It would be easy to become disillusioned if you were a young linebacker at the University of Washington and had to go to the back of a long line of highly decorated and well-seasoned players and consider waiting a year or two to become a starter.
Except that redshirt freshman Donovan Robinson and freshman Ezaya Tokio — third-teamers on the Husky depth chart — recently took a much different approach.
They chose to play with a great deal of enthusiasm before spring ball ended to better resemble seniors Jacob Manu and Xe’ree Alexander, junior Buddah Al-Uqdah and sophomore Zaydrius Rainey-Sale rather than concede everything to them.
Robinson came up with a Spring Game pick-6 while Tokio — whose last name sounds exactly like the Japanese metropolis — saved his best performance for that closing Friday night outing with a tackle for loss and two more plays that brought down runners for no gain.
“He’s made a lot of strides this spring ball,” linebackers coach Brian Odom said of Tokio. “I’ve been very pleased with him and his effort. He’s willing to be coached.”
This is one in a series of articles — going from 0 to 99 on the UW roster — examining what each scholarship player and leading walk-on did in spring practice and what to expect from them going into fall camp.
As the accompanying images show, the 6-foo-4, 230-pound Tokio from Oceanside, California, uses plenty of emotion and physicality on the field as his calling cards.
In fact, he plays as if his hair is on fire, where in actuality it is bright red, protrudes out the back of his helmet and makes him stand out in crowd.
While he spent the first month of spring ball learning what was expected of him, Tokio let it all hang out in the second half of the Spring Game.
Tokio went one-on-one with 6-foot-2, 241-pound freshman running back Ansu Sanoe and dropped him for no gain on his 19.
He and Rainey-Sale next teamed up to jam up redshirt freshman quarterback Kini McMillan at the goal line and prevent him from scoring on a 1-yard keeper in the second half.
Near the end of the game, Tokio sniffed out a fly sweep and raced through to drop freshman receiver Mason James for a 4-yard loss.
Tokio made a lot of progress in a short amount of time, and made his coaches very happy.
“The more he learns the position, the better he’ll be,” Odom said. “He’s going to have good career here.”
What he’s done: Tokio might have a frame better suited for an edge rusher, but he plays effectively in tight spaces. For Oceanside High School in 2025, he finished with 76 tackles, including 11 tackles for loss and 8 sacks, plus 2 fumble recoveries, a forced fumble and an interception.
Starter or not: As much progress as each defender made, Tokio and Robinson might have to wait until 2028 for all of the veterans ahead of them to clear out on the depth chart and make room for them to become companion starters. Meantime, special-teams duty is a strong possibility for each guy.
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