It can be tough to find your shine when surrounded by stars, but BYU sophomore Faletau Satuala has found a way to do it.
Playing among the highly touted, including Jack Kelly, Isaiah Glasker, Keanu Tanuvasa and Tanner Wall, the safety from Bountiful is not only the Cougars leading tackler, but he played a major role in securing the program’s biggest win of the season against rival Utah.
Separating the ball from Ute receiver Tobias Merriweather with a locomotive-like hit late in the fourth quarter was Satuala’s last blast on a night where he produced a career-high 12 tackles and forced a fumble.
It wasn’t that long ago when Utah had Satuala on their campus during a recruiting visit. They pitched him hard. So did UCLA. The two things that swayed him to BYU was defensive coordinator Jay Hill and Kalani Sitake’s secret weapon — love.
“The feeling of love and the culture of the team was way different than my other two visits,” Satuala told the “BYU Sports Nation GameDay” pregame show. “For some reason, it felt way different being around the players here and seeing how the coaches care so much about your family and how you are doing personally outside of football. There is definitely a different feeling and a different kind of love — way more here than I felt at other places.”
At 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, with the speed of a receiver, Satuala has all the tools to be a menace in the secondary.
“Just being a little bigger. I would say the length on making a couple of plays,” he said of his physical advantages. “Then with the speed too, like being able to set the edges pretty good and being a little more physical. Being on the bigger side of safeties, I’m able to take on blocks a little better and play more physical.”
Through seven games, Satuala has 43 tackles, including five-and-a-half tackles for loss, a sack, an interception and two forced fumbles. Raider Damuni’s injury at Arizona expanded his responsibilities against Utah.
Satuala, Damuni, Wall and Talon Alfrey give the Cougars a secure rotation at safety, which allows the rest of the defense to play free and cause chaos. When they do, the secondary turns into a circus.
During BYU’s 18-2 run over the last season and a half, BYU leads the nation with an astounding 31 interceptions. Satuala has two of them.
“We have great coaches who put us in the right positions and then, obviously, at the end of the day, the players have got to make the plays,” he said. “So, a lot of great athletes just being in the right place making sure that we’re doing our job.”
Being in the right place is more mental than physical and that is an area where Satuala feels he’s getting better.
“Understanding what (the) offense is trying to do and where they are trying to get to is definitely the biggest thing that I’ve learned game in and game out,” he said. “My brain is getting a little better and faster at recognizing what’s going on.”
Satuala and the No. 11 Cougars (7-0, 4-0) play at Iowa State (5-2, 2-2) on Saturday in front of another sold out stadium (1:30 p.m. MDT, Fox). As far as the preseason goals go, the Cougars are already bowl eligible, they have already defeated Utah, and they are back in the AP Top 25 — but there is more on the to-do list.
“Our coaches really push going 1-0 every week and that will get us to where we want to be,” Satuala said. “The Big 12 championship is probably the biggest goal we have right now, but realistically, you just got to win each week.”
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.