This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
As an all-district defensive end in the Fort Worth suburb of Euless, Texas, Sam Tevi would jokingly show off his kick step to the offensive line coach.
Hmm, not bad, the coach would say as though an idea had just occurred to him, and they'd laugh.
Tevi was a defensive star. He was not moving anywhere.
But when Tevi and Trinity High teammate Salesi Uhatafe came to the U. and Tevi started pulling the same stunt, Uhatafe warned him: "Stop playing around like that, or you're going to be wearing a red [offensive practice] jersey with me next year."
"Sure enough," said Uhatafe, "he got moved over,"
Tevi beat out redshirt freshman Jackson Barton in fall camp and enters the 2015 season as Utah's starting left tackle, despite initial frustration with a switch to the only position — besides punter — that he had never played.
No joke.
Tevi began youth football as a safety. Then, as he got bigger, he moved to linebacker. He was a running back as a sixth-grader, dabbled as a wideout and a kicker, and played quarterback throughout junior high — "I was a pocket passer," he said, sheepishly. "... I couldn't really run."
Tevi and Uhatafe, who has known Tevi since third grade and is now Utah's starter at right guard, shot up simultaneously in the summer before high school.
Utah center Hiva Lutui, a year ahead of them at Trinity, remembers, "all of a sudden I went from being like two inches taller to five inches shorter."
Now listed at 6-foot-5, 300 pounds, Tevi is at a loss to explain his frame. His dad is 6-foot-1 and his mom is 5-foot-9, and all seven siblings are shorter than him.
Tevi remained at defensive end throughout high school before moving to defensive tackle at the U. and recording nine tackles and a sack in six appearances on the line as a true freshman in 2013.
But Utah had an embarrassment of riches at defensive tackle — senior Viliseni Fauonuku is one of the team's leaders and, technically, a backup — and a greater need across the trenches. It saw in Tevi natural quickness, deft footwork and an ability to bend his knees that few men his size possess.
Then-defensive line coach Ilaisa Tuiaki, now at Oregon State, broached the switch with Tevi.
"And I told him, straight up, I wouldn't like it at all," Tevi said. "But anything to help the team."
He practiced with the offensive line in spring 2014, then rejoined the defensive tackles at the start of fall camp before a final, permanent switch to offense soon after.
It was tough, he admitted. Offense was less familiar and offered less freedom, less recognition.
"It kind of broke my heart, because defense is what I grew up playing, but this is a team sport," he said. "I finally got over it, and I said 'Eff it. I'm just going to go ahead and buy in and try to do everything I can.'"
Uhatafe and Lutui helped, sharing with him their astonishment at how quickly he picked up the tricks of their trade. Steadily, his comfort level grew.
"I think he sees the potential, possible, if all the cards were to be played correctly, of making a lot of money at that position one day," said co-offensive coordinator and line coach Jim Harding. "A lot of credit goes to him ... in terms of understanding the overall concepts offensively. The finer points of offensive line play, not just 'This is who you block on this play,' but you see him in individual drills working on different punching techniques, or hand placement and head placement."
Tevi emerged from spring ball as the No. 1 right tackle before coaches decided this fall to keep junior veteran J.J. Dielman at the right end of the line and let Tevi and Barton duke it out on the quarterback's blind side — where they are projected to stick.
All-business in the public eye, Harding said Tevi is the class clown in team meetings, and Tevi said he's enjoying offense now. As much as defense, even.
"Whenever we see Booker hit the holes and get a touchdown or whenever we see Travis complete a pass, we know that's because of us. It's because we made those holes for him. It's because we blocked our butts off to help Travis get those throws off."
Sounds like an offensive lineman, at least, right?
He didn't mean to audition, but he's acting the part.
Twitter: @matthew_piper —
Season opener Michigan at Utah
P Thursday, Sept. 3, 6:30 p.m.
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