Inside The Huskies

Ulofoshio Promised To Be Back From His Injury Sooner Than Expected

Don't be surprised if the junior linebacker is ready to go for the first big game on the schedule.

Dan Raley

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As the University of Washington football roster continues to settle, with 15 spring practices used as an audition and a few more players choosing to go elsewhere, Edefuan Ulofoshio remains firmly committed to the Huskies, no shocker there.

Even after injuring a knee this past winter, on top of a shoulder last season, the 6-foot-1, 230-pound junior linebacker showed up for every April workout wearing a brace on his right leg and continually offered his input and enthusiasm.

Ulofoshio changed his jersey number — from 48 to 4 — but not his dedicated approach.

"With him, he was glued in every single play," fellow linebacker Carson Bruener said. "It's something I wasn't surprised by at all."

While injured players typically can't speak to the media until healthy again, the UW made its idle defensive leader available for a Pac-12 Networks interview on the sideline last weekend during the final scrimmage.

The big question posed to the 2020 second-team All-Pac-12 selection was this: When will you play again?

"Sooner than you think," Ulofoshio said, smiling in the sun. "I'll let God answer that for you."

New coach Kalen DeBoer, while learning fairly quickly about the work ethic of his walk-on player turned team leader who doubles as a pre-med student, previously said Ulofoshio wouldn't be available until after next season had begun.

However, Ulofoshio always has exceeded expectations, showing up without a scholarship, starting on defense before earning one and leading the team in tackles and big plays.

An ACL injury typically requires a nine-month recovery period, depending on the severity of the damage, which puts Ulofoshio on schedule to return sometime in October.

Yet as with Zion Tupuola-Fetui's Achilles tendon rupture injury last year — where the edge rusher exceeded his seven-month recovery time by a full month — Ulofoshio couldn't be faulted if he was aiming to play in one of the two biggest games of next season.

Michigan State on Sept. 17 in Husky Stadium.

That should give him plenty of time to get back up to full strength for what annually has become the biggest game on the schedule: Oregon on Nov. 12 in Eugene.

Edefuan Ulofoshio has a new number, 4 replacing 48.
Edefuan Ulofoshio wore No. 4 to practice for the first time near the end of the spring / Dan Raley

Meantime, Ulofoshio seems fairly encouraged by the state of the program after it changed hands once last season ended. 

"When DeBoer and the whole staff came, they were pretty specific about what they wanted and the type of culture they wanted to bring here," he said. "Ultimately, it's just more accountability on us to make sure we make plays. You know, it's a player-led program. They want us to be able to lead and dominate games."

With Ulofoshio, the accountability couldn't be any greater for this player than it's ever been, no matter who's coaching the Huskies. 

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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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