SALT LAKE CITY — Days before fall camp started in 2016, Kavika Luafatasaga was thrust into a new football program without a familiar face and with lofty expectations placed upon his shoulders.
The transfer from Arizona Western College had been heralded and highly recruited for his physicality as a linebacker at the JUCO level. He was expected at the U., maybe unfairly, to become a sort of cure-all to an inexperienced position group reeling from the losses of dynamic linebackers Jared Norris and Gionni Paul to graduation.
But Luafatasaga wasn't ready.
Coaches said he was out of shape.