First he was chosen to break the rock in late July, a sign of the hard work that Mandy Alonso put in at Virginia this offseason. Last weekend, Alonso’s teammates picked the defensive lineman as the player who deserved first selection of a jersey number.
His effort has been unquestioned heading into his fifth season at UVa. But the defensive end recently admitted that he’s had some extra motivation as he’s put in that work, something that was missing a season ago.
Fellow defensive lineman Aaron Faumui returned to the program for the spring semester after opting out of the 2020 season. Faumui and Alonso had spent the two previous years not just playing alongside each other on the defense, but also working out together in practices and in the weight room and in conditioning—and, as Alonso tells it, pushing each other every step along the way.
“It feels like old times, honestly,” he said of Faumui’s return to the fold. “I’m really glad to have him back because we’re boys, and missing him for a whole year kind of sucked. It’s good to have him back.”
“Honestly, he boosts my level of effort, of everything,” Alonso continued. “He makes me work harder because he’s so good on the field and he’s just a really talented football player. He’s great competition to have there and I love playing with him.”
Faumui played in all but one of UVa’s 27 games in his first two college seasons, missing only the Belk Bowl shutout of South Carolina at the end of his freshman year because of an illness. He finished that 2018 season with seven tackles, including a strip sack recovered by the Hoos in a win against Louisville. According to stats compiled by PFF College, Faumui led all of UVa's D-linemen with 13 quarterback pressures, and graded out as the third-best pass rusher on the team behind outside linebackers Chris Peace and Charles Snowden.
He became even more disruptive as a sophomore in 2019, particularly down the stretch as the Hoos clinched their first-ever Coastal Division title. Faumui had back-to-back games of 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks in the final two regular-season games against Liberty and Virginia Tech. He logged a career-high seven tackles in the win against Tech and earned an 88.7 overall grade from PFF—the best for any UVa defensive player all season in 2019—for his performance against the Flames.
At the end of the 2019 season, Faumui’s 78.8 pressure grade from PFF was both best on the defense, and the best for a D-linemen in any of head coach Bronco Mendenhall and defensive coordinator Nick Howell’s first four seasons at UVa. His 40 total pressures were also most on the defense, and tied for second-most in the country among players expected to return for the 2020 season.
“Just thinking back, I think Aaron played really, really well,” Howell said this week.
But Faumui did not return to UVa last fall, instead choosing to opt out amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That 2020 season was the first at Virginia under new defensive line coach Clint Sintim, the former Wahoo great and All-ACC linebacker who was hired when Vic So’oto joined the staff at USC. Sintim admits now that he’s still getting to know Faumui, who has been unavailable to media this summer, “but I can say confidently that I think Aaron Faumui loves football.”
“Aaron is a really talented football player,” Sintim added, “and I think Aaron plays with mindset and he plays with a hard edge.”
Alonso believes returning in time for spring practices helped Faumui “get back on his feet” from a football perspective. The two veterans spent the summer doing extra D-line drills after workouts, allowing Faumui to get himself back into football shape before the start of camp.
Coaches have seen the benefit of that additional offseason work the past few weeks.
“I think like anybody, when he came back in the spring, you can’t just stop doing something and then pick it up and just do it again. It takes time,” Howell said. “The time and effort he has put in, I think, is gonna lead him to where he wants to be and where we need him to be and I’m pleased with what he’s done. I think he’s done a nice job and yeah, we like Aaron. It’s good to have him here.”
“I asked him not too long ago, I said, ‘Well how do you feel compared to where you were two years ago?’ And he feels that he’s better,” said Sintim. “From what I can see, and obviously game day will be huge in telling, he’s doing things, he’s applying the coaching, and he’s progressed thus far over camp.”
Even without Faumui last year, the UVa defense finished 11th in the country with 3.2 sacks per game. Of the team’s 32 sacks, 9.5 came from the defensive line. The Hoos did lose Jowon Briggs, whose three sacks led the D-line, after he left the program and transferred to Cincinnati late in the year. Alonso and Adeeb Atariwa each got to the quarterback twice, the most among returning defensive linemen.
Faumui’s return adds one more experienced option to a nucleus on the defensive line that also includes sophomore Jahmeer Carter. Sintim would like to see the Hoos develop more depth on that D-line, and believes Faumui being back has motivated everyone at the position, not just the guy who broke the rock or got the first pick of jersey numbers.
“I think a guy like that makes our room better,” said Sintim. “I think Mandy and Aaron feed off each other really well. And I think just the nucleus of the guys that we’ve got creates a better environment for the defensive line here.”
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