When he left the University of Washington football team, Kahlee Tafai seemed to suggest on social media that he wasn’t valued as much as he should have been, apparently unhappy with the role laid out for him going forward.
So the offensive tackle from Los Angeles entered the transfer portal.
Over the weekend, the 6-foot-5, 338-pound redshirt freshman headed to Minnesota, joining former UW running back Cam Davis as Gophers newcomers from Montlake, looking for a fresh start, if not a place to show the Huskies that they underestimated him.
Tafai clearly had a rough start to the Jedd Fisch coaching tenure. During spring football, he watched more than played. He went from throwing up on the sideline in front of wide-eyed fans on the East practice field to being helped to a training table at Dempsey Indoor in obvious distress with a sprained knee.
On top of that, Tafai, UW’s second-heaviest player, was dealing with some sort of illness that had him watching almost as much as he was competing.
Although at times it looked like he might not be around for Husky football, he was able to settle in, playing in eight games as a redshirt freshman and starting four outings at left tackle.
BREAKING: Washington transfer OT Kahlee Tafai (@KahleeTafai_) have signed with #Gophers according to @PeteNakos_
Listed at 6-foot-5, 340 pounds, he chose Minnesota over top offers from Alabama, USC and North Carolina. Now a potential starter for UMN. pic.twitter.com/2kNMIm6xEi
— Tony Liebert (@TonyLiebert) December 21, 2024
Tafai proved to be a coveted player once in the portal, hearing from Alabama and the coach who brought him to the Huskies, Kalen DeBoer, plus USC, UCLA, North Carolina and others.
The attraction for him is that he moves well for someone his size, although he is far from a finished football product, and perhaps too big, at least to be an elite player. He was also part of the UW offensive line that gave up 10 sacks to Oregon in a 49-21 loss in Eugene to end the regular season, taking some responsibility for that.
While Tafai became a starter, he was third at left tackle behind fellow redshirt freshman Soane Faasolo and JC transfer Maximus McCree, with each player getting four starts. McCree replaced an injured Faasolo, and Tafai stepped in when both McCree and Faasolo were slowed by various health issues.
On top of that, he probably wasn’t happy when he was informed by the Husky staff that he would seek additional help ahead of time from the transfer portal, and UW has since added Carver Willis, a former Kansas State offensive tackle, to the roster. .
Tafai will start over in Minneapolis and try to show everyone that he is better than they thought.
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