The former Utes player commits to UW on same day as Western Michigan's Anterio Thompson.
Continuing its transfer portal holiday shopping, the University of Washington football team spent Monday in the defensive tackle aisle, receiving a commitment from former Utah player Simote Pepa in the afternoon, with his pledge coming after the Huskies locked down Western Michigan's Anterio Thompson in morning.
He originally signed in 2019, choosing the Utes over Air Force, Arizona, BYU, Navy, Nebraska, Oregon Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Wisconsin and Jimmy Lake's Washington program, but immediately went on a two-year church mission. After making his college debut in four games in 2021, Pepa had a breakout season for a Rose Bowl-bound Utah team, appearing in 14 games in 2022, while collecting 27 tackles, 6 TFLs and 4 sacks. Again, he started just once, against Colorado in the regular-season finale. Somehow he was named first-team AP All-Pac-12.
“After I got a couple games under my belt, it just became more natural," he told the Deseret News. "Instead of it feeling like a dream, it just became reality." Last year, Pepa appeared in 10 games, which included coming off the bench for a lone tackle in a 35-28 loss to the UW at Husky Stadium. The following week, he made his only start of 2023 against Jedd Fisch's Arizona team, again logging a solo tackle in a 42-18 loss in Tucson.Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer.
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