Inside The Huskies

ZTF signs with CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders

The former Husky edge rusher is coming off shoulder surgery.

Dan Raley

Zion Tupuola-Fetui and Devin Culp share a 2022 Apple Cup moment.
Zion Tupuola-Fetui and Devin Culp share a 2022 Apple Cup moment. / James Snook-Imagn Images

Former University of Washington edge rusher Zion Tupuola-Fetui, patiently waiting his turn to become a pro football player, signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders over the weekend and will join the CFL team's practice squad, according to Canadian news accounts.

The 6-foot-4, 254-pound player known as ZTF was a starter for the Huskies' national runner-up team, had surgery on his right shoulder to repair a torn labrum following the season, missed the NFL Scouting Combine and subsequently wasn't drafted.

While inactive on the roster, he'll join a Saskatchewan team that takes a 5-7-1 record up against Calgary on the road on Friday night.

Signed with two others, ZTF comes off a Husky football career in which he appeared in 50 games over six seasons and finished with 88 tackles, including 18 for lost yardage and 16 for sacks, and he had 5 forced fumbles.

In Montlake, the native Hawaiian always will be remembered for his sensational four-game performance during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, one in which he collected 7.5 sacks and 3 forced fumbles while playing in an empty Husky Stadium, and was chosen as first-team All-Pac-12 and third-team AP All-America selections.

ZTF emerged from that showing with the widespread belief he might one day become an NFL first-round pick, however he tore his Achilles tendon the following spring and never really recovered his dominant style. Still, he was solid enough to appear in all 15 Husky games last season and start all but one.

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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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