As a high school senior, Jahlani Tavai had little difficulty deciding between scholarship offers from one of top teams in the Pac-12 and a struggling program in the South Pacific.
“People can think whatever they want,” said Tavai, who turned down the offer from USC. “I chose right. I chose Hawaii.”
Tavai, a sophomore middle linebacker, made 13 tackles and several keen defensive calls in the Rainbow Warriors’ 34-27 upset of Air Force last Saturday. On Monday, Tavai was named the Mountain West’s Defensive Player of the Week.
“Awesome,” defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa said. “He deserves it. He’s the leader on the field. He makes all the checks. He keeps making sure everybody is going in the right direction. He’s an inspirational leader off the field. He’s been playing hard and he’s been playing well.”
In conference games, Tavai is the MWC leader in tackles, averaging 11.0 per game. He has two sacks, although the UH media relations department has petitioned for two other tackles to be amended to sacks.
In a meeting last December after being named head coach, Nick Rolovich addressed a roomful of mostly empty-eyed players. Tavai was one of the exceptions.
“I encouraged everyone to stay on board with his ways,” Tavai said of Rolovich, a former UH quarterback and offensive coordinator. “I love the way Coach Rolo coaches. And I love the way his ideas just lift us up.”
Tavai was born in Southern California, but spent nearly a decade living in American Samoa. It was a desire to reconnect with Polynesian culture that led to Tavai choosing UH over USC. It also is why he connected with Rolovich and the new staff.
“The one thing that got to me was when (Rolovich) talked about culture, and how we should embrace it,” Tavai said.
Rolovich said it was apparent Tavai could be a role model and leader.
“If you spend a few minutes with Jahlani, you know he’s a good person at his core,” Rolovich said. “It’s a credit to his family, and how he was raised.”
Tavai was an undersized nose tackle at Mira Costa High. As a second-year freshman in 2015, Tavai played outside linebacker and rush end in the 3-4 scheme.
Lempa and linebackers coach Sean Duggan felt Tavai would be a natural fit at middle linebacker in the newly implemented 4-3. “When you’re as old as I am, you can pick up that stuff a little bit sooner,” Lempa mused.
Tavai aligns in the middle and on the edge, and attacks as a run stopper, gap filler and blitzer.”Oh, we send him,” Lempa said. “We send him a lot.”
Tavai said: “I’ll do whatever I can to get a W for the team.”
