VAI TO START
.....................VAI TAUA (pictured here in a shot by Robert B. Parker of the Reno Gazette-Journal) will be the starting running back in Nevada’s one-back offense starting Saturday. The erstwhile starter, Luke Lippincott, has been lost for the season due to a knee injury.
Here’s the take of Reno Gazette-Journal reporter Dan Hinxman. In his story he notes a little-publicized departure away from the team that Vai made last season.
You probably wouldn't know it from looking at him, but football came easy to Vailala Lima "Vai" Taua. So easily, in fact, that he kind of took his talents for granted.
"In high school it was easy," the Nevada running back said. His coach at Cabrillo High in Lompoc, Calif., remembers Taua having a pretty easy time of it, too.
"Vai was almost unstoppable," said Don Cross, now the football coach at rival Lompoc High. "His senior year he set a couple (school) records, led us to a league championship, led us to the (California Interscholastic Federation) semifinals."
Taua was the big man on campus -- even if he was barely 5-foot-9 and 225 pounds. His senior year he had 260 carries for 1,709 yards and 27 touchdowns. He also played linebacker, some nose guard and some defensive end.
The rude awakening came quickly, during his first day on the Wolf Pack practice field in 2006.
"When he came out here he was trying to run through the ropes and the bags, and about two minutes into it he was on a knee," running backs coach Jim Mastro said. "He was just gassed. I told him, 'You've got no idea what you've got yourself into, no idea.'"
Taua, who became the starting running back when senior Luke Lippincott was lost for the season with a knee injury on Sept. 6, flashed a wide grin when asked if he remembered having issues with conditioning.
"Yup," he admitted, laughing. "Everything just seemed harder, faster. It took a lot more effort to be successful. That was killing me. ... Here, everybody is just as good. You've got to put a lot more effort into it."
As Mastro put it, when it comes to Taua it's "all about perception and reality."
It was Taua's perception that he would basically just continue to do what he was doing and be an impact player for the Wolf Pack. The reality was, as he learned while on bended knee, very different.
It didn't help matters that he quit the team early last season, pleaded with coach Chris Ault a few weeks later to come back, and then had his season end a few games early with a knee injury. The injury required offseason, arthroscopic surgery, which led to a period of sedentary recovery.
"(And) McDonald's and Taco Bell," Mastro said.
Taua reported to camp this summer at 240 pounds.
"I did a lot of eating," Taua said, still wearing a smile that only someone who is now in proper shape can wear. "It was kind of right after the surgery. I couldn't do a lot of running, so I sat around. But a lot of eating."
Mastro said he joked with Taua this summer that he was going to have to do his conditioning at Jenny Craig.
"So what happened is it took him two years to get into Division I football shape," Mastro said. "He redshirted his first year. He hurt his knee (last season), so he missed six weeks there. He never really understood. He came back last year as a redshirt freshman thinking highly of himself, but he still didn't know what it took.
"I think quitting helped him because he realized what he had, and if he wanted to play as bad as he said he did, then it's going to take some work."
"When I quit it gave me a lot of time for myself to figure out what I wanted," Taua said. "Coming out here (at the time) was not what I wanted. When I quit I had time to sit back and figure what I wanted in life and what I wanted to do. I finally got to make a decision on my own instead of my parents helping me."
Taua, these days sporting an Abe Lincoln-style beard (sans moustache), still keeps in regular contact with Cross.
"He's such a competitive kid, he wanted to be on the field," said Cross, whose son is being coached by Taua's dad in youth football. "He was wrong in walking away, but he just wanted to play."
The perception on the outside is of Taua as a guy who doesn't appear any more imposing than a rifle team member. Sure, he's packed 220 or so solid pounds into that nearly 5-10 frame, but a Division I-A running back? If you saw him walk across campus in jeans and a T-shirt, you might have your doubts.
"He was a kid who just fell through the cracks a little bit," said receivers coach Scott Baumgartner, who recruited Taua.
The reality will get your attention.
"He's very athletic, very athletic," Mastro said. "You don't realize how nifty his feet are. I always say he's got the niftiness of a 130-pounder but at 220 pounds. And he's got incredible vision. He sees things that just aren't coachable."
Both Mastro and Cross mentioned his vision, as well as his pass-catching ability and strength as a pass-protection blocker.
"He's got the whole package," said Cross, who likes to playfully emasculate Taua by calling him by the latter half of his first name, "Lala." "We ran the wing-T and he was an excellent receiver."
Taua said his dad always wanted him to be a linebacker, and he takes that attitude with him when he's asked to pass block.
"In pass protection he's unbelievable," Mastro said. "He's got a 400-pound bench press. He just stones people."
Given what Taua has gone through, both self-inflicted and otherwise, it's no surprise that two of his biggest supporters are coaches past and present.
"I'm a really big fan of his, and I really want him to succeed," Mastro said. "I'm really proud of him. He figured out this is not high school anymore. It's a tough game to play. I think when he first got here it overwhelmed him. It's part of the reason why he hung it up. 'This is too much. I can't do all this.'"
Lippincott, who led the Western Athletic Conference in rushing last season and was a first-team all-conference pick, was a sure thing to start this season.
"Through fall camp he gave Luke a run for his money," Mastro said of Taua. "Luke just has that experience you can't coach."
Said Cross: "The kid works his tail off. I'm so proud of him for what he's done."
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BRAVES START AT 7:00
The Lompoc Braves football game at San Marcos which we hope to broadcast over this website (yeah, we know the last two weeks we haven't quite delivered) will begin at 7:00 p.m., not 7:30.
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