If there was a job that needed doing, Voi Tunuufi was up for it.
Interior defensive line? Tunuufi might have been undersized, but the kid from South Jordan, Utah, still was among the Washington Huskies most disruptive d-linemen throughout a career spanning the 2021 through 2024 seasons.
Edge rusher? That position best suited his pass-rushing tenacity.
Fullback? Tunuufi took a few turns there during his senior year — “Tiger Voi,” they called it — happily charging ahead of tailback Jonah Coleman and clearing defenders from his path.
“Wherever I can get on the field, it doesn’t really matter to me,” Tunuufi said in October 2024. “I just love playing this game. I just kind of keep it plain and simple.”
He played with nastiness but a joyful spirit. He was always smiling, always happy to chat. He was happy to be playing where he was, too, staying at Washington through two coaching changes, a 4-8 season and a post-CFP rebuild.
He wasn’t the biggest name, but he made big plays. His teammates loved him.
Today, they’re mourning. Tunuufi died Sunday, reportedly in a motor vehicle accident. He was 23.
“Our hearts are with the Tunuufi family, his loved ones, and every brother who wore the W beside him,” the UW football program posted on social media.
Tunuufi was a dominant player at East High School in Salt Lake City, totaling 124 tackles and 14 sacks as a senior in 2020. He signed with the Huskies in coach Jimmy Lake’s 2021 recruiting class and earned playing time as a freshman, appearing in 11 games with two starts and tying for the team lead with three sacks.
Often combating offensive linemen who stood several inches taller and outweighed him by 30-plus pounds, Tunuufi managed five more sacks as a sophomore in 2022 under new coach Kalen DeBoer, another two in 2023 and 2.5 in his final college season. He appeared in 52 total games with 14 starts, with 11 of those coming as an edge rusher in coach Jedd Fisch’s first season in 2024. At season’s end, he was named the team’s defensive lineman of the year.
“I try to use what the lord’s blessed me with,” Tunuufi once said, “and the lord apparently blessed me with speed, so I use that to my advantage.”
In his four seasons, Tunuufi, listed at 6-foot-1 and, at his biggest, 280 pounds, shared a locker room with a dozen-and-a-half NFL Draft picks, many of whom comprised the core of Washington’s magical run in 2023.
They might not have reached those heights without him.
His third-down sack of reigning Heisman winner Caleb Williams was among the pivotal moments of UW’s 52-42 win at USC in 2023. With the Huskies protecting a 45-42 lead in the fourth quarter and the Trojans facing third-and-13 at UW’s 30-yard line, Tunuufi spun Williams around and pushed him into the turf, bouncing in celebration on the Coliseum’s midfield logo.
“I know I’m not the biggest or the strongest,” Tunuufi said before that season, as he prepared for a rotational role on the interior. “I think I just want to be that second guy — whenever there are people going down, I want to be able to be there for my brother, and when the time comes and my name gets called, make sure I’ll be ready.”
The following year, Tunuufi punched the ball away from Michigan quarterback Jack Tuttle in the fourth quarter of an October home game against the defending national champs. The fumble led to a turnover that UW converted into a go-ahead touchdown en route to a 27-17 victory.
As one of the handful of holdovers from the previous season’s national-title game loss to Michigan, Tunuufi took that one personally. He recalled former receiver Ja’Lynn Polk and others texting the group chat about it during the week.
“I’m just happy me and my teammates were able to do that for him, and all those boys last year,” Tunuufi said that night, after students had rushed the field at Husky Stadium.
The remembrances you’re seeing across social media — from Faatui Tuitele and Alphonzo Tuputala and Lance Holtzclaw and Demond Williams Jr. and Thaddeus Dixon and so many more shocked by such a sudden loss — are testament to Tunuufi’s personality. He's popular with fans, too, for his longevity. His first college game was the ill-fated loss to Montana. Two years later, he played in the national championship game, then stuck around to see through the first year of the Fisch era.
Speaking before his final college game in December 2024, Tunuufi called his time at Washington “a grand opportunity.”
“I wouldn’t change it for the world,” he said days before the Huskies’ Sun Bowl game against Louisville. “I had a decision to make every year, at the end of every single year. But I ended up staying here, because this is where I live.”
— Christian Caple, On Montlake
