The defensive tackle, coming off an injury, could make a difference against USC.
Tuli Letuligasenoa was in uniform for the Stanford game, yet he walked onto the field on Saturday afternoon with his white University of Washington jersey untucked and hanging well below his waist.
More disconcerting to the Huskies is they've had to go without their most disruptive interior defensive lineman for most of three games now — and it's probably no coincidence that in that time Oregon and Stanford each scored 33 points against a Letuligasenoa-light UW defense with opposing quarterbacks standing fairly upright and unbothered in the pocket, and rushing yards coming in bunches.
Sure, the Huskies can try and outscore every team they meet by turning to their Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and their free-wheeling offense. Yet championship teams need some semblance of a bothersome defense and Letuligasenoa is key to that. Led by Emtman's 19.5 TFLs, five different Huskies back then piled up with 12.5 or more stops behind the line of scrimmage. Cornerback Jabbar Muhammad currently is the UW leader with 5 tackles for loss.
A year ago, a sometimes generous UW defense with Letuligasenoa manning the middle seemed to come together and clamp down on opponents during its stretch run, notably beating Texas up front in a 27-20 victory in the Alamo Bowl. Chances are, the Huskies will turn to the new guys when a natural order of progression permits and maybe even look for a veteran defensive tackle in the transfer portal in 2024 to immediately replace a departed Letuligasenoa. Yet first they want to get this incumbent sixth-year defensive tackle back on the field.
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