Inside The Huskies

Odunze Receives Pac-12 Weekly Honor for Punt Return Prowess

Against Cal, the UW standout turned in the longest play of his Huskies career.

Dan Raley

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Special almost always describes Rome Odunze as a University of Washington wide receiver, with his acrobatic catches, ability to go deep and desire to wrestle the ball away from defenders draped all over him, leading to all sorts of complimentary feedback. 

Yet Pac-12 Special-Teams Player of the Week, who knew?

On Monday, Odunze picked up this accolade basically by filling in for injured teammate Jalen McMillan, who normally shags punts for the Huskies.

Odunze, however, was up for this new assignment against the California Bears from the moment the ball hit his hands.

In the 59-32 victory, the 6-foot-3, 215-pound junior from Las Vegas had to crouch down to catch the game's first punt, veered to his left, picked up plenty of blockers, broke a tackle, faked out the punter and effortlessly ran 83 yards for a touchdown— for the Huskies' first punt return for a score in four seasons.

This play marked the longest of Odunze's UW career, surpassing his previous best, a 61-yard reception against Stanford in 2022 that didn't reach the end zone.

Also, this was just the third punt return in his time with the Huskies, coming after he had supplied a 4-yard runback against Boise State in the season opener and made a fair catch against Texas in last December's Alamo Bowl.

"I was just in the mindset of making a play and when you have that mindset going out there, good things happen," Odunze said.

His punt return put the Huskies ahead 14-0 after two series and let Cal know right off the bat this game wasn't going to be close.

Odunze's weekly award was the fourth for the Huskies in four games, with him joining quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who was Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week; edge rusher Zion Tupuola-Fetui, who was Defensive Lineman of the Week; and center Parker Brailsford, who was Freshman of the Week, with all of their rewards coming following the 41-7 victory over Michigan State the week before. 

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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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