Mo Fifita is a 6-foot-1, 320-pounder who gets down in the trenches and slugs it out, brawn on brawn. If that means tying up two 300-pound offensive linemen to free up linebackers, so be it.
In other words, he was born to play nose tackle. And it doesn’t hurt he has Polynesian bloodlines.
Ever since Bob Apisa was the first Samoan All-American player at Michigan State in 1965 and 1966, a wave of Polynesian athletes with big bodies and nimble feet have swept over the sport at the high school, college and pro levels.
In fact, Fifita – whose Tongan full first name Moseses is pronounced Moh-ses-eh – has caught the attention of the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame, the Hawaii-based group that inducted Apisa in 2018. Air Force’s senior second-year starter has been named to the watch list for the 2019 Polynesian College Football Player of the Year that the Polynesian Hall presents.
If Fifita’s play at Air Force hasn’t been enough, his “watch list” recognition is another reminder he was overlooked by Football Bowl Subdivision programs, especially those light on bulk up front. Air Force was the only FBS school to offer the Snohomish (Wash.) Glacier Peak star a scholarship.
“That was my goal – to play (FBS) football,” Fifita said during a break from fall camp. “I can’t say what other (schools) were thinking, but I was confident in my ability and my work ethic to get better to play at this level.”
Fifita, like many Air Force, Army and Navy recruits, knew little about military academy football until the Falcons recruited him. Those are the sleepers that the academy coaches seek and target. Next, it is a matter whether the military lifestyle wards off the prospect.
“I came on my visit and liked it,” Fifita said. “I definitely considered that, but the biggest part of my decision was I wanted to play college football at the highest level. I thought this was my best opportunity. I gave it a shot and it’s worked out.”
Not even boot camp with rope climbs and walls to scale at his weight slowed him down.
“I consider myself pretty athletic,” he said. “I didn’t do too bad on the obstacle course.”
Another aspect of Fifita’s high school athleticism overlooked on the recruiting trail was his wrestling ability. His Glacier Peak senior year he was 49-0 and a state champion. Wrestling techniques and defensive line play, as any good football coach knows, go hand-in-hand.
Fifita attended the Air Force prep school his first year out of high school and played football and wrestled. He won the heavyweight title of the 2016 National Collegiate Wrestling Association, a non-profit organization formed largely for schools without wrestling programs due to Title IX gender equity cuts.
“I loved both sports in high school,” he said, “but I knew when I came on my visit I wanted to play football at Air Force.”
Upon admission to the academy as essentially a redshirt freshman, Fifita didn’t play his first year on Air Force’s varsity. But he was a sophomore backup in 2017 with 20 tackles, three tackles for a loss and a sack. Then he broke into the starting lineup in 2018, finishing with 25 tackles, 1.5 tackles for a loss and a sack.
“I’m focused on getting better every day and helping out the team whatever way I can,” he said. “I’m getting in extra work, staying focused and going 100 miles per hour. I want to be more physical and disciplined doing my job this year. My No. 1 goal this year is to win more games.”
Air Force is coming off back-to-back 5-7 seasons under 13th-year head coach Troy Calhoun after his Falcons made bowl trips nine of his first 10 seasons.
“Our goal to make a bowl game is the same every year,” Fifita said. “We’ve got to go 1-0 every week. That’s our goal right now. I’m optimistic. All of the guys on our team have been grinding in the off-season.”
Grinding, especially in the trenches, is exactly what Fifita signed up for — in addition to the five-year military commitment as an officer — when he capitalized on his chance to play at Air Force.
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Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant. Foreword by Tony Dungy.
— Raye of Light featured at 2019 National Sports Media Association Book Festival
http://shanahan.report/a/the-case-for-duffy-and-medal-of-freedom
Don’t believe the myths at Duffy Daugherty’s expense about Bear Bryant’s motivation to play the 1970 USC-Alabama game or myths about the Charlie Thornhill-for-Joe Namath trade. Bear Bryant knew nothing about black talent in the South while he dragged his feet on segregation.
http://shanahan.report/a/myths-that-grew-out-of-1970-alabama-game-with-usc
http://shanahan.report/a/mystery-solved-in-thornhill-and-namath-myth
David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and biographer; “History writes people out of the story. It’s our job to write them back in.”
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