#99 Uso Seumalo — Through an unexpected and wild twist of legal fate, one of the brightest spots for the 2025 Kansas State defense is the return of massive defensive tackle Uso Seumalo (99) for his super (duper?) senior year. Thanks, Diego Pavia! | Photo by Boyd Ivey/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

In which BracketCat counts down the 99th day until the 2025 kickoff with a profile of Kansas State defensive tackle Uso Seumalo.

It’s finally here! Yeah, I know it’s 30 minutes until midnight… But it still counts, dammit, so please cut me some slack for the slightly late start to this annual feature.

#99 Uso Seumalo

Redshirt Super Senior | 6-3 | 333 lbs. | Maunaloa, Hawai‘i

Position: Defensive Tackle
Previous College: Garden City Community College
Projection: Second-String
Status: On Scholarship

Vaai “Uso” Seumalo (b. May 17, 2002) was a massive JUCO transfer nose guard by way of Garden City who had 47 tackles and five sacks in his two-year stint with the Broncbusters.

Seumalo saw time in every game as a reserve nose guard in 2022, coming up with five tackles, two tackles for loss and two pass breakups. He had a season-high two tackles with a TFL against South Dakota before carding another TFL the next week against Missouri.

Seumalo knocked down a pair of passes late in the game at Oklahoma to help to preserve the victory, and he also had tackles against Oklahoma State and at West Virginia. He was part of the massive push during the overtime goal-line stands in the Big 12 Championship.

In 2023, Seumalo broke out as a 10-game starter and mainstay at defensive tackle who earned All-Big 12 honorable mention accolades and first-team Academic All-Big 12 honors.

He played in 11 games, missing only the final two games of the season due to injury, and totaled 18 tackles, 1.5 sacks, a pass breakup and a fumble recovery.

Seumalo set a career high with four tackles at Texas, while he had three at Oklahoma State, carded his first career full sack against UCF (in addition to half a sack against Southeast Missouri State), broke up a pass against Houston and recovered a fumble against Troy.

Seumalo returned for his super senior season in 2024, which was a huge coup for the coaching staff. But he ended up battling injury and being passed up by Damian Ilalio, who absolutely surged forward in development to become the unquestioned started last season.

However, Uso still played in all 13 games, collecting 14 tackles and three tackles for loss over 343 defensive snaps. He tied his career high with four tackles at BYU, while he had three at Iowa State and two apiece against UT Martin, West Virginia, and Houston.

Seumalo also recorded tackles for loss against UT Martin, BYU and Houston. He was named to both the East-West Shrine Bowl watch list and Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Award watch list in 2024.

Through a truly unexpected stroke of good legal fortune (thanks, Diego Pavia!), Uso’s JUCO origins helped him to earn an unprecedented fourth year of eligibility at K-State in 2025.

I have no idea how to classify this eligibility (super duper senior?), so I’m just pretending like he was granted a redshirt or medical harship and is repeating his super senior (COVID) year.

Uso was rated the 31st-best overall community college prospect in the Class of 2022 and the second-best at defensive tackle by ESPN, and he was viewed as the 34th-best overall community college prospect and fourth-best at defensive tackle by 247Sports.

Seumalo registered a career-high 10 tackles during his true freshman season against Highland and also posted 2.5 tackles for loss against Fort Scott Community College.

He also had a season-high four tackles and a sack as a sophomore in the conference against Hutchinson, while he broke up a pair of passes during his sophomore season.

Seumalo, who is majoring in communication studies, previously played six games as a senior at Molokai (Hawai‘i) High School under head coach Mike Kahale, when he earned first-team all-conference honors and was selected to play in the All-Hawai‘i Bowl.

He also played basketball and volleyball for the Farmers throughout high school before convincing his parents to allowing him to play football as a senior in 2019.

The first-ever Division I scholarship player to hail from Molokai High School, Seumalo also earned honorable mention all-state honors in both volleyball and basketball.

He also is the first Wildcat from the state of Hawai‘i since Peni Holakeituai (Waipahu) and Jesse Keaulana-Kamakea (Waimanalo) both played for K-State on the 2003 title team. When it comes to winning championship games, it appears having a Hawai‘ian is a prerequisite!

Learn more about Seumalo from a walk and talk video in fall 2023 with Wyatt Thompson.