ZTF Talks About Future, Might Need Another Season as UW Starter

The Husky edge rusher is always transparent on a number of subjects.

Dan Raley | Dec 12, 2022

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Washington Huskies

A conversation with Zion Tupuola-Fetui begins in typical fashion, with the weather fully cooperating and this University of Washington edge rusher always entertaining and accommodating to the people crowding around him, all wanting to know what he's thinking.

Yet before Saturday's media session is done, the rain is pelting down in Husky Stadium and you look around and it's just you and the player known as ZTF standing out in the open, getting drenched. He doesn't feel a thing.

Such is the way the junior from Pearl City, Hawaii, plays college football, too, with everything normal when he lines up on the outside before coming off the edge with his engine revving and his hair on fire.

No wonder he keeps his locks dyed a brilliant shade of yellow.

ZTF has had the most interesting five seasons of Husky football. He's played for three coaches. He's played fairly early, even appearing in the 2019 Rose Bowl against Ohio State. He's performed better than everyone on the roster over a partial season during the pandemic. He's been injured and surgically repaired and making a continuous comeback.

Most interesting, this UW defensive mainstay this season has had to deal with sharing playing time with fast-rising sophomore Bralen Trice and senior Jeremiah Martin, whose play has peaked at just the right time, with ZTF even coming off the bench much of the time. He's handled it without a word of protest or any sort of negative reaction.

Preparing for the Alamo Bowl and a Dec. 29 game against the Texas Longhorns in San Antonio, ZTF acknowledged he currently is contemplating his football future on whether to return for a sixth season in Montlake or test his luck with the NFL draft.

"I'm just trying to weigh everything, pros and cons, and see how it goes," he said, a junior in class standing. "I have another game I can put on tape. We'll see. It would be hard to leave with everything going on. I love Seattle. This program is on the up and up and, whether I stay or go, I'm just happy to be part of it."

Continuing down this path, ZTF sounds more and more like he'll come back. He's a smart guy. While he recently received All-Pac-12 honorable-mention honors, that was still a few notches lower than his first-team all-conference reward of 2020. He has 4.5 sacks over 12 games this fall compared to 7 in four outings two years ago.

"It wasn't the season I wanted, but it was still a good season overall," said ZTF, who was a two-game starter. "I might just went to have maybe a full year starting again. I'm talking to [edge coach Eric] Schmidt and [Kalen] DeBoer, and they have my best interests at heart I know. We're having honest conversation and we'll take it from there."

CARDINAL SIN :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Zion Tupuola-Fetui runs into Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee and causes the ball to come out during the Huskies' 40-22 victory early in the season.

ZTF and defensive tackle Voi Tunuufi (90) and safety Kamren Fabiculanan (13) share in the moment following a sack at Husky Stadium.

Zion Tupuola-Fetui rocks the Huskies' all-purple uniform that was worn during a 39-28 victory over Michigan State on the third week of the season.

ZTF and freshman cornerback Jaivion Green celebrate a defensive stop at Husky Stadium, gesturing to make the point that this moment is theirs.

HAPPY HUSKY :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

ZTF breaks into a high-stepping dance to let his emotions go following a big stop against Michigan State in the third game of the season.

Zion Tupuola-Fetui never saw a camera he didn't like, acknowledging our Inside the Huskies photographer Skylar Lin during spring ball.

Reporters crowd around the always loquacious and entertaining Zion Tupuola-Fetui, who always speaks his mind on a variety of subjects.

HAIR-RAISING HUSKY :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

While the Huskies have a number of players who sport a trendy look, Zion Tupuola-Fetui always had his hair in noticeable, two-tone look.

ZTF and Bralen Trice have shared the same position this season. They could start opposite each other at Husky edge rusher next fall.

ZTF attends practice shortly after having Achilles heel surgery during spring practice in 2021. He initially rode on a small cart to keep pressure off his injury.

Hit him up with any question and he'll give you a ready response. For instance, have the Huskies become Edge U with Trice, Martin and ZTF all being named first-team All-Pac-12 at some point in their careers, following on the heels of former teammate Joe Tryon-Shoyinka becoming a first-round draft pick and a current starter for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

"We'd love to be an Edge U," he said. "Joe was our last edge taken from here and he was a first-rounder. We kind of want to keep that up. I think we all have the talent do it — Miah, me, Bralen. It's kind of that why not mindset?"

Ask him about the Alamo Bowl match-up of current and former Husky coaches in DeBoer and Steve Sarkisian, and he first professes not to know much about the latter football leader who was in Montlake from 2009 to 2013. Ah, but ZTF apparently is well versed about the latter's struggles with alcoholism that affected his coaching career, first in Seattle and then at USC.

"He's not my former coach," ZTF said, before warming to the subject. "I've heard of him and his impact on this program and all the good he's done — and other stuff. There's no real overlap for me. Even his players he recruited were pretty much gone by the I time hit the team. If I hit the bag, I'm sure I'd probably make some bad decisions, too."

Finally, we ask ZTF about his weight, which has been an ongoing subject and can be off-putting for some players, but it's something he's willing to talk about. He looks lean and trim, but a little on the thin side for what he does.

He shares that he's about 245, which is some 35 pounds lighter than what he carried in his monster 2020 season. He insists he still could play at 280, a weight he hasn't seen since rupturing an Achilles tendon in spring ball a year and a half ago and having surgery while Jimmy Lake was still coach.

He's become much lighter while rehabilitating his injury and, similar to Husky offensive guard Jaxson Kirkland, he's been experimenting with his size ever since while eyeing a possible NFL career.

"I could definitely play at it and, honestly, I feel if I never got hurt I never would have gone away from it," ZTF said of the heavier weight. "I got to be kind of picky and now my body is in a good place. I've experienced 280 and experienced 240, or 235 right off my Achilles.

"I think I got to find somewhere in the middle, 255 or 265, something right around there, and just lean out when I get there, and it would be great. I was too heavy and now I'm too light. I'll find it."

ZTF might keep searching for his body size sweet spot next fall while wearing a UW uniform, lined up opposite Trice, rather than behind him. They've continually talked about what each of them might do in terms of returning or moving on from college football, though probably not while standing in the rain.

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Published Dec 12, 2022

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.