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As many of his players have done, search on YouTube for "Ogre 6."
Select "Ilaisa 'Ogre 6' Tuiaki vs. Travis 'Colorado Kid' Chaffin."
Now, this video is more than six minutes long, but skip ahead to the 3:13 mark and save yourself hearing from Colorado Kid about how people deserve to be brutally beaten, and how it's hard to pronounce "Ilaisa."
You need only watch for 7.5 seconds.
Tuiaki counters Chaffin's jab, Chaffin flails with his right hand before wheeling toward the cage in retreat, Tuiaki drops him with a left to the chin, and the referee essentially saves Chaffin's life by pulling Tuiaki off of him.
Ogre 6 had some mean hands. And so do his defensive linemen.
Tuiaki is 36 and hasn't fought competitively for five years, finishing 7-1 in rings and cages, but players say his knowledge of hand-to-hand combat is partially to credit for Utah's nation-leading sack total (39) through eight games.
"That's what the game is up front, on the D-line: It's just a hand battle," said senior captain Nate Orchard, tied for second with 12 sacks.
Junior defensive tackle Clint Shepard's first memory of Tuiaki is as his high school rugby coach, when Tuiaki picked a friendly wrestling match with a 6-foot-3, 310-pound teammate of Shepard's.
Tuiaki "picked him up and slammed him on his head and submitted him within, like, 10 seconds," Shepard said.
"I've seen his videos. The guys he's going against, they have six-packs, and they're pretty ripped, and he kind of has a little gut on him, but it just goes to show: It's not all about brute strength and physical attributes. It's about being able to utilize what you have. That's what he's helped our defensive line do."
Tuiaki and head coach Kyle Whittingham said that it's not exactly novel: Defensive line coaches have applied martial arts concepts for ages. But Shepard said the intricate handwork taught by Tuiaki is unlike anything he's done before.
And that's somewhat ironic, given that when Tuiaki began mixed martial arts while working as an English teacher and assistant football coach at Kearns High, he didn't much know what he was in for.
"I just had nothing else to do," Tuiaki said. "My brother [Lolo] was currently doing it at the time and I just decided, 'You know what, I'm going to go try it out, just to compete a little bit and see how it goes.'"
Ultimate Combat Experience, a Utah MMA promotion, paid him $50 per bout. He was a paunchy 5-foot-10, facing more experienced heavyweights who had him outreached by a loaf of bread, but, "he just walked in and was an amazing athlete, and he beat guys who he shouldn't have been beating," said UCE owner Mike Stidham.
There's no telling how far he might have gone, in the opinion of Ultimate Fighting Championship vet Sean O'Connell, a former Utah player who works as an on-air personality for ESPN 700.
"I'm not exaggerating, and I'm not joking at all: If E. Tuiaki — if he wanted to, if he fought in the correct weight class and he trained diligently — he could make it to whatever level he wanted to in the fight game. He was that good. It's just raw talent. He's a freak tough guy."
Tuiaki was also rising quickly through the coaching ranks, though. A graduate assistant at Utah for the Sugar Bowl season in 2008, he followed his former SUU coach and then-Utah defensive coordinator Gary Andersen to Utah State to become running backs coach.
Andersen and Stidham tugged on him from opposite directions — Stidham hoping Tuiaki would stay committed to fighting, Andersen asking Tuiaki to hang up the gloves.
"He's like a dad to me," Tuiaki said. "He just didn't want me to get hurt."
He fought once as an Aggie, and he finally lost.
Andersen suspects Tuiaki started to realize that a Division I football coach does well enough without being attacked for $50. In Logan, Andersen soon charged Tuiaki with the important task of building the Aggies' Polynesian profile.
Told now that Tuiaki seems soft-spoken for an ace recruiter/tough guy, Andersen laughed.
"Not around me," he said. "Not around the people that he's close with. He's very vocal and even, I would say, flamboyant at times."
At the U., he makes use of that charm in overseeing in-state recruiting efforts, and if you mention Tuiaki to his players, they'll likely flash a devilish smile at the thought of him.
Tuiaki, with his typical modesty in the presence of media, said they could all take him in the cage.
But Shepard? He's not going to make the same mistake as the Colorado Kid.
"He's getting a little bit slow now. He's kinda getting a gut. But I think he might still have a little bit left in the tank."
Twitter: @matthew_piper —
Ilaisa Tuiaki, aka "Ogre 6"
As a player • Provo native started for four years at running back for Snow College and Southern Utah — recruited to the latter by former Utah defensive coordinator and current Wisconsin head coach Gary Andersen. Was named team captain at SUU and also served as captain for the Thunderbirds' rugby team.
As a fighter • Fighting as a heavyweight at just 5-foot-10, started 7-0 before losing his last fight while an assistant coach at Utah State in 2009. Described as a "streetfighter" whose greatest strength was punching. Why "Ogre 6"? Because Tuiaki was an avid "Halo" gamer, and the top two "Halo" players in the world at the time, twins Dan and Tom Ryan, went by Ogre 1 and Ogre 2. Six was Tuiaki's playing number at SUU. He still trains in mixed martial arts to stay in shape.
As a coach • Began coaching as an assistant at Kearns High from 2006-07, then became a graduate assistant working with strongside linebackers Stevenson Sylvester and Mike Wright for Utah's 2008 Sugar Bowl season. Followed Andersen to Utah State to coach running backs and special teams and coordinate recruiting the next year, and then accepted a job as fullbacks and tight ends coach at the U. in 2012. When U. defensive line coach Chad Kauha'aha'a was hired by Andersen at Wisconsin in 2013, Tuiaki assumed Kauha'aha'a's duties. Also oversees in-state recruiting for the Utes. —
No. 5 Oregon at No. 20 Utah
O Saturday, 8 p.m.
TV • ESPN