Savaiinaea's Transformation From Last Year to Now

Growing up, he and his brother Jonah Savaiinaea often competed against each other while their father recorded so they could study techniques and break the film down.

Jonah Savaiinaeae will be an honorary team captain, alongside kicker Tyler Loop, in the week one match-up against Hawaii after an eventful offseason that saw him drafted by the Miami Dolphins.

• “Super excited for him to be back in town,” Julian Savaiinaea said. “I haven’t seen him since the draft party. I’m definitely stoked to see him again.”

Julian Savaiinaea's transformation

Savaiinaea came into the Arizona program in 2023 at around 245 pounds and redshirted that year. In the 2024 season, during which he appeared in just six games, he weighed approximately 260 pounds. He logged four tackles, a sack and a forced fumble in those games.

Over the course of three years at Arizona, Savaiinaea has gained 30 pounds and will most likely be getting much more playing time this time around.

• "Shout out to our nutrition team and our strength & conditioning team, Tara (Tralewski), Jackie (Hatchew), the whole staff," Savaiinaea said. "Every offseason, we have a plan and then our goal weight and then our plan to meet those goal weights. For me, it was taking it day by day, meeting those calorie intakes and just seeing what was right for my body heading into the season."

He credits his improvement to working with defensive line coach/associate head coach Joe Salave'a, who is widely known as a guru at the position and one of the best recruiters in Division I college football.

Improving in technique

• "Coach Salave'a has done a lot of things for me," Savaiinaea said. "From the beginning, just basics, techniques and fundamentals, using hands, tearing off of blocks and just being physical overall.

Salave'a had nothing but good things to say about the 6-foot-3, Tafuna, American Samoa native, as well as three weeks ago in a press conference after a practice.

"Julian is a young man that's incredibly instinctive," Salave'a said."(He's) really got good awareness, just hadn't had an opportunity until now to get on there and he's starting to push for more reps."

Defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales has noticed the leaps that Savaiinaea took to make himself a better player on the line as well over the two camps.

• "He's really focused on developing his game," Gonzales said. "Obviously, Jonah gave him an opportunity, growing up, to go against one of the best o-linemen. The development of last year to this year has been super impressive. He's earned a spot in the rotation; he's one of the inside pieces that has enough twitch and enough power and enough strength to do what we asked him to do. I'm super excited to watch him play."

After a long four weeks of practice, Savaiinaea and the rest of the defense have been itching to put a helmet on somebody else that isn't a teammate. That opportunity comes this Saturday when they play the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors.

• "Finally, we're playing somebody else," Savaiinaea said. "It's about putting in that work in camp and spring and being able to put it against another uniform."

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