SE: Tuiasosopo Brings K-State Connections, Impressive Resume and Trust to Wildcat Defensive Tackles
Apr 03, 2019 | Football, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
Mike Tuiasosopo saw the standard before he got the opportunity to coach it.
K-State's first-year defensive tackles coach, who's worked at several different schools on the West Coast, spent just one season at UCLA's outside linebackers coach. It happened to be the season the Bruins met up with K-State in the 2015 Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, where the Wildcats nearly overcame a 31-6 halftime deficit.
"I knew in the core of this program was a toughness about them," Tuiasosopo said. "We had to hold on for dear life."
More than four years later, Tuiasosopo can see why. Seven spring practices into his K-State tenure, he's not coaching areas he typically does early with a new program.
"When you talk about effort and watch our effort, that's been impressive to me as a coach because at some places when we've gone in brand new you had to really get on your guys to play hard. Not here," he said. "There's a standard that's already been here."
With the effort and toughness parts in place, Tuiasosopo has been able to focus on his bread-and-butter as a coach: Fundamentals. Hand placement, leverage, first step and stance all fall within this category of coaching.
"The one thing, with where we're at right now, is to continue to challenge them to really hone in on the details of their work, all the fundamental things. The fundamentals are a big, big deal to me," Tuiasosopo said. "You take a young man like Trey Dishon, for instance. Yeah, he's played a lot of ball here, but there's always room for improvement. There's always room for improvement for me as a coach. That's the challenge for not just me but for our players to continue to grow."
What's ironic is Tuiasosopo traced his ability to teach fundamentals to a K-State connection in Mike Stoops. Tuiasosopo worked for the K-State alum and former Wildcat coach for seven years when Stoops was Arizona's head coach.
"He really made me stop and think about becoming a better teacher of fundamentals and really honing in on the very basic, simple things," Tuiasosopo said. "Mike was a great fundamentals coach, and he really challenged me."
Tuiasosopo does the same to his players. Challenge and teach. Rinse, repeat.
"He's a pretty intense guy on the field," senior defensive tackle Jordan Mittie said, "but one thing we all really appreciate is how we go into film the next day and he's teaching us. He's not as much on us but is just teaching us the game. All the experience he has in the Pac 12, he brings a lot of credibility, so he's a pretty easy guy to listen to."
Tuiasosopo's resume does bring some automatic credence. He's coached under Urban Meyer at Utah and tutored a pair of future NFL players during his time with the Utes (Sione Pouha and Jonathan Fanene). He's helped several others get to the NFL in his stops at Nevada (Jorge Cordova) and Arizona (Ricky Elmore, Brooks Reed, D'Aundre Reed, Earl Mitchell and Lionel Dotson) and UCLA (Takkarist McKinley).
It's not information he passes out in meetings, either. Mostly the Wildcats knew before they met him.
"Any time you get a new coach, you go to a Google search and see where he's been and all that," Mittie said. "He's also shown us some film of guys he's coached at Arizona, UCLA, so we watch what he's trying to get us to do."
To be more effective, Tuiasosopo said he's figured out that trust must come before anything else. His players must trust him, and vice versa. It's why developing that confidence in one another has been a major focal point this spring as well.
Whether it be dinners with his position group, one-on-one meetings or casual conversation in passing, strengthening that coach-player relationship has been a recurring emphasis this spring. Tuiasosopo hopes it can help build his group to be "the strength" of K-State's defense.
"When you're working with young men, it's all about trust," he said. "They have to trust me that I'm going to continue to help them elevate their game. The old adage is people don't care about what you know until they know how much you care. That's just the way it is. That's the way I've always coached. Trust is built."
Mike Tuiasosopo saw the standard before he got the opportunity to coach it.
K-State's first-year defensive tackles coach, who's worked at several different schools on the West Coast, spent just one season at UCLA's outside linebackers coach. It happened to be the season the Bruins met up with K-State in the 2015 Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, where the Wildcats nearly overcame a 31-6 halftime deficit.
"I knew in the core of this program was a toughness about them," Tuiasosopo said. "We had to hold on for dear life."
More than four years later, Tuiasosopo can see why. Seven spring practices into his K-State tenure, he's not coaching areas he typically does early with a new program.
"When you talk about effort and watch our effort, that's been impressive to me as a coach because at some places when we've gone in brand new you had to really get on your guys to play hard. Not here," he said. "There's a standard that's already been here."
With the effort and toughness parts in place, Tuiasosopo has been able to focus on his bread-and-butter as a coach: Fundamentals. Hand placement, leverage, first step and stance all fall within this category of coaching.
"The one thing, with where we're at right now, is to continue to challenge them to really hone in on the details of their work, all the fundamental things. The fundamentals are a big, big deal to me," Tuiasosopo said. "You take a young man like Trey Dishon, for instance. Yeah, he's played a lot of ball here, but there's always room for improvement. There's always room for improvement for me as a coach. That's the challenge for not just me but for our players to continue to grow."
What's ironic is Tuiasosopo traced his ability to teach fundamentals to a K-State connection in Mike Stoops. Tuiasosopo worked for the K-State alum and former Wildcat coach for seven years when Stoops was Arizona's head coach.
"He really made me stop and think about becoming a better teacher of fundamentals and really honing in on the very basic, simple things," Tuiasosopo said. "Mike was a great fundamentals coach, and he really challenged me."
Tuiasosopo does the same to his players. Challenge and teach. Rinse, repeat.
"He's a pretty intense guy on the field," senior defensive tackle Jordan Mittie said, "but one thing we all really appreciate is how we go into film the next day and he's teaching us. He's not as much on us but is just teaching us the game. All the experience he has in the Pac 12, he brings a lot of credibility, so he's a pretty easy guy to listen to."
Tuiasosopo's resume does bring some automatic credence. He's coached under Urban Meyer at Utah and tutored a pair of future NFL players during his time with the Utes (Sione Pouha and Jonathan Fanene). He's helped several others get to the NFL in his stops at Nevada (Jorge Cordova) and Arizona (Ricky Elmore, Brooks Reed, D'Aundre Reed, Earl Mitchell and Lionel Dotson) and UCLA (Takkarist McKinley).
It's not information he passes out in meetings, either. Mostly the Wildcats knew before they met him.
"Any time you get a new coach, you go to a Google search and see where he's been and all that," Mittie said. "He's also shown us some film of guys he's coached at Arizona, UCLA, so we watch what he's trying to get us to do."
To be more effective, Tuiasosopo said he's figured out that trust must come before anything else. His players must trust him, and vice versa. It's why developing that confidence in one another has been a major focal point this spring as well.
Whether it be dinners with his position group, one-on-one meetings or casual conversation in passing, strengthening that coach-player relationship has been a recurring emphasis this spring. Tuiasosopo hopes it can help build his group to be "the strength" of K-State's defense.
"When you're working with young men, it's all about trust," he said. "They have to trust me that I'm going to continue to help them elevate their game. The old adage is people don't care about what you know until they know how much you care. That's just the way it is. That's the way I've always coached. Trust is built."
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