Te’o: ‘Everything back to normal’ at Notre Dame

After a week on a roller coaster, Manti Te’o is back on steady ground.

Notre Dame’s star linebacker acknowledged Wednesday that he was hurt by comments coach Brian Kelly made last week about players he inherited from Charlie Weis. But it’s no longer an issue, Te’o said, pointing to Saturday’s rout as proof of his and Notre Dame’s resilience.

“Everything is back to normal,” Te’o, a Punahou alum, said in his first public comments since last week’s dust-up. “I think we demonstrated that no matter what happens, nothing can break apart a family.”

Despite another year of monster numbers — Te’o leads the Irish with 82 tackles, 4.5 sacks and 11 tackles for losses — this has been a somewhat tumultuous season for the junior. An ankle injury last month limited his practice time, which in turn affected his timing and fundamentals during games. He was discouraged by his performance in a loss to USC, the team he grew up rooting for. He tried to become a more vocal leader, only to feel he was losing himself in the din.

Then came the Kelly comments.

Kelly drew a line between players he recruited and those who played for Weis, saying he needed to “retrain” the veterans. Some of the Irish veterans took it as a slight with several, including Te’o, expressing their unhappiness on Twitter.

“I’m going to be honest, I was hurt,” Te’o said. “But like everybody said, this is a family, and we deal with it as a family.”

Kelly apologized to the team during a meeting last Friday, and the entire episode may actually have served to unburden Te’o. Before the Navy game, the low-key Te’o approached defensive coordinator Bob Diaco and said he was no longer going to try and be something he’s not.

“I’m not that much of a yeller. I’m not that much of a rah-rah kind of guy. I was never that type of player,” Te’o said. “I said, ‘Coach, I hope you don’t mind, but I’m just going to be pretty quiet. I’m going to be humble and I’m not going to say anything that much; if I need to say something, I’m going to say it. But I’m not going to yell and I’m not going to try to get everybody pumped up.’ And it worked out well, because our captain, our leader, Harrison (Smith), said the things he needed to say before the games and got everybody going and got me going and really helped me to focus even more.”

With Te’o leading the way, the Irish completely dismantled Navy. The Midshipmen were held to a season-low 229 yards of offense.

Te’o was relentless in his pressure of quarterback Trey Miller, and finished with a game-high 13 tackles and half a sack.

“We just could not block that guy. He just played a phenomenal game,” said Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, a Radford and University of Hawaii alum. “We tried a lot of different blocking schemes, and we could not get him blocked.”

Te’o was named one of the 16 semifinalists Wednesday for the Chuck Bednarik Award, given annually to the nation’s best defensive player.

But his focus, his only focus, is on winning these last four games, particularly the final home game Nov. 19.

“My mind is on this team,” Te’o said. “My mind is on Harrison, (the other seniors) and winning. That’s what I owe them. I owe them my best effort, my best play.”

Cougars’ Uale started career at Utah

By Jay Drew

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Nov 24, 2010 06:16PM
Updated Nov 24, 2010 11:30PM

Provo • Do football players at Utah, or BYU, get more pumped up for the annual rivalry game?

It’s the same on both sides, said BYU safety Travis Uale, a senior from Hawaii.

He should know. Uale started his career at Utah, redshirting the 2005 season, before transferring to BYU after an LDS Church mission to Monterrey, Mexico.

“It is really competitive at both ends,” Uale said. “Both teams prepare extra this week. They know the magnitude of the small things. Really, I am sure neither team will take it lightly. It is absolutely huge for both sides, I can promise you that.”

Having walked on at both schools, Uale is one of two BYU starters who is not on scholarship, joining fullback Zed Mendenhall. Uale became the starter when junior Steven Thomas suffered a career-ending concussion against Florida State.

In 2005, Uale was on the other sideline when Utah beat BYU 41-34 in overtime in Provo. But during his mission, he decided to transfer and try his luck walking on at BYU.

“I had a feeling that I needed to come here, whether it was for football or something else, I wasn’t sure,” Uale said. “Shortly after coming here, I met the woman who is now my wife [the former Mata Pope of Orem]. So I knew it was more than football, the reason for me coming here.”

Uale barely played in 2008, then was used on special teams in 2009 before seeing some time at safety toward the end of the season. He said he still has friends on Utah’s team, including junior defensive back Greg Bird, who attended Uale’s bachelor party in June 2009.“The rivalry game sparks a lot of emotion on both sides,” Uale said. “I have seen it from Utah’s side as well as ours, and I can tell you those guys will be fired up beyond belief. This game means everything.”

NCAA Polynesian Football Round Up

Virginia Tech starting OLB Jeron Gouveia-Winslow had an interception, pass break up and a tackle in a 19-0 win over Boston College. 

Nebraska starting I-Back Roy Helu Jr rushed for 59 yards on 19 carries in a 17-3 win over South Dakota State. In 4 games Helu Jr has rushed for 305 yards and 4 TDs.

San Diego linebacker Loka Kanongataa had 10 tackles, 5 for loss and 1 forced in a 24-0 win over Butler

North Carolina State starting DT Natanu Mageo had 4 tackles including a sack in a 45-28 win over Georgia Tech. 

Ole Miss quarterback Jeremiah Masoli was 8 of 12 for 153 yards and 2 TD passes of 30 and 4 yards  in 55-38 win over Fresno State. Masoli added 59 yards including a 56 yard run that set up the opening touchdown. 

Georgia State linebacker Louie Muasau had 5 tackles in the 24-21 over Campbell.

Gardner Webb defensive end Preston Pemasa had 6 tackles including 1 sack in a 30-14 loss to Sam Houston. Pemasa a true freshman leads the Big South with 4 sacks for the season.

Southern Utah receiver and returner Fesi Sitake had 9 receptions for 97 yards and 1 TD and 118 yards on 6 returns in a 42-28 loss to Texas State. Receiver Jared Ursua had 3 receptions for 82 yards including a 70 yard TD pass.

Notre Dame starting LB Manti Te'o had a career high 21 tackles (8 solo) and 1 quarterback hurry in a 37-14 loss to Stanford. In 4 games Te'o leads the Irish with 54 tackles including 3.5 tackles for loss. 

Houston starting NG Matangi Tonga had 4 tackles including a 0.5 tackles for loss in a 14-6 win over Tulane.

Notre Dame football: Te'o taking ownership of defense

By ERIC HANSEN

SOUTH BEND - The weird cocktail of culture shock, homesickness and an unfriendly learning curve doesn't taste so pungent now.

Not that it ever stopped Manti Te'o from trying to step into the cumbersome expectations that followed him 4,316 miles from Oahu's North Shore.

For the first time, he can actually see it in the distance, a glimpse of what the finished product should look like - through the glare of a coaching change, a scheme change, a position change and the growing pains that, surprisingly, didn't blindside him but certainly poked holes in his confidence.  “We're getting better,” the Notre Dame sophomore middle linebacker asserted of the 102nd-ranked Irish defense as a whole, perhaps properly contradicting what the national defensive statistics say this week. “I think that's a scary thing.”

CBS College Sports recruiting analyst Tom Lemming still maintains Te'o is a linebacker for a generation, the defensive prospect with the most high-end potential to land at Notre Dame since Bob Crable walked the campus three decades ago.

Saturday Te'o clashes with the best quarterback he might face in his collegiate career, Stanford redshirt sophomore Andrew Luck, and an offense that's put up 50 points in four of its past eight outings, dating back to last year.

The Cardinal (3-0 and ranked 16th) just missed that mark against the Irish (1-2) last November, rallying for a 45-38 victory in Palo Alto, Calif., in what turned out to be purged ND coach Charlie Weis' sendoff. Lost was Te'o's 10 tackles in the game, which tied a career-high at the time.

So far this season, he's had nine, 13 and 11, the impact of which has been largely eroded by the final scores of ND's first three games and some memorable whiffs.

“I think he's tackled better, more than anything else, from week one to week three,” ND coach Brian Kelly assessed, “though he had a key miss on the third-down situation, where he had the back in the backfield against Michigan State.

“That's probably a little bit of that young exuberance, where he wants to go for the knockout blow instead of taking the guy down. But he's improved on his tackling. He certainly now can communicate as the captain out there. He's got to get everybody lined up, him and Harrison (Smith). We're putting a lot on him.”

And Te'o wants all of it - and more.

It's not enough anymore to amass the big numbers. He wants the impacting ones. He wants to raise the level of the entire defense. He wants to take ownership of where this Irish defense is headed.

And that's why he's watching Ray Lewis.

Te'o went so far as to subscribe to an all-access package, where he can watch every one of Lewis' NFL games at any time on his dorm-room computer.

“He's a great hitter, a great leader,” said the 6-foot-2, 245-pound Te'o of the 6-1, 250-pound, 35-year-old Baltimore Ravens icon. “Personally for me, I watch the way he moves, the way he reads, the way he sees, the angles he takes.”

For Manti Te'o, the first leadership step is cleaning up your own mess.

Brian Te'o, Manti's father and most influential football mentor, has seen this tape before.

Manti was cast in the role of leader at the Punahou School in Honolulu at a very young age after transferring back there as a high school sophomore, following a year at public school football power Kahuku.

“It's not a challenge he's afraid of,” Brian Te'o said. “He's just got to get past some of the cultural anxieties that might preclude him from feeling like a leader.

“In our culture - as a Samoan or Polynesian, in general - all the youth have grown up to respect people who are older than them, whether it be one or two years, or more. So some of the people he's expected to lead are actually people who mentored him when he first arrived on campus.

“What we've told him is to, ‘Play your game. Let them see your game.' He's got to focus on that piece first, then I think the leadership will come through for him.”

Playing his game entails getting rid of some bad habits. At Punahou, Manti Te'o learned to make up for missed assignments or physical limitations of some of his teammates in helping President Barack Obama's alma mater to its first state title in football, in 2008.

“He knows he doesn't have to do that anymore,” Brian Te'o said, “So I'm hoping he's able to kind of settle himself down and just trust everybody else around him. When he didn't do that in high school, he'd be flying all over the place and, yes, making plays. But he was also out of position a lot. I think we're starting to see him turn the corner on that.”

Kelly committed to Manti Te'o being the face and the voice of the Irish defense long before he saw the significant progress on the field and after he took him down a few notches verbally last spring.

“Well, there's no question he handles himself in (a leadership) capacity, not just on the field but off the field,” Kelly said. “And he's somebody that people will follow. Certainly, as a coach, those are the guys that you want to push out front, and we'll continue to push him out front, because he represents the things that we want him to represent.”

Before Manti shocked the college football world and pushed away USC and BYU on national signing day 2008 to walk down a path way outside his comfort zone, his parents tried to teach him about the traditions he would someday be expected to walk in while at ND.

The standards that never left. The ghosts from history. The angst that comes from too many September fades from the national title picture in recent years.

“It's finally clicking with him,” Brian Te'o said. “It's an important piece in where he's trying to go. It's not something just existing in mythology. It's reality now, and he can change reality.

“I think coach Kelly has done an awesome job in helping each of these players understand exactly where they are. The opportunity is sitting right there for Manti, and all of the rest of them.

“It's time.”

Sophomore linebacker Manti Te'o displays his Samoan culture and values, on and off the field

By Douglas Farmer

When Manti Te’o returned from Christmas Break in January, he had two surprises in store for his Irish teammates.

One — he had decided not to take a two-year service mission during his college career, as is customary in the Church of Latter Day Saints, of which Te’o is a member.

Two — he was sporting a Samoan tattoo, courtesy of his native Hawaii, which covered his left bicep.

Irish fans and players alike were overjoyed by the first decision, but it is the tattoo — a tradition in Samoan culture — that displays the true character of Te’o.

The cultural value of a tattoo

“It is very special to me, because it represents everything that I stand for: my culture, my home and my family,” the junior linebacker said. “Everything that is important to me I have here on my arm.”

Te’o speaks of his culture and family as often as he does football. Not only does the tattoo represent the Samoan culture, but he also sought permission from his parents before putting the ink to skin.

“Whenever you put something on yourself that is permanent, you want to ask your parents, especially if your parents are Samoan,” he said. “My dad is the Samoan patriarch of our family, and he has one. … They were very supportive of it.”

Once his teammates saw the “tatau” — Samoan for tattoo — they quickly deemed it the “tightest” tattoo on the team, and some even considered getting a similar one. But to Te’o, while he does consider some of his teammates to be as close as brothers, the tattoo is not for just anyone.

“Sure, it’s a very nice tattoo, but it represents more than just some body art. It represents a whole culture, a whole group of people,” said Te’o, a nominee for the 2010 Rotary Lombardi Trophy. “For somebody to get this, and not be Samoan, makes me wonder, ‘Why are you getting it?’”

Values shine without a mission

The first of those two surprises — not taking a two-year service mission — could carry effects for years to come, especially the next three years for Irish fans. When he first arrived at Notre Dame, Te’o was considering taking his mission after his freshman season, but his time at Notre Dame, and time talking with his family, led to the Christmas Break decision.

“When I went home over Christmas I sat down with my family. I prayed a lot about it,” Te’o said. “I just felt that it was the right thing to do to come back and focus on football, try my best to help my team win.”

Even though he has remained in northern Indiana, Te’o is constantly reminded of his family, culture and faith, simply by not seeing them around him.

“It’s not that hard to remember who you are and what you stand for when you look around and there is nobody like you,” he said. “There was no other Samoan.”

Now, with freshmen Justin Utupo and Kona Schwenke joining him on the football field, Te’o sees two Samoans that remind him of the values he stands by.

“Samoans are very prideful people. We pride ourselves in our culture and our strength of values that we live by, and how we respect others,” he said. “Discipline. Honor. All those kind of values that aren’t really stressed in today’s society. That is something that I’m proud of, that I come from a culture that stresses loyalty, strength and honor.”

Samoan values at Notre Dame

Te’o has found those values among his Irish teammates and coaches as well.

From his defensive coordinator, Bob Diaco, Te’o hears criticism and advice that he always responds positively to.

“He is interested in being the very best that he can be,” Diaco said. “He has a nice, thick skin. He isn’t overly-sensitive to constructive criticism, so he comes out diligently to try to work on the things you’re coaching from the day before. That is how a player moves forward.”

Te’o handles that criticism so well because he has always heard it, especially back at home, he said.

“When it comes to the thick skin, it is from knowing who I am, knowing the kind of guy that my parents raised me to be.”

Among his teammates, Te’o has found suitable additions to his five siblings at home.

“I have friends here who I am very close with. [Junior linebacker] Darius Fleming is one of my very best friends. He is one of those guys that I can go to, no matter what,” Te’o said, adding sophomore running back Cierre Wood to that list as well. “I know no matter what happens, they’ll always have my back, and I’ll always have their backs.”

With Te’o’s parents and four-year-old brother Manasseh coming into town for both the Purdue and Michigan games, his Notre Dame friends and Samoan parents will spend much time together, but Te’o knows the meetings and meals will feel as if everyone has always known each other.

“My parents know that my friends are mirror images of me, so when they see them, they aren’t shocked. They are very happy around my friends,” Te’o said. “I completely understand that my friends have a direct impact on me, and I’ll never choose a friend, call him my brother, if he is somebody that could be detrimental to me in any way.”

Family on the field

Having those friends, or “brothers,” on the field should help Te’o play even better than he did in his freshman season, when he finished with 63 tackles.

“When you are around people you don’t really know and you don’t really trust, you tend to not come out of your shell,” Te’o said. “But when you trust somebody, you can be you. You can do things, you can act the way you want to act and you know they won’t be offended.”

That might not seem real applicable to play on the field, but when he takes his position Saturday, he will know Fleming is less than 10 yards to his side, along with nine other of his closest friends nearby. Of those 11 players on the field, Te’o will be leading them, in what Diaco called “that spot.”

“I’m just going to be me. I’m going to make sure all my teammates are ready, are aligned where they need to be,” Te’o said. “That’s all it’s about. It’s on me to make sure that offense doesn’t score. At the end of the day, if we play our hearts out and execute on every play, we’ll be able to look at the scoreboard and be happy.”

‘Just win’

When Te’o explains the meaning of his tattoo, the meaning of his family and the role of his friends around him, it is easy to envision him playing his heart out.

But in all of reality, that won’t be enough for him. Only one result this year will satisfy Te’o: “I am just excited more than anything, to get out there and start a new season. Just win.”

Once this season plays out, win or lose, Te’o has another mission to continue, on his left bicep. This time his team won’t be as surprised.

“The tattoo’s going to extend up here [onto the lower portion of his neck] and then down here [onto his upper chest],” Te’o said. “I’ll wait until after the season because I have to go home to get it, but it’ll be as soon as possible.”

Roots in church, family keep Notre Dame's Te'o grounded

By Brian Hamilton, Tribune reporter

1:17 p.m. CDT, August 14, 2010

MISHAWAKA, Ind. — Outside the chapel walls on the first Sunday of August, there is little more than sunlight and a tinny thrum of cicadas.

A moderate crowd filters into the parking lots and then through the doors for the 9 a.m. service at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They're quiet and happy. Nothing breaks the tranquility except the occasional interjection of a car door snapping shut.

Opening prayers are almost under way when a black SUV appears on the road. Manti Te'o, Notre Dame's linchpin inside linebacker, is a bit late. But he had to borrow the ride from one teammate and pick up another. Once arrived, wearing a rust-colored shirt and tie, Te'o walks inside like he does most Sundays, to reconnect with a place more than 4,000 miles away.

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As church members prepare a celebrant of water and wine, Te'o leans over and says: "You came on a perfect day."

It's Fast Sunday. Church members skip two meals, then donate the money they would have spent on the meals to help the needy. Instead of sermons, the service is open for anyone to volunteer testimony about his or her religious experiences.

Over the course of an hour, people talk about lost earrings, health breakthroughs and 95-year-old mothers who play with water balloons. It's about 9:50 a.m. when, from the back of the small, bright chapel, a 250-pound cannonball from Laie, Hawaii, walks toward the podium.

And for the next five minutes or so, a crowd listens reverently as Te'o tells them why he feels at home.

Long way from home

If there is a defensive renaissance at Notre Dame this fall, a Mormon kid from paradise will lead it. It still seems inherently bizarre that Te'o could choose to spend three or four years in northwest Indiana, at a profoundly Catholic institution. After all, on his first visit to campus, it was so bitterly cold that he retreated indoors in the middle of a game.

How he settled on snowballs over sunscreen and whitecaps still amazes even Te'o, but it has become easier to manage the longing. It pained him to return for summer school and miss his sister's graduation, as he'd fallen again for the idyllic life during the semester break.

But when that satisfaction swelled in him, he felt another tug: It was time to go.

"Actually now, I really have to think: 'Oh, I'm not in Hawaii,' " Te'o says. "Of course, when I go down the street, I know I'm not in Hawaii when I don't see mountains or the ocean.

"Slowly but surely, I had to literally tell myself: This is my reality. This is my life. This is how it's going to be. So I best just accept it instead of fighting it. Instead of fighting it and saying, 'No, this is never going to be home' — just make it home."

Comfort has meant translating everything but the weather to South Bend. Notre Dame consciously billed itself as a "spiritual" institution during recruiting and like all other schools introduced him to LDS church representatives on his visit.

Te'o wondered if he'd see any Polynesians in four years; on his first visit, he saw two working the desk at the Varsity Club hotel. A local Tongan family, the Moalas, has embraced Te'o, who calls the patriarch of the house "Uncle Pule."

Te'o considers it part of his mission to oblige students or teammates who ask about his faith, or appear in need of counsel, and to bring teammates to church with him — all reasons he does not plan for a traditional Mormon mission interrupting his college career.

"This school, even though it's a Catholic church school, it's created that environment for us to still grow spiritually and still believe the things we do," Te'o says.

This ease is clear now. Defensive coordinator Bob Diaco even suggests the place and people now adjust to Te'o, saying, "He's got that much charisma."

"At first, he was really shy about everything, didn't really talk to too many people," linebacker Darius Fleming said. "But then he just opened up. You can tell when it was the real Manti."

'In the middle of everything'

In Hawaii, a graduation party is not just a graduation party. It is a traditional luau, an hours-long celebration preceded by 24-hour preparation shifts. Te'o's sister, BrieAnne, wanted her luau this summer scaled down. Only about 500 people attended.

Uncle Keala set out his pupus. Then there were the main courses: rice, kalua pig, Lomi salmon. Then there was cousin Tomasina's dessert section: brownies, cookies, cakes, pies.

Te'o was the line captain, making sure hot courses stayed hot, making sure serving plates stayed full. It had all the centrifugal force of running a defense from the inside out.

"I like feeling like I'm in the middle of everything," Te'o says. "Not to say that I am. But I like the feeling that I'm the captain, that I'm in control."

Te'o made 63 tackles in his first year, the third-most by a freshman in Irish history. No one caught new coach Brian Kelly's eye more in the winter and spring. Diaco says Te'o is "built perfectly" for the middle of the defense.

Yet the staff concedes nothing.

"If you watch the games and you listen to the people that were affiliated with his teaching before, he was a real liability," Diaco says. "He wasn't a dynamic, productive player. He's still not. He's a long way from being ready.

"To say how soon did I know there was a special player there — I'm not sure he is a special player. He's a special person. I'm hopeful he's a special player."

It is another assimilation: Humbling himself to reprove what he thought he'd proved.

Te'o freely admits it: He would not have chosen Notre Dame had Charlie Weis not been the coach. He calls Weis "a great man." And that touchstone disintegrated last December.

But Te'o felt compelled to remain.

"I just felt it was my chance to take control," Te'o says. "My chance to really establish that sense that I am somebody to count on, not only to my coaches, but especially to my teammates.

"This whole change was a clean slate for me. I had my mistakes last year, and I was blessed to have the opportunity to kind of come in on a freshman year again. But I have that one year of experience under my belt, to not make the same mistakes I did last year."

Eye-opening experience

He felt compelled, ultimately, because of what happened during English class on Feb. 3, 2009, one day before he set a course for the next four years. After returning from a recruiting visit at USC the previous weekend, hypnotized by the Hollywood glamor, Te'o decided. He was going to be a Trojan.

His parents advised him to pray on it, just to be sure. So while he and his classmates screened the movie "Dead Poets Society" the day before signing day, Te'o closed his eyes.

There is a scripture from Corinthians that, roughly translated, says the truth will be made known out of the mouths of two or three witnesses. And when Te'o opened his eyes, he saw a voice mail from his father — who preferred his son attend Notre Dame — alerting him to an e-mail from then-Irish assistant Brian Polian.

After Te'o finished listening to the voice mail, a note arrived for his teacher. Te'o was called to the athletic office, where a coach wanted to talk about why Notre Dame was the best fit for him. Instantly, with that second sign, Te'o was South Bend-bound.

"I knew it was going to take an act of God to change his mind," Brian Te'o, Manti's father, says. "And lo and behold."

Te'o would make it official the next morning at a signing day event for Hawaiian players. But on the way there, Pete Carroll called. For the entire 75-minute drive, and for another 30 minutes upon arrival, the then-USC coach put on the hard sell. All Te'o said was he was sorry, he understood, but he had made his choice.

The coach he came to Notre Dame for is gone. But Te'o sees Kelly's energy and remembers how the Irish coach said, "What's up, brah?" the first time they met. He sees how the enthusiastic Diaco is rebuilding him after gruff former defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta broke him down, how the new scheme is a perfect fit.

And then Te'o looks westward, to Los Angeles, to a program roiled by NCAA sanctions. And he thinks about the moment he closed his eyes in class while a decades-old movie played.

"I look back at it now, especially with what's going on at USC, and I'm just like, 'Thank you!' " Te'o says, looking up, laughing and pointing toward the sky.

Words of wisdom

"Brothers and sisters, good morning," Te'o says, gripping the podium. "I'd like to talk about the influence of friends."

Earlier in the Fast Sunday service, would-be Irish freshman safety Chris Badger spoke about receiving his mission call to Ecuador the previous week. After that, with Fleming finally in attendance after Te'o's repeated invitations, Te'o is moved to speak.

"He's one of the brothers I didn't know I'd meet, and I met here," Te'o says of Fleming, a St. Rita alumnus.

Te'o talks about being with Badger when he received his mission call, and how he captured Badger's incredulousness about Ecuador on his iPhone, and how no one knew where Ecuador was, so they decided to Google it.

Then, earnestly, Te'o says Badger has been a missionary for him even in the freshman's two-month stint on campus. The spontaneous outpouring of feeling before fellow churchgoers might seem quirky. But it's clear that Te'o is reconciling two lives in this moment, bringing here and there together.

"You're constantly surrounded by different things of the world, and sometimes you get distracted by the love of the game of football and fame and popularity," Te'o tells the congregation.

"But it's always nice to come back to church and see all of you and be filled with the spirit. It reboots me and brings me back to the teachings my parents taught me."

He relates one of those lessons, something his father imparted not long ago. Te'o wasn't sure if he was doing missionary work well enough at Notre Dame. Brian Te'o said this: Son, you're not the one who will do the converting. The spirit will.

At the end, everyone in the church says amen.

Satele's hard work pays off with scholarship

By Stephen Tsai

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Aug 14, 2010 

 

For University of Hawaii football player Liko Satele, one of life's lessons is there are no secrets from his mother.

Following Thursday night's team meeting during which he was awarded a football scholarship, Satele tried to call his parents with the good news. Before he could hit speed call, he noticed there was a congratulatory voice message from his mother, former Rainbow Wahine volleyball player Lee Ann Satele.

"She knew before I knew," he said, smiling.

LeeAnn said: "We have our saying: 'You can't go far before I find out what you're doing.'"

Head coach Greg McMackin said Satele was an easy choice for the scholarship.

"Here's a kid who went to Lambuth (University in Jackson, Tenn.), then came back because he missed Hawaii," McMackin said. "He's really worked his way up from the bottom. I couldn't be happier. If we have a guy on our team who is good enough to help us win, then he should be on scholarship. He deserved it."

Satele, a 2007 graduate of Word of Life Academy, joined the Warriors in August 2008. He redshirted that year, in accordance with NCAA transfer rules, and was a part-time starter in 2009. He is the No. 1 defensive left end in training camp.

"He's worked so hard," said defensive tackle Vaughn Meatoga, who has served as Satele's mentor. "He's one of those guys who gets better and better. It's all due to his hard work. He's one of the hardest-working guys out here. When I heard he got (the scholarship), it gave me chicken skin."

Lee Ann Satele joked that her son now can afford to chip in for gas money.

Liko Satele said he is happy to abandon the liquid-only breakfasts. During the regular season, only scholarship players are allowed to eat training-table meals for free.

"I can eat training table after practice," Satele said. "I don't have to go lift weights to get (a protein drink) to eat."

Umu makes most of opportunity

Kamalu Umu had a difficult path to the starting job at defensive right end.

Umu, who redshirted in 2009 after transferring from Charleston Southern, needed to earn 18 credits this summer to be eligible to play this coming season. He took three three-credit classes in each of UH's two summer sessions. The second term ended yesterday.

"There was plenty of pressure," Umu said.

With practices, weight training, meetings and a lights-out curfew, Umu figured he had a little more than 2 hours for studying each day.

"It's tough because you only have so much time," he said. "During the free time, you'd rather relax than do homework. But you have to do what you have to do."

Notre Dame linebacker finds his fit

Tony Krausz | The Journal Gazette

SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o is comfortable in his surroundings.

And that includes more than being nestled in the middle of the new Irish 3-4 scheme. The Hawaiian is also more at ease with his teammates.

“I know all the guys,” Te’o said. “Last year as a freshman, I was new and didn’t really know everybody. And I’m talking about knowing people in not just knowing their names but knowing them as a person.

“I know all of my teammates as people, and that’s what makes me the most comfortable.”

The other players are also comfortable looking at Te’o as more than a tackling machine.

Te’o solidified his place in the defense in the fifth game last season with 10-tackle performance in a 37-30 overtime win over Washington. He finished the season with 63 tackles – the third-highest total ever for a Notre Dame freshman – 5 1/2 tackles for loss and one sack.

Entering this season, more will be expected of the 6-foot-2, 245-pound sophomore

“I consider him to be one of the leaders on the team, even though he’s a sophomore,” linebacker Darius Fleming said. “He carries himself with a good demeanor and is very mature about the game. He knows a lot.”

And whether he knew it or not, Te’o’s decision to postpone his Mormon mission trip for at least a year in December meant a lot to his teammates.

“He’s here for good,” linebacker Brian Smith said. “He decided to hold off on his mission to be here, and he wants to be here. It meant a lot because that was a player, a starter, that we didn’t lose. It definitely meant a lot for the team to get him back.”

This year, the defense will try to lose the perception of being a weak link. Last season, the Irish offense was ranked in the top 10 in most categories, but the defense fell behind as Notre Dame tried to implement a 4-3 scheme.

The Irish were 86th nationally in total defense last season, giving up 397.8 yards per game. Notre Dame was 76th in passing defense, giving up 227.5 yards, and 89th against the run, giving up 170.3 yards.

“I believe fundamentally that you can’t be a championship football team unless you play good defense,” coach Brian Kelly said. “I think what I was excited about more than anything else is that we have some players on that side of the ball with the scheme that we’re implementing that fit what their strengths are.”

And the players are strengthening their knowledge of the system that they were recruited to play in before Te’o’s class arrived in 2009.

“The more you go through things, the more comfortable you get with the system,” Te’o said. “We are learning where we are supposed to be, and where we are not supposed to be. We are learning where our teammates are supposed to be, and where they are not supposed to be. It’s great to see that we are all in the spots where we need to be.”

Defensive coordinator Bob Diaco said he doesn’t believe playing with a chip on its shoulder will get the defense where it needs to be. Diaco said that mentality has proven effective at times but is fleeting.

“We want to build this thing on a solid, concrete foundation,” Diaco said. “But with that being said, I can’t imagine that they do not have chip on their shoulder based on the negativity that has surrounded the defense.”

Manti Te'o Named To The 2010 Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List

DALLAS - University of Notre Dame sophomore linebacker Manti Te'o has been named to the 2010 Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List, announced by the Football Writers Association of America on Monday. The award is given to the nation's top defensive player at the Charlotte Touchdown Club annual awards banquet.

Te'o, one of 74 players announced to the preseason watch list, played in all 12 games last season. He started 10 contests and recorded the third-most tackles ever by a Notre Dame freshman. Te'o ranked fourth on team with 63 stops. He added 5.5 tackles for loss, 1.0 sack and one pass breakup.

Te'o became a full-time starter in fifth game of season against Washington and proceeded to register 57 tackles over last eight games, which was the second most of any player on the squad over the stretch. He recorded 10 tackles against both Washington, his first career start, and in the season finale at Stanford.

More confident Te'o a plus for Notre Dame

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- You would never peg Manti Te'o as a guy who lacks confidence.

Whether it's his chiseled 6-foot-2, 250-pound frame that allowed him to become one of the top prep defensive players in the country or his decision to shock everyone and leave Hawaii for Notre Dame or the way he calmly talks before a gaggle of reporters, Te'o usually seems at ease.

But in his freshman season for the Irish, Te'o might as well have been the nerd in the corner at the school dance.

"I'm not the type to get nervous, but honestly I can say last year that I was nervous," he said. "I was scared because I didn't want to make a mistake."

The numbers say Te'o had a solid freshman season, registering 63 tackles despite not moving into the starting lineup until halfway through the year. He made some plays that showed off his unlimited potential. But Te'o says that he "remembers the mistakes a lot more than the plays."

First-year Irish coach Brian Kelly, perhaps prodding through the media for motivation, said earlier this spring that Te'o "wasn't very good" as a freshman. These days, though, it's hard to find anyone who doesn't believe Te'o is primed for a huge sophomore campaign.

He's moving into a new role on the defense, taking over at middle linebacker after spending his first year on the outside in space. That's a comfortable spot for Te'o who played that position in a 3-4 defense in high school. He'll be making defensive calls for the first time but said that responsibility "feels familiar" to him.

While defensive coordinator Bob Diaco wants to be careful not to place too much on Te'o's platter, he calls him a "sponge" who has picked up the system well so far. That's one big, fast sponge.

"When he gets a hold of you and runs and slams into you, there's an impact there that's a little different than the rest," Diaco said.

Te'o has a playful, energetic personality that has quickly endeared him to the rest of the team, and he's not afraid to take charge both on the field and in social settings. As for that nervousness he experienced last year?

"I've got all that behind me now, " he said "I just know what I've got to do."

Kelly isn't offering much criticism of his star linebacker now. There's nothing but confidence emanating from and toward Manti Te'o.

"He's really matured in the past three months," Kelly said. "He will be a leader and he will be a premier player in college football."

UCLA's Maiava fired up for USC

Kai Maiava is the last man standing on the UCLA offensive line.

At one point in preseason, as many as four local players were in the running to start for the Bruins. Freshman Stan Hasiak (Kapolei '09), senior Micah Kia (Mililani '06) and junior college transfer Eddie Williams (Damien '06) were all competing for starting jobs.

But injuries to Kia (torn ACL) and Williams (fractured ankle) and off-the-field problems for Hasiak have left Maiava as the only starting lineman from Hawaii for the Bruins, who end the regular season with their rivalry game against Southern California on Saturday.

"Our O-line took a couple of injuries this season, but the guys next on the list have shown up and done a good job filling in for them," Maiava said.

Maiava, a sophomore from Baldwin High on Maui, earned freshman All-America accolades at Colorado in 2007. But after a proposed position change to fullback in the offseason, the 6-foot-1, 310-pound center decided to transfer to UCLA, but had to sit out the 2008 season.

Back at his original position, Maiava has started all 11 games at center and helped the Bruins become bowl eligible with three straight wins heading into Saturday's showdown with crosstown-rival USC.

"We had a good start, then a rough October, but our team has come back," Maiava said. "We told ourselves we can't let ourselves crawl out the window and our boys did a good job of rallying up."

UCLA takes that three-game winning streak into the Coliseum, where it hasn't won since 1997. The Trojans have won nine of the last 10 games in the series, but are vulnerable to a loss this season as they find themselves out of the Rose Bowl hunt for the first time since Pete Carroll's first season as USC coach in 2001.

"It's like the first days of practice again (this week)," Maiava said. "Everybody is fired up, flying around, enthusiastic.

"There's a lot of pride in this game and I want to help our seniors go out with a bang."

National perception of the Pac-10 is down, with USC enduring its worst season in eight years. Still, the Pac-10 has four teams ranked in this week's Associated Press Top 25 -- the 24th-ranked Trojans, No. 10 Oregon, No. 16 Oregon State and No. 21 California.

Stanford, which has beaten both USC and Oregon this year, has the most votes of the nonranked teams and Arizona was in the top 20 of the BCS standings as recently as two weeks ago.

"There's a lot of momentum swings in the Pac-10 because it's so tough, but that makes things more competitive and more fun," said Maiava, who has a year of play in the Big 12 to compare it to.

"From my point of view, I say the Pac-10 is a little tougher. Everybody shows up to play every weekend in our league and it could go both ways every time you play."

Maiava said he plans to talk to older brother Kaluka, a rookie with the Cleveland Browns and USC alum, before Saturday's game.

"Thanksgiving is (today), so I'll probably have to talk to him," Kai said. "But don't worry, there will be plenty of trash talking."

Maiava boosts UCLA recruiting

By Kalani Takase
Advertiser Staff Writer

The UCLA football team can thank Kai Maiava for a larger Hawaiian presence on the offensive line.

Maiava, a sophomore center and 2007 Baldwin graduate, hosted junior college-transfer Eddie Williams, a 2006 Damien graduate from Kalihi, and Stanley Hasiak, a 2009 Kapolei graduate, on their respective recruiting trips to Westwood last year.

"I guess I did a good job," laughed Maiava. "I just told them to do what they thought would be best for them."

Williams and Hasiak have made immediate impacts this fall.

Williams started all six games at right guard, but a broken right ankle suffered in Saturday's loss to California will keep him out at least four weeks. Hasiak, who competed for a starting job during camp, finished the game at right guard.

"They both picked things up really quick,"Maiava said. "I tried to help them with some of the smaller stuff, but they were ready to contribute right away."

Williams' injury is another for the offensive line, which also lost left guard Micah Kia (Mililani alum) to a torn ACL in his right leg in August.

"When that happened, I was really bummed," said Maiava, who started every game this season. "I look up to him because he's the oldest and he would help all of us. When he went down, I knew I would have to step up and be a leader on the line."

The Bruins opened the season with a win over San Diego State and followed that with hard-fought road victory at Tennessee. A 23-9 win over Kansas State at the Rose Bowl gave UCLA a 3-0 start for the first time since 2005, but the Bruins lost the next three games — all against Pac-10 opponents.

"We have to get it back together and get back on that roll we were on in the beginning of the season," Maiava said. "Once we get that first conference win, we'll get some of that confidence back. We're still a team trying to make our mark, which we haven't done in the last three games."

Maiava earned freshman All-America honors at Colorado in 2007. He is the younger brother of former USC and current Cleveland Browns linebacker Kaluka Maiava.

"It was a lot of things (that led to leaving Colorado)," Maiava said. "I wanted to get closer to my family so they can watch me play."

After his freshman year, Maiava said he was asked to move to fullback.

"It had a little to do with that, too. I've played offensive line my whole life and I wasn't trying to become a fullback," said the 6-foot, 313-pound Maiava.

However, with NCAA transfer rules forcing him to sit out last season, Maiava never got the chance to play against his older brother.

"As soon as my brother got offered by USC (out of high school), I knew I wanted to go to UCLA because I always wanted to play against him," Maiava said.

"It gives us a little more to talk about," said Maiava, who recalled watching last year's game from the sidelines. "It was an experience that I had never been through. As soon as you walk in the stadium, you can feel the tension between the teams and the coaches — even the fans. It really opened my eyes to how big the rivalry is."

But the Bruins have much work to do before the season-ending Nov. 28 game against the crosstown Trojans, starting with Saturday's game at Arizona.

"We gotta get this win; it's basically a must-win game for us," Maiava said. "I know our guys are ready though.

Maiava said UCLA is headed in the right direction under second-year head coach Rick Neuheisel.

"Some of the fifth-year seniors have been through three different coaching staffs, so it helps us to have last year under our belts," Maiava said. "Everyone is more comfortable this season. We put the foundation down last year, now we can built upon it and we got a good freshman class this year, so everything is evolving how it should be."

USC football: Linebacker Manti Te'o chose Notre Dame over Trojans

In one of the fiercest recruiting battles of the 2008-2009 school year, Notre Dame defeated USC.

Linebacker Manti Te'o of Hawaii chose the Fighting Irish over the Trojans in February, a decision that surprised many who thought USC Coach Pete Carroll and Southern California sunshine would prevail over Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis and Midwestern winters.

Last Saturday against Washington, the 6-foot-2, 244-pound Te'o made 10 tackles in Notre Dame's 37-30 overtime victory.

Freshman quarterback Matt Barkley and USC will face Te'o for the first time on Oct. 17 at Notre Dame Stadium.

Te'o told the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune that he watched the epic 2005 USC-Notre Dame game on TV. The Trojans won, 34-31.

“That was the first game when I learned that when Notre Dame wears their green jerseys, that's when it's a special game for them," Te'o told the newspaper. "The whole experience of watching them on TV out there in Hawaii was really amazing to me. I just thought the game will go down in history.”

Manti-mania

Tony Krausz

The Journal Gazette

Notre Dame freshman linebacker Manti Te'o has established himself as a guy who plays with passion and intensity in the Irish's first five games.

The native of Laie, Hawaii, has also established a reputation as quite the storyteller.

"I got a chance to hang out with Manti and kind of room with him in different situations, and if there's anything that you don't ant to have happen, you don't want to have him start telling you a story," linebacker Scott Smith said. "We've just been sitting around talking, and all of a sudden he'll get into one of his Hawaii, football or Samoan stories, and next thing you know it's about 20 minutes later and he's still going. When he gets on a roll, he definitely gets on a roll. That just kind of shows him just wanting to be able to share his experiences and just real excited and proud about being from Hawaii and things like that.

"Just one of those things you just kind of have to sit down, and if he ends up going for too long, I've had to kind of cut it short or tell him to wrap it up. But there was always a continuation either the next day or the next night so I was sure to get the full story."

What isn't a tall tale is Te'o living up to his billing.

The freshman has 16 tackles, two for loss and a sack this season.

"Manti is a tremendous athlete, football player," senior safety Kyle McCarty said. "He's got all the tools to be a great player. He's got great football instinct. So he's doing very well for us this year. Obviously it's tough for a freshman, any freshman, to come in and play, but I think Manti, when the coaches have called on him to get on the field has done a nice job for us."

Te'o has also done a nice job blending in with his teammates and adjusting to life in South Bend and at Notre Dame.

"As far as I know he's handled it very well," McCarthy said. "He's a great kid to be around. He's always upbeat. He's always got a smile on his face and someone that you like to associate yourself with. I'm very happy he's part of our team, and I hope he feels the same way. "

Te'o hoping to be 'man of worth' for Irish

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- When Manti Te'o arrived at Notre Dame for his official visit last November, he was wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

That was the same weekend Mother Nature dumped almost a foot of snow on South bend, followed by lowly Syracuse dumping the Irish at home and fans throwing snowballs at their own players. No one would have blamed Te'o for dashing through the snow to the airport, catching the first plane back to Hawaii and never stepping foot in Indiana again. Instead, one of the nation's most coveted recruits embraced the twin challenges of playing so far from home and helping a struggling program get back on its feet. Te'o will make his highly-anticipated college debut on Saturday versus Nevada, and though he won't start, he figures to see a lot of time at weakside linebacker. At 6-foot-2 and 245 pounds, he brings a mix of size and athleticism that the Notre Dame defense has been lacking recently under Charlie Weis.

But Te'o has even larger goals.

"Hopefully I influence a lot of people for good, whether it will be in football or just life in general," he said. "I want to influence people as an example of service to others."

It's easy to see, then, why Te'o chose the Irish, who despite their ups and downs, still hold one the biggest bully pulpits in college football. Speaking publicly for the first time as a collegian at Notre Dame freshman media day last month, Te'o sat at a table surrounded by more than 20 reporters, with eight TV cameras recording his every word.

That's a bit much for any 18-year-old to deal with, and Te'o admits he gets nervous every time he is in front of a camera. But he handled himself like a seasoned vet, which in some ways he is when it comes to heavy attention.

He was, after all, the top high school player in his state, the pride of Hawaii and the target of just about every major college program in the country. He starred at the Punahou School in Honolulu, the alma mater of Barack Obama and the top prep athletic factory in America, according to Sports Illustrated.

"There was never a ride home when I didn't answer the phone for him at least once," says fellow Irish freshman Roby Toma, Teo's best friend since childhood. "He had so much pressure on him. People were always asking him who he was going to sign with. But he always kept a cool head."

On the field, Te'o was a force of nature in high school. In one practice, Toma, a wide receiver, felt the full wrath of his teammate's power. The hit turned Toma's helmet around, leaving him trying to see out his ear hole.

Another time, Toma remembers, Punahou was milking a lead in the state championship game when it gave the ball to occasional fullback Te'o for a dive play on third and long.

"He broke nine tackles," Toma says. "On film, you see me out there blocking, and the play is still going on, but I just turned around and watched. You couldn't help but watch."

Those prodigious skills are why Te'o won the inaugural high school Butkus Award and was rated the No. 2 player in the Class of 2009 by ESPN's Scouts Inc. In an age where defenders are getting smaller and faster to go against the spread, Te'o has the bulk of a classic middle linebacker along with new-school speed.

"He's a lot like (former USC star) Rey Maualuga in that he has a natural instinct and nose for the football," said Tom Luginbill, Scouts Inc.'s national recruiting director. "He doesn't get caught up in misdirection, he knows where the ball is and it does not take him long to get there. And he's usually coming with a little bit of a bad attitude.

"He played in the Under Armour game, where there were a lot of former NFL and college head coaches. There wasn't a coach there who didn't come away saying essentially, 'Who the heck is that guy?' That's how much he stood out."

Te'o has been as good as advertised since coming to Notre Dame. Though he says he was lost his first week of camp, coaches and teammates have been effusive in praising how he has played and fit in right away.

"There's no question that he's ahead of the game," Irish defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta said.

"He's handled himself well," Weis said. "It's never easy when you come in here and you're playing your way up the depth chart quickly, as he is. There are guys who don't like it when a guy like that is breathing down your neck."

The hardest adjustment for Te'o so far is being more than 4,000 miles away from home. One of six children, he was despondent when he missed his younger brother Manasseh's third birthday this summer. His family will attend the Nevada game, but it might be the only trip they make to South Bend this fall.

"I think about them all the time," he said. "I talk to them every day. The nights I spend alone, I think about my parents, my little brother and my sisters."

Luckily, he has his buddy Toma as a reminder of home. And he's used to long travels to school.

He and Toma grew up about four houses apart from each other in Laie on the north shore of Oahu. To get to Punahou every day, they had to take a 90-minute car ride each way.

Te'o grew so homesick following his first year at Punahou that he transferred to his local school for one year as a ninth-grader. He went back to Punahou after realizing the opportunities that school provided.

"The experience I had at Punahou and learning how to adapt to new environments has helped me with my transition to Notre Dame," he said.

Te'o knows he will be under constant scrutiny in South Bend, and he hopes to use that spotlight to set an example. He was an Eagle Scout who was active in his community back home, and as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, he may take a two-year mission following his freshman year at Notre Dame.

"Everybody will see what you do on the football field, but I think what matters most is who you are inside," he said. "My dad always told me, 'Don't necessarily be a man of success, but be a man of worth.'"

He wants to represent his home state and his church while leading Notre Dame back to glory. Those are tall challenges for anyone, let alone a freshman. Yet Te'o says he's prepared for anything, even another round of snow.

"I brought some pants from home this time," he said. "But I've still got to go and buy me a jacket or something."

Lolotai shaping up fine in middle

By Stephen Tsai
HawaiiWarriorBeat.com Editor
Brashton Satele's injury left a hole in the middle of the defense.
Mana Lolotai is the middle trying to make the defense whole.
"I told Mana: 'It's your job now,' " recalled Satele, the Hawai'i middle linebacker who undergoes season-ending shoulder surgery today in Los Angeles.
That leaves the heart of the defense to a Kamehameha Schools graduate who spent the summer reshaping his body and skills.
"He dedicated himself to getting quicker, faster, stronger," defensive coordinator Cal Lee said.
Lolotai spent four weeks in Arizona participating in trainer Chad Ikei's intensive workout program. Lolotai was placed on a strict low-carb diet — small portions, frequent light snacks, lots of salads — and focused on footwork and speed drills.
"He came back in excellent shape," Lee said of the 6-foot, 230-pound junior.
Lolotai also was poised to be the linebacker-in-waiting, ready to serve as Satele's primary backup.
But during the first scrimmage of the recently completed 2 1/2-week training camp, Satele suffered a fractured rotator cuff and torn labrum in his left shoulder.
After deciding to undergo surgery, Satele approached Lolotai, essentially passing the proverbial torch.
"I think he's going to have a good year," Satele said.
Lolotai said: "Brashton has been helping me a lot."
Each day, Lolotai goes to the defensive conference room, where he watches freshly edited videos of practices. Alongside Satele and Lee, Lolotai would review his play in practice.
"I'm more of a visual person," Lolotai said. "I have to see (the wide picture), then make my corrections."
The videos show a panoramic view of the offensive and defensive formations.
"You can see all of the routes, and what the receivers are doing, what they try to do when they line up in certain formations," Lolotai said.
He said his improved condition — he lost more than 10 pounds and reduced his body fat to 11 percent this summer — enables him to cover more turf.
"Getting faster was a big thing," he said. "And I wanted to get my lungs ready. I want to play stronger (deeper) in games."
Lolotai was born with the football gene. His grandfather, Al Lolotai, was the first National Football League player of Samoan ancestry. His father and uncles were standout local high school defensive players.
As a Kamehameha senior in 2006, Lolotai signed with Oregon State. But because of family commitments, he remained in Hawai'i, attending a private college during the 2006-2007 academic year.
During that time, he and his wife, Shaela, had a daughter, Zaiah. Today is Zaiah's third birthday.
"It was tough that year, working and going to school," Lolotai said. "I wasn't working out like I should have been. But my wife and family really stuck by me. They made a lot of sacrifices. They really motivated me. I owe them a lot."

Pa’aluhi out of the ordinary and in the lineup for OSU

CORVALLIS — It’s the kind of question that could only come up at Oregon State.

Can the Beavers fill their opening at middle linebacker with a player who has more experience in mixed martial arts than football?

Well, yes, based on the early reviews of sophomore David Pa’aluhi III, headed for his first collegiate start when OSU opens against Portland State on Sept. 5.

“We’re fired up about him because he’s such a physical player,” OSU defensive coordinator Mark Banker said.

“I think he’s going to do really well this year,” chimed in Keaton Kristick, OSU’s candidate for national honors at outside linebacker. “People are going to be really surprised.”

That certainly seems likely. It’s not that Pa’aluhi has come out of nowhere to the starting lineup … but almost.

He played one season of high school football, and that only after the insistence of his father. His high school coaches in Waianae, Hawaii, put him at defensive end, and essentially turned him loose.

“I pretty much just got the basics and went to the ball every play,” Pa’aluhi recalled. “When I came (to OSU), I didn’t know too much about really anything (related to football) … I didn’t know defensive schemes or how to play the offense.”

He spent the 2007 season as a redshirt, but was impressive physically. He could run like few middle linebackers, and there was certainly no question about the physical way he played.

By last fall, he’d learned enough that he could fill in as a backup, and help out when the Beavers went into their nickel alignment on obvious passing downs as a faster middle linebacker in coverage who could also rush the passer.

And now? There he is, a 5-foot-11, 233-pound rock in the middle of the OSU defense that again has the look of a unit that is going to cause some major problems for opponents.

That’s a fairly fast ascent by anyone’s measurement.

“Dave is an extremely focused person,” Banker said. “When you talk to somebody and you’re giving them instruction, there are people who look at you and then the next thing you know when you set them free, it’s like they didn’t hear a thing.

“Dave is somebody who listens and comprehends and then is able to put it into action.”

As much as he’s learned at OSU, more impressive might be the natural abilities that first brought him to the attention of the Beavers.

Pa’aluhi literally had no background in football, or any team sports, until that fall of his final high school year. His background was in martial arts, with a father who competed in the sport and then opened a training gym for fighters.

What could be more natural than competing in jujitsu or kick boxing? Particularly in his home state.

“We come from a warrior culture, so being able to fight, it’s a respect thing,” Pa’aluhi said. “Everybody likes to do it, it’s just sort of our everyday life.”

And yes, some of it does translate to football.

“It’s helped me a lot, just that toughness it gives you, and it makes you an overall athlete,” Pa’aluhi said. “It gives you speed, strength, balance … it made me never give up. I was always going full speed and never backing away from anything.”

Kristick said he can see the martial arts come into play when Pa’aluhi “does all that hand stuff” while battling with blockers.

Imagine how it looks when Pa’aluhi is in the octagon for an MMA fight.

“I wouldn’t want to be the guy on the other side,” Kristick said. “He’s a powerful guy.”

Until Pa’aluhi’s senior year, the only sport he competed in for his high school was wrestling, where he was twice a league champion.

Why finally football? His father insisted he try a team sport.

“It was going out of my comfort zone, being with a team and having to interact with more people,” Pa’aluhi said. “It was different, but I liked it.”

There was instant success. Enough that playing beyond high school became almost immediately realistic, at least to Pa’aluhi.

“I was getting a lot of sacks and making a lot of tackles,” he said. “I looked around at other people who I knew were getting offered scholarships and I felt maybe I was playing just as good as them, so maybe I could get a scholarship, too.”

The University of Hawaii was recruiting Pa’aluhi, and had competition after OSU went to Honolulu to end the 2006 season and a high school coach made Banker aware of Pa’aluhi.

“I’ve got good sources in Hawaii, and I trust their evaluation and judgment,” Banker said.

After watching a DVD with Pa’aluhi’s highlights, Banker liked “the speed and strength and he had the instincts … then when you met him and found out his background, we said ‘let’s go.’”

Yeah, just the usual recruiting story … at OSU, anyway.

Remember, this is the school that took a tip on one Rodgers brother and ended up with the two key players on its offense. This is the team that could have three players starting on offense in the opener who didn’t even have scholarships when they arrived at Oregon State.

All that, plus a middle linebacker with much more experience in mixed martial arts than mixing it up on a football field.

“Somebody tells you about a Pa’aluhi, so you go uncover the rock, investigate and the next thing you know, you’ve got a gem like that,” Banker said. “I don’t think there are a lot like that, and you don’t want to look for the needle in the haystack because you’re going to be in trouble doing that all the time, but sometimes they turn out.”

Satele out for season

By Jason Kaneshiro

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Aug 19, 2009

Brashton Satele won't be on the field this fall. But the Hawaii linebacker doesn't consider his season to be completely over.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM

Brashton Satele was expected to start at middle linebacker for UH this season.

"I have to be here for my team," Satele said after the Warriors' practice yesterday. "Even if it's just as a vocal leader, I'm going to be here for them no matter what."

Satele, the Warriors' projected starter at middle linebacker, suffered a dislocated left shoulder during practice last Saturday. After meeting with doctors on Monday, it was decided he would have season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder.

Even while facing the possibility that he might have played his last UH game, Satele brought an upbeat presence to the practice field the last two days, helping oversee the linebackers in drills and running with the team at the end of the practices.

Rather than dwell on his misfortune, Satele appeared at peace with his circumstances and vowed to continue to support his teammates as he recovers from the injury.

"It hasn't really bothered me because I have no regrets over what happened," he said, "because I put in hard work and I busted my butt every single day this summer. It's frustrating, but I don't have any regrets. Nothing's really bothering me right now. I'm fine with it.

"I'm just excited to watch these guys play, because I know we're going to be a good team so I'm just excited for the season."

Satele said the surgery is scheduled for Aug. 26. He used a redshirt year as a freshman in 2005 and plans to petition for a sixth year of eligibility after the season.

But he could still have an impact on the 2009 team.

"He's an outstanding player and he assumed the leadership roles of the defense and of the football team," UH head coach Greg McMackin said. "I still think he's going to be one of the leaders of our football team whether he's on the field or not."

Satele said he had a similar injury last season, when he started eight games and posted 53 tackles, but opted not to have surgery at that time. The shoulder caused him problems since then, the latest incident occurring as he tried to make a tackle during a scrimmage last Saturday.

"I kept reinjuring it and it just got worse and worse," Satele said. "This time it came out and it didn't go back in, so that kind of scared me. I had four doctors pulling and yanking on my arm.

"We met with the doctors, we all came to an agreement, and I talked to Coach about it, and we're just going to do what's best for my health and take care of my shoulder.

"It was just one of those unlucky things. That's how the game is, one play and you can be done, so you have to play hard."

While he recovers, Satele said he'll do what he can to help Mana Lolotai and Jake Heun assume the middle linebacker's duties.

"Brashton knows the whole defense so it's good to have him as an extra coach," Lolotai said. "Whenever something goes wrong, Brashton is right there when we come off the field and tells us what he sees."

"We need his experience," linebackers coach Cal Lee said. "He's helping us coaching, helping the backup guys, being very supportive to the other linebackers."

Lolotai's performance in spring practice gave the coaches the confidence to pencil him in as the starter at middle linebacker when the coaches were considering moving Satele to defensive end early in the summer. Heun was a running back last season, but moved to linebacker in the spring, a return to what he considers his natural position.

"Mana was competing for (the starting job) and Jake is one of our hardest hitting, hardest working guys," McMackin said. "So I have confidence in both those guys."

While Satele won't be able to put the gains he made in a rigorous summer training program into use this season, he plans to stay in shape with an eye on his eventual return to action.

"I cannot go back to where I used to be," said Satele, who dropped from 265 pounds to 240 in the offseason. "I'm going to try to stay at this weight and be ready when the time comes."