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Utah Cover Boys Have Come A Long Way To Fame
The Deseret News Feature Story
Dec. 21, 2001
By Linda Hamilton SALT LAKE CITY - An offensive lineman, who couldn't even play in two games, as a cover boy? A former backup to a returning all-conference running back as a cover boy? Not even seniors Ed Ta'amu and Dameon Hunter, Utah's left guard and starting tailback, would have predicted a couple of months ago that they would grace the front cover of Utah's Las Vegas Bowl media guide. Hunter was confident since last spring that he would take over as the starting running back from Adam Tate, a second-team All-Mountain West selection, but he surprised himself by gaining 1,396 yards in his 11-game regular season. That's the second-best total in Ute history behind the late Carl Monroe's 1,507 in 1982. Ta'amu jokes that his impressive statistics, like a school-record 25 de-cleater blocks at BYU and a 13.4 per-game de-cleater average, 21.2 average over his past three games, are a mistake. He says the NFL rating services, National and Blesto, are confused. "I think they're looking at someone else, but they got me on the list," he said. "I think they're using someone else's stats for me. I don't know who they're looking at. I don't know how you could be fourth on any of those lists and not make all-conference." Ta'amu's reference is to the way the official All-Mountain West list picked by coaches and sports writer had him only as an honorable mention, although the Las Vegas Review Journal's all-league team as voted by sports writers only had him on the first team, where the Utes are sure he belonged. That Hunter and Ta'amu accomplished so much in their senior years - Ta'amu's shortened by a two-game suspension and Hunter's shortened by sharing time with Tate, who gained 819 yards rushing - is why they are Utah's cover boys. They are among Utah's most NFL-eligible players, and most of their reputations are based on just this season's work. Hunter was a backup last year. Ta'amu moved from defense to the offensive line in the 2000 season and had to learn his position, then was slowed by a two-game suspension after misdemeanor assault charges were filed against him last summer in an altercation with a neighbor, who was also charged with a misdemeanor. Tuesday's Las Vegas Bowl (1:30 p.m. MST), against storied University of Southern California on ABC-TV, gives them an additional game at the end of their shortened collegiate careers. It's a real Christmas gift. "It's a great opportunity, given that I missed my first two games," said Ta'amu. "It's one more game that I can help myself become a better player and hopefully take it to the next level. Hopefully I will be able to help the team and help myself in the process to become a better player, a better team." Ta'amu is pumped that his relatives in Samoa will be able to watch him play on ABC. Making the media-guide cover and seeing his name on the NFL lists is nice. "It's a good thing that I've been recognized like that," he said, "but it was tough not accomplishing some of the goals that I was hoping to accomplish, like making all-conference, making the conference championship, stuff like that." Winning the bowl would help. Hunter also hopes he can do his career and team a favor Tuesday. He's 10th on one NFL list. "It really makes me hungry because I'm 10, and I want to be one," he said. "I'm just going in there very focused on executing all my assignments, executing what I need to do - try to get better at things I need to improve on, basically studying their defense, knowing their defense to the fullest. I'm very excited for the game. It can help the team out as well as individual players." Hunter said he was able to concentrate more on improving his football for 2001 because he'd gotten his classwork under control. Coming out of junior college, he had to scramble in the summer of 2000 just to qualify and didn't have the chance to work out. Since the 2000 season, he worked hard on weights and running, lost 15 pounds on a no-red-meat diet, then built himself back up. He calls it a 100 percent improvement, which was why he was confident start in his senior year. "I believed it. I really did. I knew what type of runner I was, and what I could do on the field, and I knew I didn't even touch that last year," he said. It would have been nice to have had last year, too, "but you can't go on the past," he said. "I'm just grateful for what I did." Bowl statistics don't count toward school or NCAA records, but Hunter wants the personal satisfaction of beating Monroe's total, needing 112 yards after a career-high 226 in his last game. That was the 38-37 loss at Air Force. He was injured on the second-to-last play. The elbow bruise is fine now. The career-high "was great for me, but it would have put a little touch on it if we would have won the game," Hunter said.
The 226 yards was the fourth-best regular-season game ever by a Ute. Mike Anderson gained 254 in the 1999 Las Vegas Bowl.
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