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Draft
day 2005 and the excitement mounts as the Seahawks trade a 4th round choice
to the Carolina Panthers to move up from 54th pick to the 45th pick.
Conventional wisdom says that we needed a defensive end pass rusher of the
like of highly rated Matt Roth or Dan Cody.
So who the hell is Lofa Tatupu? A middle linebacker. Good, good, we could do
with more strength there, so why hasn't anyone heard of him?
The simple fact is that lack of typical size and speed had led to the vast
majority of analysts writing him off as a potential choice on the first day
of the draft but Lofa was already kinda used to being written off.
Coming out of High School in Wrentham, Massachusetts he was desperate to
play for a Division 1 NCAA team and was sending his game tapes and CV all
over the place.
The rejection from his father's native Hawaii was hard to swallow as it
bluntly told him that he wasn't a Division 1 scholarship athlete.
In fact he couldn't convince anyone and ended up a level down with the Black
Bears at the University of Maine.
After a year of stand out performances Lofa elected to go west to be nearer
his mother who lived in San Diego and along the way a tape of his play at
Maine ended up in the hands of an assistant coach at the University of
Southern California.
USC was the alma mater of Lofa's father Mosi who himself had a successful
NFL career with the Patriots but USC don't take players on the basis of
sentiment. Despite giving away inches and pounds to the typical linebacker
they liked what they saw and took him on. He had to sit out for a season but
this coincided with recuperation from an injury so it was all go for the
2003 season.
23 tackles and 3 sacks in his first 2 games left little doubt that USC had
made the right decision. In his 3rd game USC thrashed the Hawaii team that
had rejected him 2 years earlier by 61-32.
He continued producing for USC over the next 2 seasons and garnered a number
of awards but with so many college prospects to rate come draft time, his
ability to make the play was overlooked by the 'experts' who couldn't see
past his lack of size and speed.
An interesting recent article on the Seahawks official website told us that
President Tim Ruskell had been assessing college prospects since his
childhood and he'd since built up a reputation as one of the finest talent
spotters in the game.
Now Ruskell maybe be good but he's not unique and there were indications
that other teams had also been casting an eye of Lofa. One of those teams
may well have been Cincinnati who had a much higher pick than the Seahawks
hence the Carolina trade to leapfrog the Bengals in the picking order.
I'm not sure but I guess this is the difference between us mere mortals and
people who end up Presdient's of NFL teams but the mortals are allowed their
say. Mike Sando's blog in the Tacoma News Tribune let the armchair
President's give vent to their feelings.
"Ruskell is blowing it big time"
"Crap, maybe we'll turn him into a tight end"
"This draft is making the Seattle Front Office look like amateurs"
"Bye, bye season tickets"
"Same old Seahawks"
The lesson is to never write off a player before he's even played a down for
your team but Lofa didn't even need a down to start changing opinions.
At the first mini-camp Lofa was calling the defensive plays. Now rookies are
just not supposed to be able to do this. His progress continued and by the
time the pre-season games were coming around Mike Holmgren was getting
excited 'wait until you see our boy from USC' he said with a smile.
Lofa then had a set back as a hamstring strain kept him out of practice and
out of the first pre-season game. Rookies can't miss much time at camp if
any if and still hope to start on day 1 of the season.
Thankfully the hamstring injury wasn't a serious one and he was back and
ready for action when Dallas rode into town for the next game where he would
make his first rookie mistake before the game had even started.
Never having been announced onto the field of play before, he came running
out with the offense and had to creep back into the tunnel to come out at
the right time, giving his teammates a huge laugh in the process.
Lofa's pre-season hadn't been perfect by any means with the late arrival to
camp, the injury and a blown play or two but he was visibly improving in
front of people's eyes.
Mike Holmgren is a conservative coach by nature and if he says Lofa is his
starting middle linebacker for the regular season then, despite the rough
edges, you know he's ready.
How would this draft 'reach' handle the harsh spotlight of the NFL? It was
like he'd been saying all along and what the coaches at USC and Seattle were
prepared to take a chance on. He's not typical size or shape but he just
makes plays.
5 tackles in his first game in a bruiser at steamy Jacksonville and 6
tackles and a sack on Michael Vick in his next game told their own story of
exactly how ready he was for life in the NFL.
He was nominated for the NFL Rookie of the Week award for his performance
against the Falcons and followed that up with further nomination in week 4
for 9 tackles and 1 sack on the road at the Redskins.
If we thought we'd seen enough we were wrong as in week 5 he made a crucial
interception on the road at the Rams that set up the winning touchdown.
This wasn't a fluke interception it was a running diving attempt 20 yards
deep into coverage. You'd have thought his team mates would have been
pleased but all he got was another ribbing for forgetting that after making
the catch he could actually get up and start running the other way.
He added 9 tackles to the interception and yet another nomination for NFL
rookie of the week.
Among the rookie stats leaders of the season so far Lofa stands alone as the
only player ranked in the top 5 in tackles, sacks and interceptions.
If he continues his present rate of tackles he will break 100 for the season
and in all likelihood be in the top 30 in the whole NFL.
It's perhaps wrong in principle to extrapolate rookie stats like that but
every time you see Lofa play you realize that he's one of the exceptions and
if ever a player was going to get better and better in the NFL its him.
Not bad for a kid out of Wrentham Massachusetts who wasn't good enough to
play NCAA football.
Andrew Robinson
November
2005
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