Washington Huskies College Football Pregame Quote, 12/30/2023

Q. I heard yesterday from a couple of guys about how special this bond is between the nine guys that this is their sixth year playing on the team. Tell me about that bond and how tight this group is.

ZION TUPUOLA-FETUI: Yeah, you know, I think everyone signs their letter of intent and they have a vision for what they think their college career will be, it can be. And nobody that’s still here signed up and said, yeah, I plan on doing six years, pandemic, three coaches.

So I think it took a lot of personal strength within ourselves to stay when things were a little tumultuous; but at the same time, it’s like we found strength in each other.

And yeah, that type of dedication, I think it also has to do with the love we have for the university and playing in the Purple and Gold. I haven’t, you know, taken the time to really look back on my career yet, but just the thought of it, seeing some of the videos that they post throughout the week, I start to get emotional and I have to stop because it’s like we’re still in the mix of it. But it’s like we’ve been through a lot of ups and downs, and we’re still smiling at the end.

I don’t think a lot of people, like I said, would. How many people do we have in our class? 20? 21? And just nine of us now.

And so yeah those guys are definitely special people in my life. Even all the guys that came in, we all have that bond within each other, but especially within this super senior class, we’ve got that tightknit bond with each other, that family feel.

Q. Your coaches yesterday said that Monday is just another game, especially to the seniors because you guys just learned how to deal with that. But you look around here, the media. You don’t do this every single game, having media days when you’re heading down to Cal or Stanford or whatever. How do you treat Monday? How do you mentally prepare to make it just another game against Texas? 

ZION TUPUOLA-FETUI: I think, really, it could have maybe taken us by surprise and kind of the awe of the stadium. But they did a good job of having us practice in the stadium throughout the week. I remember last year at the Alamo Bowl, we had one practice at the stadium. And I’m not dissing another bowl game or anything.

But the first day we stepped in here, we all had to take a minute and just, like, this place is massive. You know what I mean? But after we got two practices in already inside the stadium, it’s like this is just our new place of work now. You know what I mean?

So, obviously, you can’t replicate all the fans that are going to be in here and all that type of noise and that feeling, but still the same 100 yards of field that we’ve got to work with, whether it’s in Seattle, whether it’s in California, whether it’s in Louisiana. We’re just ready to play.

Q. You take a lot of pride in what you do on the field and what this defense does. I know there’s been a lot of talk this year about Michael [Penix] and the receivers and Dillon [Johnson]’s great year. This defense has come through in some big moments this year and helped this team win a lot of big games. What does this defense need to do on Monday to get a victory here?

ZION TUPUOLA-FETUI: We need to come out hot like the Oregon game, the Pac-12 championship. I think we came out guns blazing, out to prove something, and it showed. I think the first three drives were three and outs before they really got going. And so I think if both sides come out hot, but I’ve been saying since the first time we played Oregon, I don’t think that we’ve really been as healthy as we are now. So because of that, being hot on defense and being hot on offense. But at the beginning of the year, I felt like we were going hot both ways and playing those games where the starters don’t have to play the second half. And I think come out hot, both sides healthy, and it will be a pretty nice showing.

Q. You haven’t had a layoff since last year’s Alamo Bowl. How do you make sure that you stay in shape and you stay sharp and don’t get stale before a long layoff like that?

ZION TUPUOLA-FETUI: I think the coaches have put together a pretty good regimen in terms of working out. We’ve had the opportunity to lift out here at Tulane. We had several workouts back home before we left. And they’ve been stressing explosive movements just to maintain that speed and everything that we had, because, obviously, it is a little less physical activity not playing a football game within a month.

So I think between the coaches stressing the importance of us continuing to move fast so that we can move fast when the time comes and then players being on their Ps and Qs in the weight room and also in the training room. We have three to five hours postpractice at the hotel that we can go hang out with the trainers.

So yeah, I think we’re doing a good job of maintaining ourselves. We’ve got a lot of overheads that kind of got their own recovery regimen about themselves that the young guys have witnessed all year and picked up on. We all know what it takes to make it to Monday.

Q. We’ve talked about your journey, six years on campus. You were just a kid, and now you’re a man, obviously. Does it make it even more sweet for you knowing how long it took to get to this point for you and the work that you put in to do it?

ZION TUPUOLA-FETUI: Yeah, I think it’s sweet. I’m at the end of my road here at UDub, it’s up to us to see when the end of it is. And I’m excited. I feel like we could have been here every year. But, obviously, it takes the work, it takes the grinding. It takes everything we put forth this year to be here.

I think I’m more excited for the university than myself. I love this place, and this is just a constant advertisement of how great UDub is. And that’s what I’m here to do, to promote my school.

Q. How do you feel about the upcoming game?

ZION TUPUOLA-FETUI: I’m excited. It’s been a long time coming with the month off since the Pac-12 championship; so I want to get back out there and play again.

Q. They say that maybe the match between the edges from the Huskies and the offensive tackles from Texas is going to be a key match-up. Do you think it’s going to be a very important match-up?

ZION TUPUOLA-FETUI: I think they have very quality tackles. And I think we have very quality edges. So it’s going to be fun. Iron meets iron and see which one is a strength. Not to say the other is a weakness, but we’ll see which one is a strength come game day.

Q. Some bright minds believe that Texas is the favorite, that you’re the underdogs again. They did the same mistake when you were playing Oregon. Both times they said the Huskies are the underdogs. Is that something that you pay attention to? Is that important, something that maybe motivates you?

ZION TUPUOLA-FETUI: I think we’ve done a good job in taking on that underdog mentality, but I stopped paying attention to that type of stuff a while ago. If it was based off the odds in Vegas, we stopped winning games about two months ago. You know, I’m sitting here at 13-0 ready for the next game.

Q. For people that maybe do not follow the Huskies on an everyday basis, what can you tell us are the keys of being a great team and that you’ve come this way to be just one of the two unbeaten teams? If you don’t follow the Huskies, what would be the most important keys for accomplishing that on the field and as a program?

ZION TUPUOLA-FETUI: I think what we do off the field actually helps us tremendously on the field. We are a family-based program, you know, and it shows from our leadership and our seniors down. It’s a player-led program where the coaches really don’t have to do too much.

Obviously, they’re going to make the game plans and everything like that, but they’re not dictating the culture. That’s done by the players.

And so we’re able to have that family mindset off the field, and it comes back onto the field where we’re able to have each other’s backs. Football is a game of ebbs and flows, ups and downs. And I think we’ve done a good job of having steady heads about us. And that’s because when we can kind of lose faith in ourselves, we still have faith in each other.