Despite only 2 years of football experience, freshman Pupu Sepulona making an early impact

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah freshman defensive tackle Pupu Sepulona is just scratching the surface of his potential.

While that may be common for most freshmen athletes, Sepulona hasn't been playing football all that long; he started his junior year of high school.

At 6-foot-2 and 274 pounds, Sepulona looks like a football player. But he excelled at other sports, primarily volleyball and basketball, where he was a two-time Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year and two-time MaxPreps Hawaii Basketball Player of the Year.

Nobody would have been surprised if he had chosen basketball over everything else.

But the former three-star defensive tackle out of St. Louis High in Hawaii chose football at Utah. And unlike many of his freshmen peers who joined the program in spring, Sepulona joined in the summer, putting him a bit behind even more.

None of that has stopped him, though, from becoming one of the most talked about young prospects on the defensive side of the ball, where he's already showcased "superstar" potential in his limited time with the team as part of a young defensive tackle room.

While a starting role is still a bit of a stretch this early in his career, he's much more in the conversation as a consistent role player, and is one of the players who Kyle Whittingham highlights in nearly every media availability session this fall.

Sepulona has clearly made an impression.

"For me, it's just coming here with a mindset that I have nothing to lose," Sepulona told KSL.com. "Knowing that I'm a freshman, and I came late in the summer, I just had that chip on my shoulder to prove to the coaches, and that earning their trust that I can play, and I'm able to do everything that my coaches asked me to do.

"Just my mindset and my determination to make plays on the field will get me on the field and get to play during the season," he added. "So all I gotta do is just focus and stay disciplined with having such a short time in football."

As Sepulona continues to learn the sport of football, he'll be tasked with improving a defensive tackle room that lost its two starters from a year ago and features five true freshmen joining the program this year, including a potential starter in Karson Kaufusi.

Dallas Vakalahi, Aliki Vimahi and Jonah Lae'ae are the veterans in the room, but the freshman — Sepulona included — are making an immediate push to become impact players early. And Sepulona believes he has what it takes to make the room even better.

"I have the talent, but talent only can take you so far," Sepulona said. "But one thing that stands out for me is my hard work. Like I said, I only started playing this game, but just my determination on getting better every single day in the game of football just made me, you know, be in the position where I am playing D-I football at this beautiful school, University of Utah.

"All I gotta do is just continue to keep working, keep getting better, keep watching film, and continue to dominate every time I step on the field."

Defensive tackle coach Luther Elliss said Sepulona is "very athletic, strong, physical, explosive," and is one that he's been "impressed" with so far despite being with the team for just a short time.

Elliss said Sepulona, as well as many of the young tackles, have come into fall camp already well conditioned and with good weight, but he's more impressed by the "mental toughness" to get better each day of a grueling offseason and camp.

For Sepulona, he sees his multi-sport background as a big reason for being able to have what it takes to compete early in a talented room. His time in basketball helped with the conditioning and the physicality, which has made it "an easy transition for me."

"I was in shape, I had the footwork, I was explosive," Sepulona said, speaking to his basketball background. "I play D-line, so you have to be explosive by getting off the ball, go making plays. So that's what really helped for me. And then on the side, playing volleyball just helping me with my vertical, my explosive. So all of it just came together. And it just really helped me dominate the game of football."

As a senior in Hawaii, Sepulona finished the year with 18.5 tackles, including 10 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks — five of which came in one game against Kamehameha High. He hopes to have that same impact with the Utes, even if it takes a few years to get there.

But Sepulona isn't shy about where he's hoping to go this season. He's not simply biding his time, waiting for a chance to play; he's pushing for a large role in the defense and hopes to be an impact player his freshman season.

"A successful freshman season will look like winning a Big 12 championship, I'm getting Big 12 all conference my freshman year, and then God's grace, getting freshmen all American," Sepulona said. "The main thing is we win a championship, because this is a team sport. All those individual accolades will come after, but my main focus is winning a conference championship and just continuing to get my teammates better every single day."

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