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Zion Tupuola-Fetui at first felt inadequate. He'd been a first-team All-Pac-12 edge rusher, a third-team AP All-America selection, the national leader in sacks per game and a first-round pick in more than mock draft.
Yet for this season, his fifth at the University of Washington, the new coaching staff asked him to come off the bench, to be a back-up player, to assume a lesser role than he was accustomed.
So how did that go?
"I'm thinking I'm not that good at the time," the player known as ZTF confided.
However, the 6-foot-4, 245-pound defensive stalwart from Pearl City, Hawaii, proved to be one of the biggest positives in a 10-2 Husky season that had an overabundance of them.
After a couple of games of floundering around and suffering through an identity crisis, Tupuola-Fetui pushed his pride aside, made his ego behave itself and adjusted to what was initially an uncomfortable situation.
He didn't pout, get angry or lash out. He did what he was asked to do, willingly and enthusiastically, which was to play fewer snaps and make them count just the same.
While this Husky reserve duty was basically new to him again, with 6-foot-4, 267-pound sophomore Bralen Trice and 6-foot-4, 269-pound senior Jeremiah Martin taking the field first and for longer stretches, ZTF quickly discovered evidence that not everyone viewed him any different.
"As soon as I came in, I see the quarterback, the tackle and the center check protection for me," he said. "So there's still like benefits to that."
The big Hawaiian played with his usual unbridled enthusiasm, foremost in the Apple Cup in Pullman when he tackled Washington State quarterback Cam Ward for a sack, got to his feet and feigned planting a flag into the artificial turf, which is what the Cougars did for real the year before in Seattle.
Most of all, Tupuola-Fetui had to push the defensive numbers aside. In 2020, in just over four pandemic outings in empty stadiums, he piled up with 7 sacks in the silence, including 3 that were strip sacks, to draw all sorts of college football attention.
Whereas people wondered if he might enter the NFL draft following those heroics, ZTF tore an Achilles tendon that required surgery and delayed his start in 2021, played five games and suffered a season-ending concussion. He had a solitary sack last season as the Huskies imploded and went 4-8 and Jimmy Lake got fired as coach well before the mess was over.
"I just had to take a step back and, maybe not from a numbers perspective, look at the game," ZTF said. "It was, 'Oh, Bralen's got this and I've got nothing.' Or 'Miah's got this and I've got just half of that.' It was just understanding the impact I was making coming off the bench."
The new UW edge-rusher rotation worked out far better than anyone could have imagined. Sometimes the coaching staff used all three of these guys at the same time.
Martin and Trice, finishing third in the league with 8.5 and 8 sacks, respectively, each were rewarded as first-team, All-Pac-12 selections, as voted by the coaches. ZTF, with 4.5 sacks to finish 12th in the conference, even picked up honorable-mention accolades.
"Once I was able to see the bigger picture instead of focusing on myself in that way," he said, "it was, yeah, it was real easy to come off the bench and be there for my brothers."
As everyone gets ready for the Alamo Bowl and a game against Texas, Martin is ready to play his final college outing, while Trice and ZTF have announced their return for 2023., expecting to be side-by-side starters rather than manning the same position. They expressed their desire to be "the Best Pass Rush Duo in the Nation."
While ZTF might have been humbled some, he chalks off this past season's playing assignment as something that was necessary for the good of the team, which he made work to everyone's satisfaction.
That said, he's lost none of his confidence or any faith in his playmaking ability.
"Different role, for sure," he said. "I'm also expecting a different role for next year."
Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published.
More must-reads:
- NFLPA finalizing proposal for major change to offseason schedule
- Packers' former first-round pick planning to make 'monster leap'
- The 'Most receiving yards in a season' quiz
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