Huskies wide receiver Puka Nacua catches passes in warmups before a game between Washington and California in 2019 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)
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By
Andy Yamashita
Seattle Times staff reporter
It took only one fall camp practice for Junior Adams to realize Puka Nacua had been worth the effort.
Adams was hired as Washington’s new wide receivers coach on Jan. 17, 2019. He’d spent the next month almost exclusively pursuing Nacua, a 6-foot-2 wide receiver from Orem, Utah, whose strong hands, impressive run-after-catch ability and physical, aerial prowess authored one of the greatest seasons in Utah high-school football history. After an exhaustive recruiting process, UW beat BYU, Utah, UCLA, Oregon and USC for Nacua’s signature on Feb. 11, 2019.
So on the first day of fall camp in 2019, Adams was intrigued to see what Nacua was capable of against collegiate competition. Lined up against the true freshman for one-on-one drills were some of Jimmy Lake’s best defensive backs: Trent McDuffie, Kyler Gordon, Keith Taylor, Elijah Molden, Myles Bryant.
“We throw him a go-ball down the left-hand sideline,” Adams said. “It’s contested. (Nacua) goes up to try and make this play. The cornerback tips it. Puka lands on his back and literally, the ball just falls right to him. And I’m like, ‘This dude’s a human magnet.’”
It was the kind of play that convinced Adams, a former receiver at Boise State, that Nacua’s skills — physical and mental — were going to translate. The kind of moment that’s supposed to spark a legendary career in purple and gold.
Nacua’s time on Montlake, however, was tantalizingly brief. A breakout true freshman campaign in 2019 was cut short by a season-ending injury. The COVID-19 pandemic stole Nacua’s second season in Seattle. By the time college football returned to semi-normal circumstances in 2021, Nacua had announced his exit, transferring to BYU for his final two seasons of eligibility. His UW career lasted just 11 games.
Now, Nacua returns to the Pacific Northwest with the Los Angeles Rams as a bona fide superstar. Since being selected in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL draft, he’s become one of the league’s most recognizable players. Nacua’s broken records. Earned unanimous first-team All-Pro honors in 2025. Already lived up to all the potential he flashed during two seasons at UW.
His 1,715 receiving yards this season trailed only Seattle’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba for the NFL’s highest mark.
And Sunday, Nacua and the Rams will face the Seahawks with a place in Super Bowl LX on the line.
“It’s awesome to see him live out his dream and just go out there and have the seasons he’s been having,” Kamren Fabiculanan, the former UW defensive back who was also Nacua’s roommate in 2020, said. “We talked about it nonstop throughout our college career. To see him living it and being in it now, it’s just surreal.”
Washington wide receiver Puka Nacua on the bench during a game against Utah in 2019 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. (Mike Siegel / The Seattle Times)
And while Nacua never etched his name in UW’s record books the way he or the Huskies might’ve hoped, Adams and others who spent time with him in Seattle said his impact lasted long after his departure.
Nacua’s early exploits teased Washington fans with seemingly limitless potential. After appearing in UW’s first two games of the 2019 season, Nacua’s first collegiate catch — a 28-yard strike on a go route down the right sideline from quarterback Jacob Eason against Hawaiʻi on Sept. 14 — was also his first touchdown.
“I already knew he was going to be as dominant as he is,” Fabiculanan said. “That was just the start of it, of his name being out there. He just took off and got better.”
Against Arizona on Oct. 12, Nacua had a three-catch, 97-yard performance. All of his receptions went for 20 yards or more, including a fourth-quarter effort that saw Nacua shrug off a Wildcat defensive back to make the catch and spin out of another tackle before being dragged down by multiple defenders for a 49-yard gain. It was the most productive game of his UW career.
Nacua added three more catches for 43 yards receiving and a touchdown against a ranked Oregon team a week later.
His ability to stretch the field vertically provided a massive boost for UW’s offense. Among UW receivers with more than three catches, Nacua’s 24 yards per catch and 15.6 average depth of target led the team.
“Ultracompetitive,” Adams said. “He plays with emotion. Not highly emotional, but plays with emotion. I think that’s key.”
Washington wide receiver Puka Nacua brings in his first reception for the Huskies, a 28-yard touchdown in the first quarter during a game against Hawai’i on Sept. 14, 2019, in Seattle. (Andy Bao / The Seattle Times)
Adams, now the Dallas Cowboys wide receivers coach, said Nacua’s presence in the team’s daily meetings was also invaluable. Despite being a true freshman in a veteran-heavy room, Nacua was never afraid to speak up, ask questions or make constructive comments, and he fully bought into Adams’ processes and methodology.
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Every Monday night, for example, Adams and Nacua met in the wide receivers room to get a head start on working through the weekly gameplan. Nacua wrote every play on a whiteboard while Adams prepared for the Tuesday morning meeting.
“That was kind of our deal,” Adams said. “Him and I, we wanted to change the mindset of this room. We’re going to change the culture of this room a little bit. There were some good older guys in that room at the time, but there were some things we wanted to do to make the room better.”
But Nacua’s appearance against Oregon was his final game of the 2019 season. He broke his foot during a practice before Washington played Utah on Nov. 2. It was particularly difficult, Adams said, because it forced Nacua to miss an opportunity to play his brother Samson Nacua, then a wide receiver for the Utes.
Head coach Chris Petersen abruptly announced his retirement shortly before UW defeated Boise State to win the 2019 Las Vegas Bowl, and handed the program to Lake. Nacua returned for the 2020 season, but Washington played just four games. The Orem native made nine catches for 151 yards and a touchdown, but struggled with another foot injury that plagued him for most of the campaign, Adams said.
“I know his foot was hurting the entire 2020 season,” Fabiculanan said. “He’s a dawg. For sure.”
Nacua announced his intentions to transfer on March 8, 2021, citing personal family issues. He eventually landed at BYU, located less than five miles from his hometown, and was joined by Sampson, who transferred from the Utes.
“It definitely was not an easy choice,” Nacua said in a 2021 interview on KJR 950 AM. “It definitely was not how I planned things out in my head for my future here at UW.”While Nacua starred for the Cougars, playing 21 games and recording 91 catches for 1,430 yards receiving and 11 touchdowns during two seasons, the Huskies suffered a dismal 2021 campaign before a massive rebound in 2022. Propelled by coach Kalen DeBoer’s high-flying offense that featured quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and wide receivers Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan.
Puka Nacua flashes a “W” to the stands after a game against Arizona on October 12, 2019, in Tucson, Ariz. (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)
Both Odunze and McMillan arrived at UW in 2020, and Adams, who coached wide receivers at UW until 2022, said they benefitted from many of the cultural changes Nacua instituted, particularly the added competitive intensity.
“They looked up to Puka,” Adams said. “They all kind of did it together.”
For Fabiculanan, however, seeing the 2022 Husky offense thrive was tinged with questions about what might’ve been. He said watching Odunze, McMillan and Ja’Lynn Polk’s weekly exploits were incredible, but Fabiculanan wondered what the Huskies might’ve been able to achieve if Nacua stayed.
“We had dominant guys,” Fabiculanan said, “but to add Puka on that would’ve been crazy. Puka plus (Penix) would’ve been insane.”
Andy Yamashita: ayamashita@seattletimes.com. Andy Yamashita is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times, primarily covering Washington Huskies football.
