After an intense rivalry match against in-state rival BYU, and surviving a six turnover game, Sunia Tauteoli was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week after helping secure a close win against BYU (20-19) on Saturday, Sept. 10.
“It is pretty exciting,” Tauteoli said. “It was one of my goals, and I will continue to play on, so as the weeks go by, I hope to continue this level of performance, but I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be the Pac-12 player of the week.”
This is Tauteoli’s first Pac-12 Player of the Week honor, but this isn’t the first for Utah. Last week, punter Mitch Wishnowsky was awarded Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week.
In the first 16 seconds of the rivalry game, Tauteoli intercepted a pass thrown by BYU quarterback Taysom Hill, and ran the ball to the end zone to score a touchdown for Utah.
As Tauteoli ran the ball to the end zone, all he could see was Hill running across to get him, but he soon saw Hunter Dimick and Kylie Fitts following and knew Hill wasn’t going to catch him.
“I couldn’t hear [anything],” Tauteoli said. “I just blacked out, and then when I got into the end zone, it was kind of a surreal moment. I didn’t expect it. I just keyed on the opportunity and made the best of it. My mind was going crazy. A minute later I had to go back out there and get my mind right again. It was like a high, and then I had to focus again.”
Another big moment for Tauteoli, besides catching the first interception of the game, was the assisted tackle at the end of the game that stopped BYU from completing a two-point conversion that would have won the game for the Cougars. And for Tauteoli, that was the most memorable moment of the game. He also picked off another one of Hill’s passes later in the game.
Though Tauteoli assisted the final tackle and caught an interception, he was not the player of the week in the Utah system. According to head coach Kyle Whittingham, it was senior Reginald Porter who played his best game, and Tauteoli agreed.
“I’m not a selfish player,” Tauteoli said. “I love my defense and Reginald does deserve it. This was his first pick and so he played everything out.”
However, Whittingham is still happy to see Tauteoli get the award.
“He is very active and tough,” Whittingham said. “He isn’t the biggest guy, but he is very instinctive, very active and he plays fast. He is a very quick individual, and it is great to see him get that award.”
As Tauteoli and his team gear up to travel to California to compete in their last non-conference game against San Jose State on Sept. 17, Tauteoli said he hopes to be a better tackler and get his assignments perfect so that the team can work together better.
“I feel like we could execute better as a defense,” Tauteoli said. “As far as the linebacker group, we can do better tackling, be better at assignment and alignment, and everything that we do, and try to be more smart in getting ourselves positioned.”
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