CEDAR CITY — As little as two months ago, Nick DiPadova's eligibility for his senior football season at Southern Utah University was still in question.
A myriad of knee injuries and surgery while at BYU had eaten away at DiPadova's career. He played in just four games with the Cougars with just one tackle, but he had two major injuries.
He had time to heal from the first knee injury (occurred in 1997) while serving and LDS Church mission to the Philippines. The second injury, which occurred after he returned, set him back on the field, but he continued to move forward in the classroom.
In using his classroom time wisely, DiPadova graduated from BYU in exercise physiology, but still had two years of eligibility remaining — he thought.
He was at a crossroads, both as a player and student at BYU, and he made the decision to transfer to Southern Utah University.
In his first, and what could have possibly been his only season in Cedar City, DiPadova, from Woodland Hills, Ca., racked up a team-high 133 tackles along with two sacks, two interceptions, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. He was named Div. I-AA third-team all-America.
"It was a great move for me," said DiPadova, who is just two classes away from receiving his MBA from SUU. "I was behind somebody (at BYU) and I didn't want to sit out and just play special teams or get in here or there. I wanted to play."
During the offseason, SUU petitioned the NCAA to grant DiPadova (6-foot, 205 pounds) a medical redshirt because of a year he lost at BYU due to injury. After several months of persistence with the NCAA office, the release finally came just several weeks before camp opened in August.
"It took them a while to get the year back, but I worked all summer thinking I was going to get it back," he said.
First-year SUU coach Wes Meier is glad to have him back.
"He's showing signs of stepping it up even to another level," Meier said. "He's a great asset to us on the defensive side of the ball."
In SUU's 34-31 victory over Weber State last Saturday, DiPadova recorded a team-high 8 1/2 sacks and forced a fumble.
As a team, the T-Birds held the Wildcats to 112 yard rushing (317 total yards) and three field goals instead of touchdowns when they were knocking on the endzone door.
"He's got the instinctiveness that makes him a great linebacker," Meier said. " . . . He enables himself to get into position to make plays."
More than half of the defense is returning starters and with the addition of Marques Harris (University of Colorado), Meier expects the defense, anchored by DiPadova, to be even better.
"(With Nick) it enables us to play a looser type of defense and take more chances," Meier said. "He's got good quickness on blitzes and gets from sideline to sideline."
With a year under his belt, as well as the majority of his offensive and defensive teammates, DiPadova also expects greater things.
"Defensively and offensively we're better all around. Last year it was new for everybody," he said. "I took a while for everyone to get going, but I think we're going to be real good."
The T-Birds (1-0) have the week off before traveling to Sacramento State on Saturday.
E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com