In the eyes of BYU’s defensive coaches, there is no replacement for experience.
That’s why head coach Kalani Sitake and now full-time defensive line coach Ilaisa Tuiaki were pleased when 25-year-old defensive lineman Atunaisa Mahe, a fifth-year junior, told them he plans to return to the team next year.
“We definitely have the players, and we definitely have the coaches. I feel it all comes down to being disciplined and going back to everyone doing their (job). We are put in great position to make plays. It comes back to watching more film, just being a student of the game, and executing. We aren’t doing enough of that.” — BYU defensive lineman Atunaisa Mahe
Mahe, a former three-star recruit from West Jordan High who served a mission to Tonga for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before enrolling at BYU in 2018, is coming off perhaps the best game of his injury-plagued career, a six-tackle performance against ECU.
The Cougars will need a similar outing from the 6-foot-1, 310-pounder Saturday (5 p.m., FS2) if they hope to slow down Boise State at Albertsons Stadium.
“Any time you get experience, it is huge,” Tuiaki said Tuesday. “I mean, we are going into a conference (Big 12) that is going to be tough to play in, and ‘Naisa has played for us for these past few years. So that kind of experience and just his physicality and what he has brought, will help.”
Mahe is also a “great culture guy and a good fit for us,” Tuiaki said. “It is always huge when you get guys like that coming back.”
Mahe has appeared in six of 4-5 BYU’s nine games this season and has made 13 tackles and registered a quarterback hurry while getting between 20-30 snaps a game while rotating with Caden Haws and Bruce Mitchell at the nose tackle position.
Why is he coming back?
“I am taking advantage of the extra year (for COVID), and I feel like I have never really had two consecutive years of playing,” he said. “I really want to have a solid year for the rest of the year, and then do my best when I come back next year.”
Mahe is majoring in experience design and management in the Marriott School of Business and expects to graduate next spring. He would like to play in the NFL, but knows he probably needs to show he’s more durable.
“Man, I feel like that is always the dream goal, playing in the NFL, especially when you put so much time and effort into something you love so much,” he said. “You have to at least give it a chance.”
But first things first. Mahe and the other veterans on the defense are eager to prove that they can be a force in November, after things went south in October for not just the defense, but the entire team.
“We definitely have the players, and we definitely have the coaches. I feel it all comes down to being disciplined and going back to everyone doing their (job),” he said. “We are put in great position to make plays. It comes back to watching more film, just being a student of the game, and executing. We aren’t doing enough of that.”
A lot of people wrote Mahe off when he was diagnosed with venous thrombosis in the summer of 2020 and was forced to miss the entire 2020 season.
“Basically, I developed a blood clot in my brain,” he said. “If it was in my artery, it would have been a stroke, but it was in my brain.”
Mahe was on blood thinners for about seven months, and missed the 11-1 season.
He appeared in 12 games last season, making 26 tackles and posting a sack in the 21-19 win over Washington State. But he played hurt the latter half of the season, and needed surgery last February for a torn labrum and rotator cuff.
He missed the first three games this season while recovering.
“My journey at BYU has been a rough one, because of the (blood clot) and all the injuries, but I am happy with it,” he said. “I’m (satisfied) because of the people I am surrounded with, and the coaches I have worked with. They have always been uplifting and motivating. So I want to come back.”
Cougars on the air
BYU (4-5)
at Boise State (6-2)
Saturday, 5 p.m.
Albertsons Stadium, Boise, Idaho
TV: Fox Sports 2
Radio: KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM