A year ago, Ute linebacker Levani Damuni had to be carted off of the field during spring practice after tearing his Achilles, causing him to miss all of the 2024 season and setting in motion a lengthy rehab process.
“Hardest part of that was probably just at the beginning when there’s a lot of questions and things are real uncertain,” Damuni said Thursday after wrapping up another spring practice.
Throughout his rehab, the Stanford transfer linebacker leaned on a lot of people — his wife, Taylor, his fellow linebackers and the athletic training staff — while watching last season from the sideline.
Before the injury, the 2024 season — his second at Utah — was likely meant to be the last of Damuni’s college career.
The Ridgeline High product took his talents to Stanford out of high school, playing four seasons for the Cardinal and becoming a team captain in the process. Despite his success at Stanford, where he led the team in tackles with 76 in 2022, the draw of returning to his home state led him to join Kyle Whittingham’s program.
Damuni’s mom, Val, once sold her wedding ring in order to pay for Little League football fees, providing the opportunity for him to keep playing the sport that he loved, and the opportunity to move back home and be close to his family was something he couldn’t pass up.
“I’ve loved it. It’s been great seeing the family on the weekends, going home too when we have the early kicks and so it’s been great. I’ve loved it. It’s the whole reason I wanted to come closer to home,” Damuni said in 2023.
Despite his status as a starter at Stanford, Damuni didn’t start at Utah to begin 2023 — that went to Lander Barton and Karene Reid — but he appeared in most every game as LB3. When Barton suffered an injury against USC that year, Damuni started the final six games and finished with the most tackles on the team, 87.
“Week by week he’s gotten better. You can see his play increase, his production increase and nothing but good things coming from him. And I think he’s gaining more and more confidence every week. I think that’s the biggest thing,” linebackers coach Colton Swan said in 2023.
By all accounts, 2024 was setting up to be a big year for Damuni and the Utah linebacker group, but injuries decimated the potential — Damuni was out for the season and Reid missed four games. In part due to Damuni’s absence, the Utes converted safety Johnathan Hall to linebacker, and that move has stuck heading into this season.
With Damuni back in the fold and Barton returning, plus Hall at LB3, Swan’s group is set up to be strong in 2025, at least on paper. Now, the group — and the defense as a whole — has to prove it, and they are hungry for a bounce-back season.
Damuni, going into his seventh year of college football, is now the veteran of the linebacker group and has grown into a new leadership role this spring, He was named to the team’s spring leadership council in March.
“I think just really leaning on what I know, using my experience, the things I learned at Stanford and the things I learned from when Karene was here. Seeing how he led the room and just keeping those good things going,” Damuni said.
Damuni’s leadership is one of many reasons Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley is excited to have the veteran return this season.
“I would say the biggest benefit is his leadership,” Scalley said. “When you’re not with us during the season, your focus is on rehab, you’re not in the room as much, they don’t hear your voice as much.
“This is a guy that brings a ton of experience, a ton of leadership, so love having him. He’s still kind of on the mend, but we’re getting him reps in practice and by the end of spring, my guess is he’ll be fully, he’ll be a full go.
“This is a guy that brings a ton of experience, a ton of leadership, so love having him. He’s still kind of on the mend, but we’re getting him reps in practice and by the end of spring, my guess is he’ll be fully, he’ll be a full go.”
— Utah DC Morgan Scalley on Levani Damuni
“But love having him back primarily, obviously he’s a playmaker, but the leadership factor. You lose Karene, you’ve got Lander in there, but the experience that Levani has, that leadership is big time.”
That guidance has proven to be vital for some of the young linebackers that joined the program this spring, including four-star talents Christian Thatcher and Cyrus Polu, who Swan said are “swimming a little bit” in their first taste of college football.
“It really helps to have that leadership ahead of them. A guy like Lander Barton, Levani Damuni, who they have been through the fire and know what it takes and they’re just kind of following their lead,” Swan said.
After having football taken away from him last spring, Damuni is grateful to get the opportunity to be on the field with his teammates again and to make the most of what will be his last season as a college player.
“I feel great. It’s been just about almost exactly a year this week that I tore my Achilles and so yeah, the strength staff and the trainers, they did a great job just helping me out and it’s been great to be back out here, put the pads on,” Damuni said.
In just a little over five months, he will get to make his long-awaited return to the field in Pasadena as the Utes open up the season against UCLA.
