Terry Tarver Q&A with Siosifa Moala

The impatience of some of the BCS conference schools paid off Thursday as the Rebels received a commitment from mammoth offensive G/C Sifa Moala from El Camino College. The JC Gridwire honorable mention All-American had been heavily recruited when some Pac-10 schools thought he would be a December graduate.

But when it became apparent that Moala would not be available until the summer, some of those schools backed off. Not UNLV, however.

“Yeah, Oregon and Oregon State were recruiting me very heavily until they realized I wouldn’t be on campus until summer. Since then, Colorado, Southern Miss and Colorado State have been on me pretty hard. But UNLV has been on me the whole time.”

What was it about UNLV that sealed the deal

? “Everything really. I just really loved everything about the place. The program is like one big family and the players and coaches just made me feel at home.”

Where do the Rebels plan on playing Moala?

“Anywhere on the inside (guard or center) really. It doesn’t matter but I think I will get the chance to come right in and compete at center immediately. I have great feet and I am tough so I know I can help my team somewhere.”

At 6-foot-2 and weighing 330 pounds and also sporting a 450- pound bench press, Sifa says he would like to lose some weight and arrive at UNLV around 300 pounds in order to be quicker in UNLV’s spread option.

“I intend on coming to UNLV in great shape that way if I do really well I can talk some of my friends into coming to UNLV to play. I have some friends who are very good players and I will try to get all of them to be Rebels.”

El Camino coach Gene Engle says Moala is a sure-fire Pac-10 caliber player who will impact the Rebels immediately and also reminds him of a former ECC star Sete Aulai. Aulai is the starting center at BYU and received second-team all-conference honors following this past season.

“Sifa is a big-time player," Engle said. "Some of the bigger schools are going to be sorry they backed off of him. He will be a good one at UNLV. He is tough and has great feet. He reminds me a lot of Sete but Sifa is a lot bigger.”