You know Michael Penix’s story. Edefuan Ulofoshio’s leadership also sets up UW for future
You know Michael Penix Jr.’s story.
Do you know Edefuan Ulofoshio’s? Do you know how he became a Washington’s co-leader with Penix? How the linebacker and captain bulled through hurdle after hurdle to co-lead the Huskies back to the brink of being national champions, only to get denied?
At the bottom of NRG Stadium late Monday night, Ulofoshio was like every one of the 105 Dawgs players. He was devastated by coming so far — but not quite far enough to win UW’s first national title since 1991.
Yet no one has come farther from beginning to end at Washington than Ulofoshio.
The Huskies’ dynamic linebacker is two weeks from his 24th birthday. His freshman year was 2018; he was an unknown walk-on from Alaska. Chris Petersen was his coach. That was three Huskies coaches ago.
He became a starter in 2019. He earned a scholarship a year later. He missed the last half of the 2021 season with a serious arm injury that needed surgery. Those Huskies under coach Jimmy Lake went 4-8.
“To be honest, I completely lost hope,” Ulofoshio said.
Then, a change. It reversed UW’s — and Ulofoshio’s — course.
Huskies athletic director Jennifer Cohen fired Lake. She hired from Fresno State Kalen DeBoer, the former 3-time NAIA national champion coach at Sioux Falls.
Leadership, personal development, genuine care are his calling cards.
Given a fresh start, Ulofoshio got...hurt. Majorly. Again. He tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during winter training. It cost him the first eight games of Washington’s 2022 season.
All that lost year, as he ground through lonely rehabilitation and watched games instead of playing them, the new coach DeBoer told him he was still his guy, still a leader of UW’s remade defense.
He became a Huskies’ captain.
“He gave me something to believe in,” Ulofoshio said. “And even when I tore my ACL, three months later he still believed in me, still pushed me, still wanted me to be a leader.
“Even though I couldn’t understand it, I appreciated it.”
This season, his sixth and final one in college, Ulofoshio made plays all over every field. He made a game-turning tackle while prone into the turf in Las Vegas, to stop an Oregon wide receiver who was running by him into the clear at the Pac-12 title game Washington won last month. That win got into the College Football Playoffs for the first time since 2016. He became a Butkus Award finalist for the nation’s top linebacker.
He’s now a 6-foot-1, 236-pound force who can stop the run and cover the pass. Some NFL scouts see him as a top-15 linebacker in this spring’s NFL draft.
Monday night in the national championship, he ran to the Huskies sideline to break up a third-down pass and keep UW in a game Michigan was threatening to run away with before halftime.
The Huskies ultimately got run over by the Wolverines’ rushing offense and battered by their top-ranked defense in their 34-13 loss. It denied UW its first national title since 1991.
It didn’t deny Ulofoshio the chance to describe his love and appreciation for his third Huskies coach.
“I really wouldn’t be here without Coach DeBoer, to be straight and frank with you,” Ulofoshio said moments after the end of Washington’s perfect season.
Kalen DeBoer’s emotions over his leaders
DeBoer was listening. He was seated to his linebacker’s left. Penix was between them. The coach was already in tears from the Huskies’ first loss in 22 games.
When he heard Ulofoshio say that, the coach dropped his head and broke up again.
Pride and love. That’s what the Huskies took away from this chance at the national title Michigan out-played them to win.
“I’m proud that we have people upstairs that truly care about the players. I’m proud of the University of Washington,” Olufoshio said after his 40th and final college game. “It was an honor to play here. It was an honor to really wear the purple and gold.
“I’m proud that not only did we bring this university back to where it belongs in terms of being a marquee (football) university, I’m proud of these guys. All of us have been together for along time. And we truly care about each other. We truly love each other. We eat together. We joke together. We play a bunch of games together and stuff.
“Just...resiilence.”
Michael Penix’s leadership legacy
Penix belived in DeBoer, too.
That’s why the quarterback transferred after two torn ACLs and four injury-shortened seasons at Indiana, where DeBoer had been his offensive coordinator, to UW when DeBoer got the Huskies’ job before last season.
That’s why Washington believes it is in good hands, DeBoer’s hands, beyond the massive disappointment in Monday night’s loss, as it heads into Michigan’s Big Ten Conference next season.
“Everybody knows my story. I’ve been through a lot,” Penix said late Monday night. “I’ve had ups and downs.
“But I’m thankful for it all. I’m super-blessed. Obviously, to me, (it was) Coach DeBoer, at Indiana, to lead me here, to be playing for the biggest game in college football — but...obviously, it didn’t come out how we wanted it to.”
Seated to Penix’s immediate left, DeBoer nodded.
In the moment of his biggest disappointment, the Huskies’ 49-year-old program rebuilder felt immense pride.
“When your hardest workers are your best players,” DeBoer said, turning to Penix and Ulofoshio, “you have good things happen .And these guys led us in a way through great character, and they’ve just grown as leaders, and they brought a lot of people with them. They held each other accountable to another level.”
The coach gathered his emotions.
“And when you see players care so much about what’s happening on the football field, when you see them love each other, when you see them have expectations — and when you fall short like we did (Monday night), you just...I’m sorry,” DeBoer said. “I’m sorry that they couldn’t realize a championship this year. Because they made the sacrifices. They made the commitments. The goals that they had, the work supported it.
“I just feel bad for the guys because they’ve given so much to each other. They’ve given me everything, everything they possibly can. And that’s why I feel the way I do. Because I’m going to miss them.”
Then DeBoer came back to the feeling that along with disappointment permeated the Huskies’ locker room after this national-title loss onto the jet that flew them home to Seattle Tuesday.
“I’m proud of them,” DeBoer said. “Proud of what they’ve done for our program. I’m proud of what they have brought to our university, our community.
“And they’ve restored UW football, given us expectations that are what this program stands for, and wants to have each and every year.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2024 at 5:05 AM with the headline "You know Michael Penix’s story. Edefuan Ulofoshio’s leadership also sets up UW for future."
