Taariq (Buddah) Al-Uqdah wrapped up his redshirt freshman season at Washington State. The standout linebacker ended the season on a high, establishing himself a clear role on the Cougar defense. But before he was starting at linebacker, making tackles and picking off passes at Gesa Field he had to battle through injury and climb the ranks of the Cougar depth chart. 

Al-Uqdah attended Inglewood High School in Inglewood, California. In his senior year Al-Uqdah was named Ocean League Player of the Year and was selected to play in the All-American Bowl. This led to Al-Uqdah being a three-star prospect by 247 sports and the No.17 inside linebacker prospect in the country. When the time came for Al-Uqdah to choose where he'll play his college ball, multiple schools showed interest in the acclaimed linebacker. 

Schools such as, University of Washington, University of New Mexico, University of Colorado, University of Arizona, and lastly Washington State offered Al-Uqdah. Al-Uqdah chose Washington State and credited his selection to the relationships that were built early on.  

"The relationships I built here were the strongest among any I had with any coaches at the other schools." He added that, "WSU gave that home feel, and I've always liked the underdog story." 

When Al-Uqdah arrived at Washington State he was ready to get to practice and try and carve a role out a role on the defense. However, during practice one day Al-Uqdah learned of the news that would haunt him for his entire freshman season. Al-Uqdah learned that he had a torn labrum and had to redshirt his freshman season and rehab his shoulder. 

"I think it happened my sophomore year of high school. My arm got pulled in practice and I felt it then, ever since then I noticed during workouts my shoulder never felt the same." Al-Uqdah explained, but he shrugged it off as he still wanted to play, "I'm the type of person that if I can move it, I'm going to play." 

The rehab process proved to be very difficult for Al-Uqdah as he was ready to get on the field and prove himself, "That year was kind of depressing for me. I had high expectations for myself coming in, I wanted to prove myself and play right away." 

While Al-Uqdah wasn't on the field playing, he still progressed as a player through learning and taking example from the other guys in the linebacker room, "I was able to take mental reps with guys like Daiyan Henley, Francisco Mauigoa, Travion Brown, and Kyle Thornton, that really helped." While Al-Uqdah was forced onto the sidelines he recalled telling himself, "When I come back, I'm going to go crazy." 

By the time the 2023 College football season came around, Al-Uqdah was healthy and with a couple guys gone from the front seven group, Al-Uqdah was primed to make an impact on this Cougar defense. However, he was not thrusted into a starting role quite yet, he appeared in games on special teams but still waited and stayed ready for a chance to start at linebacker, "I feel like I'm always ready for what comes my way, this is the kind of stuff I've prepared my whole life for." 

As Al-Uqdah was preparing for the game at Arizona State he got called into Head Coach Jake Dickert's office where he was told he'd be the starting linebacker, "When he told I was like 'for real?'" he added that, "It felt surreal, I was about to be a power five starting linebacker." 

Al-Uqdah made his first career start at Arizona State where he tallied five tackles and he went on to start the following two weeks against Stanford and Cal.  

Al-Uqdah said that while he was ready for the opportunity, he was nervous in these first couple starts, "When I first started playing, I was worrying about messing up and losing the job instead of just playing freely and playing like myself." However, things really started to pick up for Al-Uqdah when the Cougars hosted Colorado.  

Al-Uqdah finished the game with four tackles, but this game was marked by a moment late in the third quarter, Al-Uqdah got his hands on his first collegiate interception. This served as a full circle moment for him, just a year ago Al-Uqdah was sidelined due to injury, and now he's a starting linebacker in the PAC, catching an interception at Gesa Field in front of his family, "My mom was at that game, so for her to see my first career interception was awesome." 

Al-Uqdah said that he had been waiting for this moment for a while, "Before the game and during the week in practice I'm always telling my teammates I'm going to get a pick. Some of the guys think it's funny or think I'm crazy."  

Al-Uqdah recalled sharing a special moment with his teammates after catching the interception, "I came back to the sideline and some of my teammates were saying 'you said you were going to do this!'" 

Al-Uqdah started the last game of season, at Washington, he recorded five tackles and a tackle for loss. Al-Uqdah totaled up 20 tackles, a tackle for loss, and an interception across the five games he started. While Al-Uqdah had only started five games so far, he's been growing from a mental side of the game ever since he arrived on campus, and allowed him to shine when he got his opportunity, "Once you get to the mental part down, and you know what you're doing and you can see things happen before they happen, it slows the game down."  

Al-Uqdah's Cougar football career has gotten off to an exciting start, but this is only the beginning of his story here at Washington State and the standout linebacker looks to build upon his finish to this last season.  

"There's more work to be done, I'm just getting started."