Connections were key for Bulldogs in adding three to thinning offensive line group
It doesn’t take much for an offensive line meeting room to start to look a bit thin, literally and figuratively, and Fresno State lost a few big pieces there.
Netane Muti obviously is one, taking a pass on a senior season of college football to enter the NFL Draft.
But the Bulldogs since signing day identified players who could get the program’s numbers in the room back up to a comfortable level, and further address what last season had started to become an irksome issue for offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and line coach Roman Sapolu.
“We made a big push,” Grubb said. “Roman and I got together and I just said, ‘Hey, we have to get bigger.’”
Fresno State made inroads with its 2020 recruiting class and at the start of the fall semester added three more offensive linemen in Tilini Livai, Paul Matavao-Poialii and Toreon Penright along with quarterback Jalan Early.
Livai is 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds.
Matavao-Poialii is 6-4 and 330.
Penright is 6-4 and 265.
“There are some big pieces there, and I mean literally,” Grubb said.
With the additions the Bulldogs are back up to 19 scholarship offensive linemen – much healthier than when Grubb first got to Fresno State in 2017 and inherited a group of 11 with not much balance between classes.
Recruits add Power Five potential
The Bulldogs had missed out on Matavao-Poialii at the finish line a year ago when he made a late decision to sign with Baylor. He redshirted there last season, and in May was in the transfer portal.
“I had recruited him for a long time, and he contacted us as soon as he went into the portal,” Grubb said. “We’re excited to get him here. We think he’s a big-time player. He’s massive, and he had SEC offers, Big 12, Pac-12, everything. We’re really glad to get him back here and he’ll have four years.”
Livai initially signed with USC in 2019, but that opportunity fell through.
“Our offensive line (graduate assistant) Jordan Loeffler is from Hawaii and Tilini his first few years, that’s where he was living,” Grubb said. “Well, Jordan played at Hawaii and then was coaching high school football over on the Islands and he coached Tilini, so there was a direct link there.
“When Jordan found out that he was going to prep school after it fell through at USC, he brought his film to me and I was like, ‘Whoa, this guy is just a road-grader guard.’ So we started working on it from there.”
Penright, a 2020 recruit from Cajon High in San Bernardino, didn’t get a chance to take the SAT or ACT before school was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. But when the NCAA waived that eligibility requirement the Bulldogs, who recruited 2020 defensive back Kamron Forest out of the same school, jumped in.
“He’s super athletic, long, and we’re excited about him as well,” Grubb said.
Livai and Penright enter as true freshmen and Matavao-Poialii as a redshirt freshman. If the NCAA grants football and fall sport student-athletes an extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19, Matavao-Poialii could end up playing four seasons for the Bulldogs.
All three offensive linemen add to close to two tons of underclass talent in the position group, spaced among redshirt sophomores, sophomores, redshirt freshmen and freshmen.
“When I first got here I just remember we had just one scholarship offensive lineman, total, in the freshman and sophomore class,” said Grubb, who was on former coach Jeff Tedford’s first staff. “We had 11, I think it was, and between those two classes to have one guy on scholarship. …
“But we have a lot of young guys that I think are going to be pretty special players. I think Dante Atkins is going to be a big-time guy, Bula Schmidt, Tyrone Sampson and Elijah Carson could be better than all of them.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 1:26 PM.