06-23-2019, 08:15 PM
There he red-shirted as a freshman before getting consistently better, and more productive, each season as a defensive tackle. In his last season (2017), he was the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, Polynesian Player of the Year, consensus All-American, and first-team All Pac-12. He played in 13 games, starting 12, with 45 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss (top 5 nationally), including 10.5 sacks, and two forced fumbles.
Below are a handful of plays that led to those stats, and demonstrating the traits the Vikings coaches and players mentioned he showed in OTAs this spring.https://www.dailynorseman.com/2019/6/23/18701082/hercules-mataafa-defensive-tackle-minnesota-vikings