When Nick Harris arrived at Washington in the summer of 2016, he saw the continent wearing No. 50 and asked a veteran teammate what position Vita Vea played. Harris, a 270-pound (at the time) guard, prayed Vea was a fellow offensive lineman so he wouldn’t have to block him. The bad news soon arrived: He would have to clash with the 6' 5", 345-pound Vea every day at practice. “So this is what college D-linemen look like,” Harris thought to himself, resigned to spending the next four years slamming into a series of human brick walls.
Harris has since learned that no one else in college football looked—or played—like Vea.