Tyler Manoa sized up the 400-pound offensive lineman standing in front of him and didn’t see a friend so much as someone he wanted to pummel.
“On the field, we had a problem,” Manoa said this week of going against Atonio Mafi in high school.
Off the field, the Bay Area natives liked to hang out together. So it was no surprise that they went from rivals to roommates once they arrived at UCLA this summer.
The freshmen also joined forces after Mafi initiated a position switch from guard to nose tackle.