Oregon Got Off Easy When Facing Ulofoshio Before, No More

The Husky linebacker is poised to make his first start against the Ducks.

Dan Raley | Oct 12, 2023

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Washington Huskies

Three points separated the Washington and Oregon football teams a year ago, which wasn't much at all. Each team had a new coach on the sideline. Each wheeled out a big-play quarterback. Each offense beat the other deep.

Now as they play the 115th game of this deep-rooted series, both ranked in the top 10, with ESPN College GameDay in the backdrop, and these Northwest rivals providing the hands-down top matchup of the weekend coast to coast, it's an absolute challenge to determine which team might have an edge somewhere, somehow, besides the obvious home-field advantage. Of course, that didn't hold up last year.

UW receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard already has christened the Oregon secondary as the best in the country, whether he actually believes it or not. Some have said the same about Shephard's pass-catchers.

The Ducks boast a prolific ground game that's piled up two of the three highest rushing totals against the UW defense over the past three seasons. The Huskies currently lead the country in total offense, averaging 569.4 yards per game and just 13.6 yards more ... than runner-up Oregon.

So who or what presents the advantage that could decide this monster matchup, that not so obvious personnel move that could be the difference, the one thing you have to dig deep to find?

It could be a well-seasoned and fully rehabbed Edefuan Ulofoshio in contrast to the previous version.

Oregon has never played against him at his college football best, as a guy pulling a huge amount of game time, as a starting linebacker, for that matter.

"It's truly an honor," Ulofoshio said when addressing Saturday's game but downplaying his accelerated role in it. "It's definitely an historic game. It's not my first game. I've been playing in it for a whole bunch of years."

Ah, but not from start to finish, not without developmental, pandemic or injury limitations getting in the way. This particular game is different for the laudable linebacker from Las Vegas and later headed for NFL luster.

By a few weeks, the Ducks just missed him as a new Husky starter in 2019, instead dealing only with Ulofoshio the eager special-teamer. A walk-on at the time, he had two tackles and a holding penalty while running down the field on kickoffs and punts in the 35-30 UW loss. In hindsight, with the LBs a team weakness back then, he should have been a first-teamer that day. It took him a trip to Corvallis to make that happen.

In 2020, the COVID pandemic canceled out the UW-Oregon game and the Ducks didn't play against Ulofoshio the second-team All-Pac-12 selection who turned in games of 10, 3, 14 and 18 tackles in his short season.

In 2021, Oregon again sidestepped Ulofoshio, who was injured three games earlier, had biceps surgery and watched forlornly from the sideline that day while wearing a sling to the Husky Stadium matchup.

A year ago, the Ducks had to contend with him only for about 15 snaps as a sub in Eugene, with Ulofoshio appearing in just his second game of the season after tearing up a knee in winter workouts, having surgery and going through a painstaking recovery.

Edefuan Ulofoshio chews on his mouthguard, which looks a lot like a pacifier in this image. (UW Athletics)

PICK-SIX FOR NO. 5 :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Edefuan Ulofoshio shoves his way past California quarterback Ben Lindley on his way to a 45-yard interception return for a score. (Skylar Lin Visuals)

Co-defensive coordinator William Inge and linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio confer during the final spring scrimmage. (Skylar Lin Visuals)

Edefuan Ulofoshio fight his way through the Boise State pocket protection to get at Broncos quarterback Taylen Green. (Skylar Lin Visuals)

Linebackers Alphonzo Tuputala and Edefuan Ulofoshio clown around and act like reporters in spring camp. (Dan Raley photo)

USC transfer Ralen Goforth and Edefuan Ulofoshio share a spring practice moment. (Skylar Lin Visuals)

Edefuan Ulofoshio interacts with the Husky fans as he heads up the Huskyk Stadium tunnel following a 2022 victory. (Dan Raley photo)

CARDINAL SIN :: Jennifer Buchanan/USA TODAY Sports

In 2020, Edefuan Ulofoshio looked like a running back as he returned this fumble 39 yards against Stanford. (Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports)

Edefuan Ulofoshio meets with reporters after, as a redshirt freshman in 2020, he was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts at Oregon State. (Dan Raley photo)

MAKING HIS WAY :: Jennifer Buchanan/USA TODAY sports

Then a walk-on redshirt freshman, Edefuan Ulofoshio runs alongside MJ Tafisi, now at Utah State, during the 2019 season. (USA TODAY Sports photo)

Yet on Saturday, it's full-bore Ulofoshio, all over the field, all the time. There's no avoiding the sculpted 6-foot-1, 236-pound linebacker this weekend. This highly motivated player whose Nigerian name rightfully translates to "Unafraid of War," easily could be the difference-maker in this one. No matter how much he's reluctant to say that.

"It's not just me out there, it's me, Zo, Ralen, Carson, our whole D-line, our whole secondary," he said, naming off his fellow linebackers and referring to the rest of the defense. "We all have to work as as a unit to win this game. I know when I'm on the field, I have 10 guys who have my back. I'm excited."

Ulofoshio wavered slightly when he incurred those back-to-back injuries that both took him to the operating table and a concentrated recovery twice. He initially worried whether he could return to his previous play-maker form.

This veteran linebacker and conscientious pre-med student credits assistant strength coach AJ Middleton for leading him these crisis times, especially the knee mishap, and getting him back on track and into a prominent role with the Huskies.

"We call it 'Meathead Circles,' " he said. "AJ Middleton, he basically grinded me up and obviously it's where I'm at physically. The second part was mentally me letting go of the [knee] injury. Hey, it was a freak accident. There was nothing I could have done before, just understanding it shouldn't happen again."

Ulofoshio enters this weekend's Oregon game with 27 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, a sack, a pass break-up and an electric 45-yard interception return for a touchdown against California, all while playing not quite three quarters in most outings.

Against Arizona the week before last, Ulofoshio passed a not-so-obvious personal milestone in the desert. He started his fifth consecutive game in the 31-24 victory over the Wildcats, the longest such stretch for him during any one season of his six-year UW career.

He had opened three games in a row once he became a starter for the first time at the end of 2019, four consecutive games when under pandemic restrictions in 2020 and no more than three games in succession as the No. 1 guy during 2021 before he got hurt.

Ulofoshio is a wily senior, a dedicated captain and a full-fledged starter for Saturday's showdown.

"I know what it means," he said of the Oregon game. "I know the type of attention it takes."

Actually as a reserve or a spectator previously in this ramped-up college football rivalry, Ulofoshio doesn't quite know all that's involved.

Yet the Husky linebacker is going to find out what it's like to be a first-teamer against the Ducks, to direct traffic and call out the signals signals and to maybe lead everyone in tackles, and Oregon readily could pay a football price, one that, yes might decide the outcome.

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Published Oct 12, 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.