Inside The Huskies

Taimani Leaves Disappointing UW Season Behind, Enters Portal

The defensive tackle played four seasons and didn't register a sack.

Dan Raley

Sam "Taki" Taimani, walking away from a disappointing season on the University of Washington defensive line, on Thursday entered the transfer portal, becoming the fourth Husky to exit the program since Kalen DeBoer took over as coach.

The 6-foot-2, 330-pound Taimani was a two-year starter up front for the UW, but he never made a big impact as opponents continuously owned the trenches and churned out large rushing totals over two seasons against him and his teammates. 

A junior from Salt Lake City, he came to the Huskies as an offensive lineman before making the switch to defense. He continued to be a work in progress. Conditioning appeared to be a problem. A year ago, then defensive-line coach Ikaika Malloe even said Taimani was good at filling up space but needed a lot more work at getting off blocks. 

Taimani went four seasons without registering a sack for the Huskies. 

It was a glaring shortcoming for a school that has sent the likes of Vita Vea, Danny Shelton, Greg Gaines and Levi Onwuzurike to the NFL as defensive linemen. 

"For me, I want to hold that standard," he said of the others at midseason. "I don't want that standard to drop."

Like many of his defensive-line peers, Taimani was heavily recruited and chose the Huskies over the likes of Alabama, Oregon, Notre Dame, Wisconsin and many more.

He leaves after appearing in 29 games, starting 14. He finished with 71 tackles, including just 3.5 for lost yardage.

In his most memorable Husky moment, Taimani picked up a fumble at Oregon State and nearly scored, the big man rumbling 13 yards with the football to the Beavers 6. 

Taimani joins sophomore outside linebacker Cooper McDonald, sophomore Mark Redman and sophomore wide receiver Sawyer Racanelli as UW portal transfer entries. 

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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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