Saturday, June 2, 2012
Potential story lines for the Miami Dolphins and HBO's 'Hard Knocks' Paul Soliai Adoption Story
Alameda Ta'amu Will Get Opportunity To Shine With Steelers
by Bill Hanstock • Jun 2, 2012 6:00 AM PDT
Washington Huskies defensive tackle Alameda Ta'amu saw his stock drop leading up to the 2012 NFL Draft, but was selected in the fourth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers, along with Stanford Cardinal offensive guard David DeCastro and Ohio St. Buckeyes offensive tackle Mike Adams. Now the Steelers have some formidable linemen on both sides of the ball, one of whom will actually give area fans a reason to root for the Steelers.
According to Rob Rang at CBS sports, the Steelers came away with one of the best draft classes of any team this year. Here's what he has to say about Ta'amu.
Getting a talented player to achieve up to his potential could also be the task at hand with fourth-round pick Alameda Ta'amu, as well. The 6-3, 348-pound former Washington Husky certainly has the bulk and power to take over for Casey Hampton as the Steelers' nose guard in defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau's beloved 3-4 defense. For the Steelers to enjoy the type of consistency on defense that they've had with Hampton in the middle, however, Ta'amu will have to ratchet up the intensity to levels that he didn't always play with in college. Ta'amu certainly played well when the lights were brightest, however, enjoying quite the breakthrough performance against Nebraska in the 2010 Holiday Bowl and dominating the line of scrimmage during practice sessions at the 2012 Senior Bowl. With the soon-to-be 35-year-old Hampton coming off a torn ACL, Ta'amu could be in line for significant playing time immediately.
Rang believes that Ta'amu could end up being a starter for the Steelers in 2012.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Uaea Masina primed for a big Spring
Masina is a name that jumps out to 247Sports national analyst Barton Simmons. Masina now sports offers from Colorado and Utah with others showing interest. Stanford is one of several new programs showing interest and Masina could be in for a big Spring, like the others on this list.
Honolulu (Hawaii) Moanalua defensive tackle Scott Pagano enters the Rivals250 at No. 104.
There were 20 new additions to the Rivals250 led by Honolulu (Hawaii) Moanalua defensive tackle Scott Pagano, who named LSU his favorite this past weekend and has picked up nearly 50 offers. The 6-foot-3, 280-pound prospect checks in at No. 104.
Honolulu (Hawaii) Moanalua defensive tackle Scott Pagano enters the Rivals250 at No. 104.
"Pagano has some of the best junior film in this class," Rivals.com West analyst Adam Gorney said.
"The reason he wasn't included in the initial rankings was because we had not seen his highlight tape; right after the release, we got our hands on it and knew he was going to be an immediate addition this time around. Pagano has size, strength, speed and he plays with ferociousness. And we always like to see that from defensive tackles."
Players Who Don't Get Enough Credit Isaac Sopoaga
Sopoaga transitioned from the end position to nose in 2011; it was a part of incorporating Ray McDonald and letting Aubrayo Franklin walk. It's easy to forget that Sopoaga changed positions, so 2012 will be his second year as the 49ers' starting nose tackle. And like most of the team, I believe Sopoaga will progress in technique, knowledge and experience.
He is also a lot more athletic of a player than folks give him credit for. Sopoaga has selflessly come in on offense to run block and even catch passes from Alex Smith. He has the versatility of a linebacker, but he's playing the nose tackle position. If you watch the film on Sopoaga, it's visible that his footwork greatly assists in his technique.
When a 3-4 defense works as well as this one does, the nose tackle position and outside linebacker positions are usually positions to consider as reasons for the success. Sopoaga is at the nucleus creating disruption and allowing those around him to operate at a high level.
Louisville Cardinals
All seems to be going smoothly in Louisville. The Cardinals did not lose any key players to the NBA draft, return almost all of their core for next season and are still coached by Rick Pitino—one of the most exciting basketball gurus in the game.
Despite Louisville’s excitement and Top 5 national ranking, there is one issue that could doom the team: turnovers.
Peyton Siva could be the team’s best player. There is no doubt that when he is on, the Cardinals are almost impossible to stop. When Siva is playing erratically and practically handing the ball to the opponent, however, the entire team suffers.
Louisville ranked 228th in the country last season in turnovers per game—averaging a whopping 13.8 per contest.
If the team cannot take care of the ball, opponents will capitalize. The Cardinals’ mid-season rut in 2011-12 almost doomed their season—something similar could happen next season if Siva and the rest of the team cannot take care of the ball.
Te’o overcomes doubts to fulfill promise with the Irish
Keith Arnold May 30, 2012, 3:58 PM EDT
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Before Aaron Lynch or Louis Nix struggled with second thoughts about the decision to spend four years in South Bend, there was another highly touted prep phenom that had great expectations heaped on his shoulders.
Manti Te’o, the lifeblood of the Irish defense, and one of the most recognized players in all of college football, almost walked away from his commitment to Notre Dame. Choosing the Irish over USC in a last-minute Signing Day change of heart that was spurred on by a belief that Notre Dame was where he could make the biggest impact both on and off the field, Te’o's first season in South Bend was hardly as smooth as we might remember now.
Speaking at the Downtown Athletic Club of Honolulu, via his hometown Star-Advertiser, Te’o recalled those first days in South Bend, when the Irish linebacking prodigy was just another in-over-his-head freshman.
This from the Star Advertiser’s profile:
Three years ago, everything seemed fine when Brian Te’o would speak on the phone with his son, who had just left for college. “But then I got two calls. (Notre Dame quarterback) Jimmy Clausen’s dad called me and we had a long talk. Then a call from a coach, and we had a long talk.”
Manti Te’o would put on a happy voice for his dad. But things weren’t going so well for the Fighting Irish freshman linebacker. He hardly got reps. When he did, they quickly became fodder for film-room examples of how to do things incorrectly.
“After two practices I waited until everyone left the field and sat and cried on the bleachers. ‘What am I doing here? I want to go home,’ ” Te’o told the Downtown Athletic Club of Honolulu on Tuesday. “I was no longer that big fish in the small pond.”
Now he’s big enough to share his story of wanting – if ever so briefly – to give up. He knows it might inspire at least one person in despair to keep trying and fight through like he did, and that’s what it’s all about.
Te’o soon adjusted to college football and Notre Dame. If he needed reinforcement, he soon got it from Brian, who told him, “This ain’t Punahou and that ain’t the ILH, so you better get beyond that.”
Irish fans will likely feel their blood boil picturing loud-barking defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta drilling the talented freshman in meeting rooms, using negative reinforcement on a youngster who was likely the most talented player on the field for the Irish defense, even if he didn’t know ten percent of what he needed to do.
That said, it’s interesting to remember Brian Kelly‘s earliest comments on Te’o after watching his entire freshman season of tape after taking over the Irish program in December. Here’s Kelly on what he saw in Te’o, as the Irish prepared for their first spring practice under the new regime.
“He’s a college football player. He’s got that, you know, excitement, that passion,” Kelly said then. Those are the guys I want to be around. I’m passionate about what I do. I want to be around guys that love the game, love being around it. So he brings that energy on a day-to-day basis. But he’s got to get much better as a football player. He wasn’t very good. And he understands that. He’s been committed to learning. Remember, he hasn’t been here a year. He’s a freshman. So I just love the energy that he brings and the passion that he wants to be a great player.”
In the last two seasons playing under Kelly and defensive coordinator Bob Diaco, we’ve seen a steady rise in the baseline level of Te’o's play, matching the raw ability that he walked in with that made him a ready-made All-American candidate. Even while battling through an injury that robbed him of his explosiveness for much of his junior season, the consistency in his on-field play is what makes the senior linebacker such a terrific player.
Te’o's terrific development over the last two seasons doesn’t mean things have only been smooth between Kelly and his star defender. When Kelly had some polarizing comments about the players he inherited from the previous regime, it was Te’o that bristled among the most, taking to Twitter before being among the team leaders in the locker room as the Irish ironed out their differences.
Yet Te’o's decision to return to Notre Dame for his senior season, announcing his plans spontaneously at the Lott Impact Awards back in December without going through any NFL evaluation process or other overwrought deliberations, shows you the type of student-athlete he’s matured into.
“This was a tough decision, and I found myself praying about it often,” Te’o said back in December. “Ultimately, I really want to experience my senior year at Notre Dame. The happiest moments so far in my life have come when I am spending time with people I love. I wanted to spend another year with my teammates and the coaches on our team. I don’t think any sum of money can replace the memories I can create in my senior year.
“Graduating from Notre Dame is really important to me. Many people encouraged me to go to the NFL because I could always earn my diploma later in life. If I did that, though, I would not have the chance for the same experiences that are ahead of me in my senior year, and I would not have finished at Notre Dame with the guys I started with and care so much about. When I weighed all the factors that went into this decision, it just felt right to stay at Notre Dame.”
That’s a long way from the guy that battled his emotions and self-belief as he cried on the empty bleachers of Notre Dame Stadium.
Jake Muasau journeys from living in a van to NFL
by Paola Boivin, columnist - May. 31, 2012 10:56 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
At the conclusion of rookie minicamp for the New York Giants, Tom Coughlin called all the undrafted players into a huddle.
"I want to thank you all for coming," the coach said on May 12. "Keep working hard and stay ready."
It was your run-of-the-mill, thanks-but-no-thanks speech. Linebacker Jake Muasau, who attended high school in Southern Arizona's Sierra Vista, 15 miles north of Mexico's border, felt sick. His mind raced.
Lord, no. This can't be it for me. Not after this journey.
The players gathered into a huddle. They chanted "1-2-3 Team" and dispersed. Crushed, Muasau, 22, began the green-mile walk toward the end of his football career when a hand reached out of him.
"Jake, I'm here to let you know the team loves you," a Giants scout told him. "We want to sign you."
Muasau, all 6 feet 1 and 243 pounds of him, bear-hugged the scout, lifted him off the ground and then exhaled.
To understand that hug is to appreciate Muasau's journey, one that has concluded with an opportunity to land on the Giants' 53-man roster or eight-man practice squad before the team's regular season begins Sept. 5 against Dallas.
"When he called me, I started crying," Louie Muasau, his older brother, said. "It was like, finally, everything has paid off."
Their journey started in Washington before their father, Liuavano Mataaga, a pastor, moved his family to Southern California to help Mataaga's brother build a church.
The family struggled. The mother, Asoiva, battled mental illness and the father, Jake Muasau said, was arrested and imprisoned for domestic abuse.
"We never had a stable place," Muasau said. "I remember sleeping on park benches. We had this red 1985 Dodge Astro van that we lived in."
They brushed their teeth in water fountains and often used public restrooms to clean up.
The family relocated to Glendale in 1998, to try a new life.
Four years later, Mataaga was diagnosed with throat cancer. His voice box was removed and he was fed liquid through a hole in his neck. Jake Muasau had started middle school in Glendale, but his mom moved him and his two brothers to Sierra Vista where an aunt lived while Mataaga stayed in the Valley for treatment.
The opportunity to stay with the aunt fell through, and the family was back to living in a van.
The police discovered them and sent the boys to a group home. While they were there, their father died.
"It was hard to bear as a child," Muasau said. "What I am supposed to do? Who am I supposed to look up to?"
Football had been part of the boys' life, but only on the street, in alleys and the side of apartment complexes.
"We never had enough money for organized football," Muasau said. "My first experience that way was as a freshman in high school."
At Buena High in Sierra Vista, he and Louie, a year older, were defensive standouts. Jake, who also played wide receiver, had jaw-dropping speed. They idolized a famous NFL player whose roots also were Samoan: the late Junior Seau.
To help their mom, they would sneak food home from the school cafeteria.
When Louie went on to play at Phoenix College, Jake, who had committed to Nebraska, felt lost. He wanted to help his mom and agreed to sell a friend's prescription drugs on the Buena campus to make money. He was caught.
"Without Louie, I lost direction," he said.
He was expelled his senior year, but there was such fondness for Muasau by teachers that they approached the school board to plead his case and his penalty was changed to a suspension.
Still, Nebraska pulled the scholarship offer, and Muasau's SAT scores were low. He had few options.
He joined his brother at Phoenix College.
"It's funny," he said. "My junior year in high school, I became such an arrogant person. I thought I was going right to the NFL out of high school. Suddenly, here I am at a junior college in Phoenix."
It was a turning point. He played side-by-side at linebacker with Louie, who had redshirted. They were determined to stay on the right track together. They tattooed half of the Seal of American Samoa on their arms so that when Jake's right arm is next to Louie's left arm, it makes the complete seal.
Both were recruited to play at Georgia State, an Atlanta university that had just started football that year (2010). Former Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky coach Bill Curry would be in charge of the program.
The brothers thrived there. Louie gave the team the defensive leadership Curry sought, and Jake provided flat-out athleticism. It was a great fit for the two, who benefited from the structure a scholarship could provide: expectations, education, necessities.
The day the pair first arrived at school, they couldn't believe the scholarship paid for all their meals.
"We were so hungry," Louie said. "We sat down and ate about three plates. It was unbelievable."
Jake was the defense's top player and MVP both seasons. He captured the attention of NFL scouts and particularly the Giants, who didn't draft a linebacker. The team brought six players from that position into the rookie camp, and most were better known than the young Musasau.
He made a strong impression. He was the one they kept.
"He'll do well in the NFL," Louie said. "He loves challenges."
Clearly.
Lofa Tatupu worked with the Falcons starters
This is a great sign for a talented veteran like Tatupu, who’s looking to stay healthy and revive his career in Atlanta. As long as he can stay out of the trainer’s room, he should be a starter this year.
Peyton Siva-led Louisville could be looking at a return trip to the Final Four next season. Chris Trotman/Getty Images
It feels like he's been around forever, especially if you've read George Dohrmann's Play Their Hearts Out, and now Siva is a big key for a Cardinals club that has the talent to repeat as a Final Four team. With the way the Cards defend, they don't need a ton of offense and improved decision-making and consistency from their floor general should help them improve on that side of the ball.
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