All Twenty-Tuesday: DT Stevie Tu’ikolovatu

One thing about playing in the trenches is this: You have to love it. If you don’t love what you do, or love the game of football, it’s going to show real quick, especially at this level. Players in the trenches get beat to hell on every snap. They’re forced to play at weights that their bodies sometimes can’t hold up, and they’re going against some of the most freakish athletes the world has to offer in edge rushers.

Not only that, but offensive linemen rarely get any of the glory. They’re not the ones at the top of the jersey sale list. They’re never going to win an MVP award or get individual recognition whenever stats are brought into play. It’s the positions of the game that require the most chemistry, the most toughness, and if it weren’t for quarterbacks praising them in post game interviews, we’d rarely feature them. Somehow one of the most important positions of this violent, beautiful game is considered the dirty work.

If you don’t love what you do, you won’t have the will to do the dirty work.

That’s why Stevie Tu’ikolovatu is in Tampa Bay.

If you haven’t heard his story yet, it’s a fun one. For the two months in which he was transferring from Utah to USC for his final year of eligibility, Tu’ikolovatu was living out of his car, first by himself, then with his wife, Kalo. Now, the reason I said that such a story was a “fun” one is because even through a circumstance that many of us would never think we could survive in, Tu’ikolovatu and his wife made the best of it, and because of that, got to experience a lot of cool things.

The reason Tu’ikolovatu was basically homeless for two months – though he would tell you he never considered himself homeless – is because when you’re transferring, the NCAA doesn’t allow you receive any housing or help from the university you are transferring to until all your transcript papers go though. He wanted to get over to L.A. and practice with his future teammates as soon as he could, so he hopped in a one-way plane and did so once the process had started (or so he thought).

Two things held Tu’ikolovatu’s admittance to the Trojan’s football team. The first was that he had an outstanding fee he didn’t pay (which they didn’t tell him about). The second was that even after he paid the fee, he had to word-for-word give Utah permission to release his transcript to USC, something he had called about multiple times – college athletics suck, I know, big shocker.

After a long, and even from my standpoint, annoying process, Tu’ikolovatu was accepted to the USC football program, but he never took the time living in his car for granted. He and his wife took that time to travel, see every part of southern California, and even see Mexico for the first time. They got workouts in on the beach or wherever they could, and picked up part-time jobs. They’d buy meat from the dollar store and grill it on a homemade grill Stevie built himself. But through all that, neither he or his wife never said, “woe is me” or complained (maybe outside of the NCAA being annoying). Instead, they took that time to do things they’ve wanted to do and made an adventure out of it. They made the absolute most of a crappy situation.

That’s why Stevie Tu’ikolovatu is in Tampa Bay.

Size matters up front because it allows you to own the point of attack.

The clip above is a textbook example of how to stop the run from a nose tackle position. It’s not just about being stronger than your opposition and pushing them back immediately. There’s a bit of finesse involved, but then we see that strength at the right time.

Notice how at the beginning of the play, Tu’ikolovatu wasn’t charging the center back into the pocket. That was by design. You know that was by design in how he eventually made the play. He started off with his arms extended, creating a gap between him and his offensive lineman. Then, once the running back committed to a direction, either to his left or right, Tu’ikolovatu ripped off his blockers on command and made the tackle right at the line.

That’s how you defend the run with size. Anchoring your spot at the line, and ripping off your blocker.

Another way you can use strength is with a good punch.

Like we showed in the first clip, it’s not always advantageous to use brute strength right away. Sometimes there’s a bit of patience involved. But, other times, like in the clip directly above us, it can come in handy.

With a good punch (meaning first contact between an offensive lineman and a defensive lineman), Tu’ikolovatu completely threw his man off balance and therefore dictated where they were going to move, even if he was able to stay in front of him. It was his punch off the line of scrimmage that allowed Tu’ikolovatu to be in the vicinity to help make the tackle. The way you can get a good punch is certainly by being strong, but also involves having good leverage against your opponent. At 6-foot-1, 322 pounds, Tu’ikolovatu has short height and enough weight to dictate leverage more often than not (or, at least, he did in college).

Building off of that leverage, it can sometime result in him completely blowing up a run play by getting into the backfield before the ball carrier can even chose a direction to go, like in the clip above.

Because “low man wins” in football, Tu’ikolovatu was able to dominate the center (who has to somewhat be elevated to snap the ball correctly in a shotgun formation) and pushed him all the way back. This was more evidence to why Tu’ikolovatu is bringing something the Buccaneers didn’t really have. With the NFL moving to more formations that don’t involve the quarterback under center, having a guy like that as a nose tackle to up-root the center with shorter, yet still thicker size could be a nice asset.

Then, of course, there’s taking on double teams, and a big reason why “can’t teach girth” is funny, but true.

When the Buccaneers go into that 46 formation, or even any kind of short yardage, heavy front, they’re going to need players who can eat up blocks and still hold the line. Tu’ikolovatu can do both.

I showed plenty of reasons why the team selected Tu’ikolovatu in the seventh round of this year’s draft, and why it was a good fit for their offseason game plan, but there’s still no guarantee he makes the team. The defense is showing a lot of diversity on the edges with pass rushing outside linebackers, true SAM linebackers and true defensive ends all on the depth chart. So, chances are that won’t leave many roster spots for interior defensive linemen. McCoy, McDonald and Baker are safe. After that it’s going to come down to Siliga and Tu’ikolovatu, two former teammates at the University of Utah – and good friends.

Neither player saw action on the first team during the team’s mandatory mini camp, so the answer to that question will have to be postponed until a later date. But, in terms of answering the questions of what he can do, such as: Does he have the leverage? Does he have the strength? Can he take on blocks? Can he help in the run game? Does he want to do the dirty work? Does he love the game?

He can and he does.

That’s why Stevie Tu’ikolovatu is in Tampa Bay.