound Ulofoshio, a sophomore from Las Vegas and a returning second-team All-Pac-12 selection, had been slowed by some sort of injury. He played sparingly in Saturday's game.

That wasn't the case for the 6-foot-2, 300-pound Letuligasenoa, a sophomore from Concord, California. He appeared to have no health obvious issues and simply stepped aside for Faatui Tuitele as the starter, though he pulled a lot of game snaps.

Apparently Letuligaseno graded out higher over the weekend than Tuitele, a 6-foot-3, 305-pound redshirt freshman from Honolulu, Hawaii, to reclaim his first-unit position.

This was a little ironic because Tuitele came up with arguably the top play of the season by a Husky defensive tackle on Saturday. In the fourth quarter, he broke through and sacked Arkansas State quarterback Layne Hatcher so hard he caused a fumble that edge rusher Bralen Trice scooped up and returned 72 yards for a touchdown.

The Huskies are still waiting for someone among Letuligasenoa, Tuitele, Taki Taimani and Jacob Bandes, all starters at some point this season, to step forward and be a playmaker on the order of ex-UW defensive tackles Vita Vea or Greg Gaines, both now in the NFL.

Elsewhere, sophomore Richard Newton and redshirt freshman Cam Davis were listed once more as sharing the No. 1 running back position, though Newton has started the first three games.

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Published Sep 21, 2021

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.