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Washington football: 5 great players who didn’t live up to the NFL hype

By Cody Williams

PALO ALTO, CA - SEPTEMBER 26: Quarterback Jake Locker #10 of the Washington Huskies in action against the Stanford Cardinal at Stanford Stadium on September 26, 2009 in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)
PALO ALTO, CA - SEPTEMBER 26: Quarterback Jake Locker #10 of the Washington Huskies in action against the Stanford Cardinal at Stanford Stadium on September 26, 2009 in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images) /
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Washington football, NFL busts
Washington football (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images) /

Hau’oli Kikaha was another player for Washington football who arrived in Seattle and made an instant impact on the Huskies. The edge pass-rusher started all 13 games in his freshman season with the team and made a nice impact with 49 tackles and 3.0 sacks on the year.

It looked as if Kikaha was on his way to progressing further in his second season with the team but he suffered a torn ACL four games into his sophomore campaign, causing him to miss the rest of that year. Even worse, the pass-rusher tore his ACL once more before the 2012 season, meaning he missed yet another year with the Huskies, this time the entirety of the campaign.

However, he returned to the fold in the 2013 season and looked as if he hadn’t lost a step. Starting all 13 games, he erupted for a monster 13-sack season. As good as he was now healthy, Kikaha was even better in his final campaign as he set the Washington single-season record with 19.0 sacks on the year. That was also good enough to make him the all-time leader in sacks at Washington as his college career came to a close.

Despite his age and injury history, Kikaha’s prolific career for the Huskies led to him being selected in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints. And while he was productive when on the field, health again was an issue for him. He dealt with minor injuries as a rookie, missed all of 2016 with another torn ACL and then played 12 games before a season-ending ankle injury. He was waived after the 2018 preseason and hasn’t seen the NFL since and retired from football after being drafted into the XFL.

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