News came out on Monday afternoon that former Husky DL Voi Tunuufi had passed away. Initial reports indicated that he was killed in a motorcycle accident. Tunuufi, who played for Washington from 2021-2024, was 23 years old.
I have two memories of Tunuufi that will always stay with me. The first is that he was part of Jimmy Lake’s ‘21 recruiting class that looked good on paper and produced so little on the field outside of a few unheralded prospects. Tunuufi was one of them. He was a three-star recruit as a tweener
DL, too small to plug the middle and too big to be an edge rusher. Nonetheless, he carved out a niche as a hybrid player, made an impact in his freshman year, and continued to fill whatever needs the Dawgs had over his four-year career. He and Quentin Moore were the only members of that recruiting class to play their full careers for UW.
My other memory of Tunuufi is how versatile and adaptable he was. Instead of being a tweener, he used his size to his advantage and became a Swiss Army Knife on the defensive front. He could slide inside on passing downs and provide pressure up the middle. He could line up outside on a three or four-man front on running downs without sacrificing the pass rush. If the roster needed something, he stepped in and filled the void. By all accounts, he was a great teammate and always found a way to make an impact.
The picture tagged to this article is from our own Mark Schafer, who met Tunuufi before the Dawgs’ National Championship game against Michigan. Mark had this to say about Tunuufi: “Thinking about this interaction today I was struck by the fact that he seemed so happy that I knew who he was. He was very nice and I will always remember him being very dependable as a Husky, even if he didn’t always stick out in the stat sheet. I remember him coming over and I was like ‘oh hey Voi! How are you, man?’ And he just got a big smile on his face.”
Tunuufi’s death is untimely, tragic, and depressing. I wanted to put up this post to give our community a chance to process it together. If you have a great Voi memory or story, share it below. There’s no better way to honor someone than to celebrate what they did in life.
