Inside The Huskies

Shhhhhh: Tupuola-Fetui, UW Teammates Turned Spartan Stadium Deathly Quiet

In his first non-conference road game, the sixth-year senior returned to his 2020 form.

Roman Tomashoff

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In 2021, Zion Tupuola-Fetui was recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon and unable to travel to Michigan for a Washington football game held in front of crowd of 100,000-plus that didn't go well without him.

This past weekend, the Huskies edge rusher visited Michigan State, making up for lost time in the state by recording a pair of sacks in a 41-7 victory and being honored as the Pac-12's Defensive Lineman of the Week.

Silencing the Spartans' 70,758 following was a motivator for the player called ZTF and his teammates, who host California on Saturday at Husky Stadium.

"It was really cool to have a crowd bigger than our stadium, or that's what they said, but it was really quiet," he said on Tuesday. "To have that effect on a stadium, it really brought the bond of the us-against-the-world kind of feeling. ... With 75,000 (sic), and probably 5,000 of them were for us, it was dead silent and I could hear our Husky fans yelling all game."

The Michigan State game turned out to be a throwback performance for Tupuola-Fetui in multiple ways. It was his first game with 2 sacks since the COVID-shortened 2020 season in which he finished with 7 over four games, including 3 strip sacks. Also, the packed Spartan Stadium proved nearly as quiet as a totally empty Husky Stadium during the pandemic as this game quickly got out of hand. 

With fellow edge rusher Bralen Trice double- and sometimes triple-teamed by opposing linemen, Tupuola-Fetui recognizes he's going to have many more opportunities to get to the quarterback in the weeks ahead. 

Rushing the passer has been a mild point of contention for the Huskies, who recorded just six sacks in their three lopsided non-conference victories.

After missing the second game against Tulsa with an injury, Tupuola-Fetui looked the part of the disruptive pass rusher against the Spartans that he's showed in the past.

He was explosive off the snap and put consistent pressure on Michigan State quarterback Noah Kim. He got started right away, sacking Kim for a 9-yard loss on the fourth play of the game. 

As UW moves into Pac-12 play, Tupuola-Fetu will be a crucial player for the Huskies. With mobile quarterbacks in Arizona's Jayden de Laura, Oregon's Bo Nix and USC's Caleb Williams all coming up on the UW schedule, the Huskies will need ZTF and Trice to be at their pass-rushing best. 

The sixth-year senior from Pearl City, Hawaii, will not only be asked to get after these elite QBs when they drop back to pass but provide containment when they try to scramble, too. 

Tupuola-Fetui stressed his commitment to doing everything he could to stop the run during both spring and fall camp. He kept his word in his first two games of the season. He's held his ground with authority and been able to force ball-carriers to cut back upfield into the teeth of the Husky defense. And he's enjoyed his quiet time.

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Roman Tomashoff
ROMAN TOMASHOFF

I've followed the Huskies for my entire life, and to be in a position where I get to cover them full-time is nothing short of an honor. After graduating from Lasell University in 2019, I moved to Seattle to pursue my dream of working in sports media. While writing for the Husky Haul, I also covered local sports for the Everett Daily Herald before the COVID-19 pandemic. After being hired by Realdawg.com in February of 2021, I also transitioned into doing a lot of entertainment writing, as I work on a variety of magazines as a contributing writer for Centennial Media, and have also contributed to Emmy Magazine, as well as Walt Disney Television Studios. 

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