Inside The Huskies

UW Roster Review, No. 2-99: Huskies Order Another Slice of Pei

The Hawaiian defensive back followed his father to Seattle to play college football.

Dan Raley

Lanakila "Meki" Pei joined the University of Washington football team as an aspiring safety, so tough that he previously also played linebacker at Honolulu's Iolani High School in Hawaii. 

This happened in 1992.

And again in 2020.

Like father, like son — two Meki Peis for the Huskies.

However, the younger version had to put his ego aside and make significant sacrifices to be put on the UW roster. 

Unlike his namesake father, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound redshirt freshman showed up in Seattle without a football scholarship, agreeing to be a preferred walk-on. In the process, he turned down a full ride offered by his hometown University of Hawaii.

"Washington has always been my dream school since my sophomore year," Pei said when he made his Husky commitment. "My parents went there. My dad played there."

During the recent spring practice, he rotated between the second and the third teams as a safety, getting his first real opportunity to show what he could do, and he made plenty of plays. As the video shows, Pei, who wears No. 26 opposite redshirt freshman running back Jay'Veon Sunday, has become one of the guys.

Going down the roster in numerical order, this is another of our post-spring assessments of all of the Husky talent at hand, gleaned from a month of observations, as a way to keep everyone engaged during the offseason.

The senior Meki Pei was part of the recruiting class signed by the UW in 1992 in the aftermath of the Huskies' national championship season. Likewise from Iolani High, he was advertised as a safety, same as his son, after also playing linebacker in the islands.

This first-generation Pei returned to linebacker with the UW, filling out a 6-foot-1, 225-pound frame. Pulling on No. 17, he stayed for two seasons. Not receiving any game time, he left Jim Lambright's program during fall camp in 1994, went home and began a long career in the airline industry.

Young Meki left the islands with a greatly enhanced reputation, earning defensive Most Valuable Player honors in the 2020 Polynesian Bowl, no small feat. 

This Pei now hopes to surpass his father's UW football experience, in minutes played if not in scholarship dollars earned. Three decades ago, his father used up only two years of his financial package. Maybe the Huskies have the other two available for the son.

Meki is considerably smaller in size than his father, but he's a fearless player as shown in the 2020 video, taking on Husky tight end Devin Culp, who outweighed him by nearly 100 pounds.

In the Husky spring game, the Hawaiian put on a good showing coming up aggressively from safety. Playing for the Purple team, he finished with 7 tackles, tied for the second most of any UW defender.

It's another slice of Pei.

Pei's 2021 Outlook: Projected as reserve safety

UW Service Time: None

Stats: None

Individual Honors: None

Pro prospects: None yet

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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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