Playing in Controlled Chaos – A UTSA Q&A with Josiah Tauaefa
There's an expression used in football to describe a player with extreme hustle and intensity. Someone like that, you say, plays with their hair on fire. For those who've watched UTSA Roadrunner football for the past three seasons, it may be heart wrenching to imagine the flowing curled mane of #55, Josiah Tauaefa, anything close to being on fire. However, it is not hard to understand the analogy. Tauaefa has been UTSA's version of a heat-seeking missile (for fun, check this out) for the past three seasons and has become one of the most popular and individually successful players in the program's history.
Coming to the Roadrunners from Lake Dallas High School in Corinth, a hop, skip, and a jump north of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, Tauaefa came to UTSA with a pretty impressive pedigree. He was an All-State Honorable Mention and named the District 6-4A Defensive Most Valuable Player his junior year and the District 6-5A Defensive Most Valuable Player as a senior. Oh, and he was also first-team all-district as a fullback and tight end. Yeah, he was that good.
He redshirted his freshman year at UTSA – but still made Conference USA's (C-USA) Commissioner's Honor Roll – and exerted his full force on the gridiron in 2016. He became UTSA's first Freshman All-American honoree and was named the C-USA Freshman of the Year, C-USA All League, and C-USA All-Freshman Team. Again, if you've watched any UTSA football over the past three seasons, you don't need me to tell you how awesome Tauaefa has been.
After graduating from UTSA with a degree in Communications, Tauaefa made the leap to forego his senior season with the Roadrunners to enter into the NFL Draft and follow in the footsteps of previous Roadrunners who've been drafted, David Morgan and Marcus Davenport. Tauaefa took some time away from preparing for his pro day recently to talk about his time at UTSA, his family, and that gorgeous head of hair.
EM: One of the things I'm always curious about since I started doing these is learning about how guys got started playing ball. I know you're a Texas guy through and through so I'm assuming you started playing early on, right?
JT: I started when I was four years old. My dad and some of my older brothers played football in high school and it was just a sport that we gravitated toward. We played all sports growing up, but football has been one of the constants of my life.
EM: What is it about football that you love? What I mean is, since you said it's been the constant, what about the sport has made it that important to you and to your life?
JT: I love the aggression of it. I think it's the closest thing to war that you can get without it being war. It's organized chaos basically. Also, it's not like other sports where one guy can take over, like basketball.
With football, even if you have a running back that's really good, if the center doesn't snap it to the quarterback well and the quarterback doesn't hand it off to the running back then you don't have anything. The aggression, the physicality, I love it. It's the best team sport that there is.
EM: Knowing how well you played in high school career, I'm assuming you had several choices in terms of where you could continue your education and football career. What ultimately led you to choosing UTSA?
JT: I think I only had about five or six offers. UTSA was my first offer in the spring of my junior year. They offered me and were consistent with reaching out and checking up on me. The would send me mail and show me love. I actually had two official visits lined up before National Signing Day, one was to UTSA and the other one was to Colorado State.
I'd heard Colorado State was a beautiful campus and a beautiful field and the whole city of Colorado Springs is awesome. And, I don't doubt that, but when I went to UTSA, it had a family atmosphere that I felt and fell in love with. The city is incredible and the campus was beautiful. The proximity to my family was more reasonable for them to come and see me play. That was a big part of the decision.
EM: So, full disclosure, I'm a UTSA season ticket holder and for the last few years something I've personally enjoyed seeing is a ton of #55 Tauaefa shirts in the stands near my seats. I can only assume that's your family. How great has it been for you to have that kind of support all these years?
JT: It's incredible. I've been so blessed with such a solid foundation of love and support and encouragement from my family. Since day one, my family would be at my games. My older brothers and my grandparents would show up. My parents would be there, of course. My dad coached me at the pee-wee level. Not a lot of guys can say they've had a good chunk of their family at all of their games at the collegiate level.
That's been huge for me. This past season, going 3-9 was rough for me. You give it all you have and still come up short was very frustrating. I think either at Southern Miss or UAB, we lost and I was sad about it, but my mom and my aunt and my uncle traveled up all that way to see me and watch me play and support me. Coming out of the locker room, they put a smile on my face.
EM: You got recruited by Coach Coker but played pretty much your whole career under Coach Wilson. They’ve both been great for the program and from the outside looking in they've both done it differently. What are your thoughts on the only two coaches in program history?
JT: Yeah, they are definitely different. Coach Coker was sort of at the end of his coaching career with us and he might have been different when he was younger, but as he got there toward the end he was more laid back and observant in the way that he coached. He took mental notes and would adjust things later on.
Coach Wilson is more of a hands-on guy. He would get in the drill and show you how to do it if you're not doing it well. He would coach you up if you're not getting something. He would get in there and roll around with the bag and show you this is how to do it. Two different styles of coaching for sure, but both have my respect.
EM: You burst onto the scene with the Roadrunners as a freshman. You came in hot and just got better over the years. As a fan, I can see that, but for you, as a player, how do you feel you got better from your freshman year until now?
JT: I felt like I've gotten more comfortable as a player. Like you said, I did come out hot that first year, but in the back of my mind I was playing with this timidity almost. I'm sure you probably couldn't see it by the way I was flying around and throwing my body around.
At the end of the day, it's a game and the more you play it and the more you're in it, the more it starts to slow down for you. By this past season, I was able to see things more clearly, pre-snap even. I was able to diagnose what was about to happen and be able to get to where I needed to get.
EM: This is obviously the first time that we've gotten to talk, but I've seen interviews with you over the years and you don't seem to have the personality off the field that you play with on the field. Do you just have one of those switches you can flip come game time that lets you dial up the intensity?
JT: Yeah, absolutely. That's something that I think I've been blessed with. I've been around guys that might not be able to flip that switch. They're nice guys off the field and that carries over to on the field and vice versa. There's a guy who's a dog on the field but doesn't know how to act. I feel like that switch is very important for a football player, for a student-athlete to be able to do. That switch you talked about is something I've been able to control my whole life.
Coach [Jason] Rollins, who was my position coach my first two years and the defensive coordinator this last year, one of the things he would always tell us is be where your feet are. If you're feet are on the football field, be a football player. You know what I mean? If your feet are in the classroom, be a student. If you're anywhere else, be you. That's one of the things I've taken to heart and tried to act out as much as possible.
EM: Switching up a bit, how difficult was the decision for you to decided to enter the NFL Draft this year instead of coming back for a senior season?
JT: It was pretty tough. I thought about it and prayed about it a lot. I talked with my family and talked with a lot of different people. It is just something that changes the course of your life. Right now, I'd be going through fourth quarter drills with my team if I had not done that.
But I feel like I've made the right decision. You can spit facts at me all day long about, you know, this is how many underclassmen that have already come out and these are your chances and this and that. I believe wholeheartedly that I made the right decision and that the Lord hasn't brought me this far to only bring me this close. I believe that He has plans for my life and that I'm okay with whatever is to come.
EM: How do you spend your days now as you get ready for your pro day?
JT: I spend six days a week training, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. till about 3-4 p.m. and I do work on Saturday mornings. I know most people get off of Saturdays, but not me right now. We have a thing called 'Big Bench Saturdays' where we get in there and have a little swoll session and then I have the rest of Saturday and Sunday off. That's how I spend my days right now up until pro day.
EM: I'd be remiss if I didn't ask about the physical trait that Roadrunner fans know you best by, that luscious hair of yours. When was the last time you had a haircut and when did you know that you could pull the long-hair look off?
JT: [Laughs] Yeah, I get it trimmed every now and then because it gets too long. But, a haircut? I'd say the last time I had my hair short was either the end of my eighth grade year or my beginning of my freshman year. It wasn't a total shot in the dark that I could pull this off because my older brothers both had long hair and we have the same genes so I could kind of preview what I'd look like.
You do go through that phase when you grow like your hair or even your facial hair out where it's awkward and you can't do anything with it. It's too long to put any gel or product in it and it's too short to put up in a hair tie. It was awkward for a little while, but I ended up pulling through.
EM: Last thing for you, Josiah. I know you're not that far removed from it, but what will you miss about being here at UTSA?
JT: I'll miss the people and I'll miss the opportunities. There's a lot of opportunity to volunteer at UTSA. The platform that UTSA gave us for the city of San Antonio, a lot of people look up to athletes, even college athletes, and to be able to use that to help other people is something I'll miss.
Being a Roadrunner means family. When I'm up here in Dallas or when I'm across the country like in California and I see someone with a UTSA t-shirt on, I'll throw 'em the birds up and say 'Go Runners' and nine times out of 10, they'll respond. I think that's something that's really cool.