University of Tennessee Athletics
MAPU: LIFE CHANGES
August 10, 2006 | Football
Aug. 10, 2006
By Austin Ward, UT Sports Information
He's changed.
His teammates have already noticed.
His coaches can see it.
Tennessee junior J.T. Mapu can feel them, and the defensive tackle has no complaints about those changes.
Two years away from the football field, away from teammates and family, far away from a comfort zone, has a way of bringing about some transformations. Despite two years away from football and UT while serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, those changes in Mapu might just have made him a better player.
There's little doubt that it's made him a better man.
He's changed.
Mapu had to evolve, since spreading the message he wanted to deliver required a willingness to speak up. Once as talkative as a mime with laryngitis during his first stint with the Vols in 2002-03, Mapu had to shed his shyness to get the words he wanted out to the people he said needed to hear them.
"It was a great experience for me to be able to grow out of that shell," Mapu said. "I guess it was just the message that I went out to share that brought that out of me.
"It was something that really meant a lot to me, so I wanted to share it so badly with other people. It was something that really helped me out in my life, so I wanted other people to know about it."
So Mapu opened up. He went door-to-door, first in Houston and later while helping rebuild Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, talking. All day long, the introverted Vol was now the one looking for somebody to talk to.
"Get up, leave the apartment at 10:30 in the morning, go out and walk around or ride bikes and knock on people's doors," Mapu said. "Just try to find people who were in need of help and just talk to them or do whatever to try and help them out."
The big, quiet kid still isn't exactly a garrulous giant, but he's certainly come a long way.
Before practice started this fall, Mapu stood in front of the media and talked about his faith. He talked about his experiences during the previous two years. He didn't duck any questions. He didn't look uncomfortable at the microphone, and his eyes weren't looking for an exit.
Those eyes kept contact with the audience, and they spoke volumes.
He's changed.
That natural Samoan strength is still there, of course, but two years out of the weight room and away from the watchful eyes of strength trainers and coaches is going to make a difference.
Mapu wasn't allowed to lift weights on his mission, but he said that's nothing new. The former first-team high school All-America said he didn't do much weight training while leading Kahuku to consecutive Hawaii state championships.
And Mapu had his bike and tried to run as much as he could - he was allowed 30 minutes each day to exercise - but he admitted he had plenty of work to do to get back into football shape after returning to Rocky Top.
"It's been rough," Mapu said. "I've lost a lot being away from the game for two years. You definitely lose a lot. I'm just trying to be patient with myself, trying to work myself back into shape and trying to work to get back on the field."
Through the first week of practice, he's been impressive back on the field. Mapu is now listed at 6-foot-4 - a half an inch taller than when he left Knoxville - and he says he has gained 20 pounds since the last time he suited up for the Vols in 2003.
"It's hard to believe, but he looks exactly the same as he looked two years ago," senior defensive tackle Justin Harrell said. "Two years, and he's able to come back and be in shape and do good things on the football field. If I took two years off, I don't think I'd look like that."
Looking the part and playing it, though, are completely different things. But Harrell and the coaching staff have both been pleasantly surprised by Mapu's progress, and the question now is no longer whether or not he can contribute this season, but how much.
"He's ahead of where I thought he'd be," tackles coach Dan Brooks said. "We've just got to keep him coming."
"I don't doubt that he can be a big-time factor on the defensive line," Harrell said. "Just seeing how he's coming out here and working and going about his business for the first few days of practice, I'm expecting him to play this year.
"Right now, I just think he's trying to get back in the swing of things. He's been off of football for two years, and that's a long time. Right now, he's just trying to absorb everything and trying to regain all the knowledge he had before he left. Just trying to get his feet back under him again and get used to playing football again.
"We're glad to have him back. He's a big part of this defense again."
He's changed.
So has his team.
These aren't the same Vols Mapu left behind two years ago. Mapu could only follow UT in letters and news articles mailed to him on his mission, and the 5-6 season of a year ago surely read like fiction to a player who was a part of 18 wins and two Peach Bowl appearances during the first part of his UT career.
Mapu came back to find it was all true.
There were plenty of new faces, but enough familiar ones to the 22-year-old junior to return to Rocky Top and inherit a leadership role for the first time.
"Oh, I definitely have tried to come back and be a leader," Mapu said. "First of all, I had to try to get to know some of the new guys. I've been gone for two years, but the guys have been really great since I've been back.
"They've tried to help me out, and they look to me for some leadership. I've been here before, but I also look to them because I've got a lot to learn."
New faces. New schemes. Maybe a new position.
"It feels like I'm just coming back in here as a freshman," Mapu said.
But the Vols are fortunate, since there aren't very many freshman classes that include guys with 24 games and 11 starts at the collegiate level already on the résumé. Not many freshmen come in with built-in credibility and thrust themselves into a leadership role when practice opens.
Even fewer have the experience - football or otherwise - and the perspective Mapu brings to the Vols.
"It's going to be a real challenge for him and the strength and conditioning staff to get him ready, but just having him back here on campus is a plus," head coach Phillip Fulmer said. "I hope it puts things in perspective for the rest of the team a little bit to have their priorities in order."
Now Mapu is hoping to restore a bit of order for the Vols in the standings and strengthen an already imposing defensive line. His teammates and coaches know better than to doubt him.
"As his confidence grows, his leadership is going to continue to grow, too," Harrell said. "He'll be all right."
Mapu may still be a practice or two, a week or two, maybe even a game or two away from being the player he wants to be for the Vols. But that's OK with Mapu - he's taking the latest round of changes as they come.
"I don't know what I'll be capable of right now," he said. "I take it a day at a time. Just trying to work and see if I can do it. My body isn't used to this right now, so I'll just see how it goes.
"Hopefully I'll be able to help out."
Some things never change.
