When it comes to Husky transfer linebacker Ralen Goforth’s physicality, hold on to your helmets

It’s become a routine occurrence for Ralen Goforth, the Huskies’ hard-hitting linebacker:

First comes the hit.

There goes the helmet.

In the Pac-12 championship game on Dec. 2, Utah quarterback Cameron Rising rolled right, cut inside … and was unceremoniously extinguished at the 50-yard line. Goforth — the former USC linebacker, who announced a graduate transfer to UW in December — drove his shoulder (legally) through Rising’s chest, sending the Utes’ signal caller sprawling … and his helmet rolling from the scene of the wreck.

“I remember coming into the locker room after that game (a 47-24 Utah win). Of course we lost, so everybody’s crying,” Goforth recalled. “I just remember looking at my phone, crying, and my phone is going crazy. I look at all the notifications, and it’s all positive things. I’m tripping out. I didn’t even know it was that big of a hit, I’m going to be honest.

“I just heard the oohs. Somebody on the sideline said, ‘Oh my God, he knocked his helmet off.’ I turned around; his helmet was off.”

“Rising gets absolutely demolished!” play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti said on the FOX broadcast. “Oh my gosh, what a hit.”

Likewise, color commentator (and former Husky quarterback) Brock Huard called it “the biggest car accident we’ve seen tonight.”

But it was no accident. On Monday, in UW’s ninth practice of the spring, Goforth repeated the feat. Husky quarterback Dylan Morris found wide receiver Denzel Boston for a short completion along the left sideline … and then the cavalry came. The 6-foot-2, 236-pound Goforth accelerated through Boston’s chest, and the redshirt freshman wide receiver’s helmet evacuated the area.

During a tackling drill last month, Goforth excitedly announced, “I like a lil’ contact!”

This, it seems, was an understatement.

“The guys can see what he brings, with how he looks and how he moves,” UW coach Kalen DeBoer told Pac-12 Network in February. “He’s a uniter. When you look at him and his personality traits, he’s someone we’re super fired up with, as far as raising the level of our defense.”

That defense finished first in the Pac-12 in opponent yards per carry (3.52) and third in rushing defense (121.23 yards allowed per game) last fall, despite spotty depth on the second level. Starters Edefuan Ulofoshio (who missed the first eight games with a torn ACL) and Alphonzo Tuputala (71 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 3 sacks) both return, in addition to Goforth and junior Carson Bruener (45 tackles, 3.5 TFL).

And Goforth, in a symbolic sense, isn’t the only big addition.

“I told [Ulofoshio] towards the end of winter workouts, ‘I’ve never seen you,’” DeBoer said last week. “I saw him at the end of the year out there and helping us and leading and all those character traits that he brings to our team. But physicality-wise, it wasn’t that he wasn’t working. He was just coming off an injury.

“Now he’s had this offseason and he’s really comfortable and there’s burst to him and another level of physicality.”

Goforth, meanwhile, is a spraying fire hydrant of physicality. The Long Beach, Calif., product and former St. John Bosco standout compiled 149 tackles, four tackles for loss, three passes defended, two fumble recoveries, one forced fumble and a pick-six in four seasons, 40 games and 15 starts at USC. But despite contributing 43 tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery last fall, his starting spot was usurped by Alabama transfer Shane Lee.

“When I made that decision [to enter the transfer portal] I went searching, and honestly I wasn’t even thinking about staying in the Pac-12,” Goforth said. “Honestly, I was thinking about going down south or towards the Midwest, east coast. But when I came up here I loved the visit, I loved the coaching staff and I loved the culture. I asked coach DeBoer and [linebackers coach William] Inge, ‘Who’s coming back?’, not just defensively but offensively. They were just rattling off names, and I loved what I was hearing.

“It’s a group that’s hungry, not just to win the Pac-12 but to win a national title. Their goals aligned with mine, which led to my decision to come here.”

Together, Ulofoshio, Tuputala, Goforth and Bruener could form the west coast’s most formidable linebacker corps. DeBoer said Friday that “that group right now looks pretty good on paper, and they’re performing on the field. So I really like where we’re at with the growth of that group, compared to where we were at a year ago and even late in the season.”

Through nine spring practices, Ulofoshio and Tuputala have lined up as starters, with Goforth and Bruener leading the second unit. But Goforth said “that’s what I love about this linebacker corps: it’s not about who’s going out there first, who’s going out there second. It’s about each and every one of us pushing each other to make us better. When I first came in, guys were willing to put their arms around me and help me figure out the schematics of the program and how things are done up here.”

That depth will be tested, of course, against a parade of high-powered Pac-12 offenses — and one Heisman Trophy winner. Washington will travel to meet USC and quarterback Caleb Williams inside the LA Memorial Coliseum on Nov. 4.

Hold on to your helmets.

“It’s going to be a great game, a great atmosphere. It’s going to be a special one,” Goforth said. “I can sit here and say it’s going to be treated just like every other game, but of course it’s not going to be like any other game for me. It’s going to be one I’m going to take personal. But at the same time, I have a job to do when I go out there and play.”

Extra point

• UW returns for its 10^th practice of the spring at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.