For Baylor nose tackle Siaki 'Apu' Ika, BYU road trip also a homecoming

PROVO — If there is any doubt which player will act as the tour guide when No. 9 Baylor descends on the Wasatch Front this weekend, just look for the guy with all the tickets.

Siaki "Apu" Ika is the one who has been hitting up his teammates for extra tickets to suffice for his whole family, which will likely descend upon LaVell Edwards Stadium (8:15 p.m. MDT, ESPN) Saturday with green-and-gold instead of the usual blue-and-white of the home crowd.

The bout between No. 9 Baylor and No. 21 BYU is the highest-ranked matchup in Provo since 2004, and is a hot commodity for plenty of reasons.

For Ika, especially.

"He's just asking everybody for tickets," said Baylor wide receiver Gavin Holmes of his teammate after practice this week, "so I'm sure he's got a lot of people coming to the game. But yeah, I'm sure it's really exciting for him."

Ika's family is from Salt Lake City, where the former East High star grew up, and if things hadn't gone a different direction, he might have been inviting that family to Provo to watch him play throughout his collegiate career.

Ika is one of three Utah prep products on Baylor's roster, along with former Bingham lineman George Maile and American Fork long snapper Garrison Grimes — the son of second-year offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes, who previously worked at BYU in two separate stints from 2004-06 and 2018-20.

Originally committed to the Cougars, Ika opted to sign with LSU after graduation in 2019. After playing in four games with 17 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss for the 2019 national champions, Ika entered the transfer portal and followed defensive coordinator Dave Aranda to Baylor.

At Baylor, the 6-foot-4, 358-pound mountain of a defensive tackle was named Big 12 defensive newcomer of the year a year later and now finds himself playing on the green side of a unique home-and-home nonconference series with BYU that will soon be a conference regular once the Cougars join the Big 12 next July.

But everything happens for a reason, and Ika's path to Waco, Texas, has taken him as far as any football player from Utah — and has a strong chance at the NFL soon enough.

"He was a highly recruited kid who decided to take his options elsewhere. So it doesn't surprise us that he is where he is," BYU defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki said of Ika. "I was surprised that he came back, honestly; I thought he played well enough to get a shot in the league. He's a good player."

Tuiaki doesn't see the fourth-year junior returning to college football for another year. So the defensive tackles coach, who is a distant cousin of the Ika family, knows exactly what to expect — a monster of a player.

The former four-star recruit had two tackles as the Bears jogged to a 69-10 win over FCS UAlbany in Week 1, while the Cougars were running circles around South Florida en route to a 50-21 road victory.

Most weeks, Tuiaki will cheer on his younger cousin's success. Most weeks, that is.

"I'll always cheer for him, always be happy for his success," he said. "After the game last year, we met outside and talked for a while. We're happy for his success so far."

The same goes for BYU's head coach, who remembers when Ika committed to him as a high school underclassmen, as well as when he de-committed and left for LSU prior to his time in Waco.

"I love that kid. Love this family," Kalani Sitake said. "We offered him way early, so I saw a guy who was going to be a beast and that I loved when he committed to us first.

"But I'm really proud of him. I grew close to his family, and tried to follow him and support him as much as we can. Even though his path didn't come through BYU, I think it's important to support him as much as we can. Obviously, I won't be supporting him as much as I want on Saturday."

Like Tuiaki, Sitake also visited with Ika and his family after the Cougars' 38-24 loss to the Bears and will continue to follow his career, which he also believes will come in the NFL, in part due to the progress he's made under Aranda.

"I have nothing but great things to say about him," Sitake said. "You see what he's doing, he's starting to really master his craft. And he's getting a lot of attention for it.

"The way they work the scheme is really elevating his game," he added. "And he's learning more and more about his position. He's definitely going to be a tough one for us to prepare for."

It'll be a reunion of sorts in Provo for Ika, a preseason All-American who has become a vital part of the Bears' defense in filling gaps and freeing linebackers and edge rushers to make plays around him.

"I just need to do my job consistently," Ika told Baylor media. "I don't want to say I have a pretty hard job. But it's pretty vital for our defense, whether or not I get the job done."

Vital even for a return home, said Aranda, the former Utah State defensive coordinator in charge of leading the reigning Big 12 champions into Provo, where the Bears are 3.5-point underdogs.

Part of the coach's job will be to keep the Utah native settled while he battles the emotions of a homecoming. The big man has been waiting a long time for this one.

"Sunday morning, he was up early watching film on BYU," Aranda said. "I think he will be ready to play this game.

"I think we're going to have to do a good job as coaches to not make it be bigger than what he needs to be. I think that will be the concern: for him to narrow the focus and control what you can control. But if you're talking about motivation, the motivation is there for him."

Related topics