The Arizona football program lost a key member when defensive tackles coach Mike Tuiasosopo (along with Greg Brown) left for Colorado. Coach “Tui” was not only one of Mike Stoops’ original staffers, but he has been a great recruiter for the Wildcats.

Tui’s recruiting prowess was three-fold. He is strong in Southern California, he re-opened the pipeline to Hawaii that was lost in the Mackovic era and he was strong with the Polynesian community.

All one has to do is look at the players Tuiasasopo was either the lead recruiter for, or had a key role in recruiting, to see what his value to the program was.

2010

Aiulua Fanene DT

Sani Fuimaono DT

Willie Mobley DT

Kirifi Taula DT (with Garrett Chachere)

2009

Trevor Erno LB

Sione Tuihalamaka DT

Taimi Tutogi FB

2008

Solomon Koehler OL

Vuna Tuihalamaka LB

2007

Bryson Beirne QB (with Mike Canales)

Joe Perkins DB

Hans Phillipp OL

Apai Tuihalamaka DE

Kaniella Tuipulotu DT

2006

Conan Amituanai OL

Colin Baxter OL (with Eric Wolford)

Jovon Hayes (with Wolford_

Mana Mikaele DT

Nate Ness DB

2005

Willie Tuitama QB (with Canales)

Rbrn Britton OL

Michael Shelton DE

B.J. Vickers WR

Adrian McCovey LB

For a more detailed breakdown of how the Cats will miss Coach Brown and Coach Tuiasopo, check out WildcatSportsReport.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 9th, 2010 at 11:18 pm and is filed under Arizona Wildcats Football, Sports. Tags for this post: Arizona football, Arizona Wildcats, Eben Britton, Mike Tuiasosopo, Willie Tuitama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.