ZTF Soldiers On for the Huskies, No Longer a Headliner or Even a Starter

Zion Tupuola-Fetui was supposed to be back to his old self by now, which was an unblockable and highly disruptive edge rusher, someone who was a first-team, All-Pac-12 selection and a third-team AP All-America choice in 2020.

Yet seven games into this college football season, the University of Washington player widely known as ZTF has a new coach in Kalen DeBoer and somewhat unexpectedly a new role.

While fully healthy again from a ruptured Achilles tendon and an ensuing concussion, Tupuola-Fetui comes off the bench for the 5-2 Huskies, rotating in behind current starters Jeremiah Martin and Bralen Trice. 

The 6-foot-4, 249-pound junior from Pearl City, Hawaii, typically plays a third of the time, though he can be inserted at any moment to provide third-down pressure.

There's still no way around this: ZTF is a sub.

While he professes to be a team player, his diminished role for the Huskies has to weigh heavily on him, especially after he turned up as a first-rounder in multiple mock drafts leading up to last season.

The NFL doesn't necessarily draft players who fill reserve roles at the college level.

Tupuola-Fetui says his body is holding up well and he feels totally healthy, plus he's happy with where his team is in wins and losses.

However, there's as caveat to it all, a time of reckoning that's coming. 

"I think about my future a lot," ZTF acknowledged on Tuesday. "You've got to be in the moment, you know. We're in the middle of the season. So maybe my answer to how I'm feeling about my situation might be different in five weeks."

ZTF, who's started only the Stanford game, has put up 13 tackles, which include 3.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks, plus a pass break-up, a quarterback hurry and a forced fumble.

By comparison, the 6-foot-4, 267-pound Martin, a fifth-year player similar to ZTF, has accumulated 26 tackles, broken down into 5.5 TFLs and 5 sacks, and 2 quarterback hurries and a forced fumble. He was named Pac-12 Lineman of the Week on Monday for his 9-tackle, 2 sack performance over the weekend against Arizona.

Trice, a 6-foot-4, 269-pound sophomore from Phoenix, has 18 tackles, which include 7 TFLs and 4.5 sacks, plus a pair of QB hurries.

"We're all still producing so it's not too bad," ZTF said. "I think I looked at the sack numbers and we have a bunch of guys all next to each other vying for the top position. That's a beautiful sight, especially coming off a year where we struggled to get to the quarterback. So everyone getting home is good."

Two years ago, Tupuola-Fetui piled up 7 sacks and forced 3 fumbles in just four games during the pandemic-interrupted 2020 season, with his averaged numbers ranking him among the nation's best and people everywhere learning his name.

Since then, he's heard how the scouts he doesn't defend as well against the run, which is maybe how Martin and Trice passed him by.

While helping out this Husky team with his steady performance and mature approach, ZTF's NFL stock has gone fairly stagnant, meaning he likely has to play a sixth college season to elevate himself once more. Either at the UW or somewhere else.

"If I want it, we'll see how it goes," ZTF said. "You guys all know that wasn't the plan coming into the year. We'll see how it goes."

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