'Soft-spoken' Arizona DT Tia Savea becoming silent leader for Wildcats

Tiaoalii Savea is a man of few words, but Arizona’s senior defensive tackle is in line to have a profound impact on the Wildcats’ defensive line this season.

Redshirt sophomore defensive end Dominic Lolesio said Savea is “soft-spoken and doesn’t really say much,” but is “a great player and he’s a leader on the D-Line.”

“His actions speak louder than his words,” Lolesio said. “It’s good to have a solid leader on this D-Line that continues to work.”

While the 6-4, 310-pound Savea is considered a newcomer after transferring from Texas in January, he’s anything but a newbie. Savea is entering his third season at Arizona and is the first player in UA history to leave the program, play an entire college football season and re-enter the transfer portal to return to Tucson.

“It was good seeing him come back,” Arizona safety Dalton Johnson said. “I love Tia. He’s a good guy and I’m glad to have him. He’s a workhorse and we need him in the front. That was a good get.”

Savea’s roots are in Honolulu, but he grew up in Las Vegas. When Savea was 6 years old, his family moved from Hawaii to Las Vegas, which has become a football hotbed in recent years. Even though Savea grew up with football-playing family members, including his cousins in Detroit Lions right tackle Penei Sewell and Chicago Bears linebacker Noah Sewell, football wasn’t something he was interested in as a kid.

“I never really liked that,” Savea said. “Never wanted to start it. I always wanted to be a boxer and I just fell in love with it throughout my childhood. When I was young, I used to get into fights. I always wanted to fight someone.”

Savea wanted his father to steer him into boxing, “but he never wanted me to go down that path,” he said.

Savea used his passion for fighting and applied it on the football field. In 2021, Savea was a four-star prospect out of Desert Pines High School, a program that bred former UA linebacker Tony Fields II. Savea was rated by 247Sports.com as the third-best prospect in Nevada for the ‘21 recruiting cycle.

Savea signed with the UCLA Bruins, but “it was pretty rough being a freshman,” he said.

“I just didn’t have a plan for myself,” Savea said. “I just was just going through the motions. I just wanted to play on the field and that’s all what I wanted to do. But it was a good experience. I met a lot of people, good teammates that helped me be the person I am today.”

The catalyst to UCLA landing Savea was former Bruins defensive line coach Johnny Nansen, who became Arizona’s defensive coordinator under former head coach Jedd Fisch in 2022 and ‘23. Nansen “was like a father figure to me” and “he really helped me throughout this process,” Savea said.

“Just always pushing me and everything and seeing that there’s more in me,” Savea said. “He was always right there in my ear, telling me to just do better. Even if I did something good, he wants more out of it. I really appreciate him for that.”

Savea, who had two starts and appeared in 19 games at Arizona, consistently sustained injuries, but when he was healthy, he impacted the UA interior defensive line with 36 tackles, 7.5 stops for loss, a pass breakup and a fumble recovery; his takeaway was in the fourth quarter of the 2022 Territorial Cup win over Arizona State.

Savea also blocked a field goal in Arizona’s upset win over UCLA in 2022. Savea said he “didn’t really care too much about” the blocked field goal against his former team.

“I was just happy for the team and I was just happy that we won,” he added. “Just just being out there, just doing my job, that’s all I wanted to do.”

Savea ended his first stint at Arizona with a win over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl, helping the Wildcats become one of four teams in program history to win at least 10 games.

“It was a great journey,” Savea said. “I love that team. A lot of memories and all that. There was camaraderie. Those times were fun.”

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Before Fisch bolted for Washington less than a month after Arizona’s historic season, Nansen became Texas’ co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

“I was sad about it, just hearing all the stuff that was going on, and I was looking at my options,” Savea said. “’Do I stay here? Do I go? Who are they gonna bring in to coach me?’ I took my chances to go to Texas and follow Nansen again to see how it goes over there.”

Savea was one of two Wildcats to follow Nansen to Texas, along with starting nose tackle Bill Norton, who recently signed with the Los Angeles Rams as an undrafted free agent. Savea had a minimal role and appeared in four games, but he redshirted to preserve his final season of eligibility. Savea’s year at Texas was essentially a football internship, where he “learned lot of new things over there.”

Savea’s career was tethered to Nansen for the last four years, but to have a prominent role in his last season of playing college football, the defensive tackle separated himself from the coach who developed him.

Considering Arizona was in dire need of defensive linemen, especially interior linemen, a return to Tucson was a win-win for both parties. Not having Nansen as a coach “was weird at first, but I got used to it,” Savea said.

Savea said his relationship with former Arizona defensive coordinator Duane Akina, who’s now a defensive backs coach at Texas, and current defensive line coach Joe Salave’a, who’s entering his first season at the UA after replacing Joe Seumalo, was the reason he came back to the Wildcats.

Salave’a, who attempted to recruit Savea to Oregon, had “a little bit of history” with the defensive tackle, but it had been several years since the two had spoken to each other.

“Now I can call him and get advice on football and what I need to do within football,” Savea said.

Salave’a is “a straightforward guy and that’s what I like,” said Savea.

“He helps motivate us and teaches us,” Savea said. “He helps guys be accountable for each other.”

Salave’a “was really excited when I got in the building and was told that Tia decided to come back this way here,” said the UA defensive line coach.

“The thing Tia is trying to work through is understanding how we do things here,” Salave’a said. “Tia is just worried about him and how he can improve himself. If Tia — like I know what we can become — continues on that trend, it’s going to elevate everybody else in the room, because he’s a big man that can move, he’s athletic, but he’s heavy-handed.”

In the spring, Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said Savea “has done some unbelievable things in the short time” with Salave’a, who called Savea “a very disruptive” defensive lineman this spring.

“That’s encouraging,” Salave’a said. “We’re going to go to the drawing board and see how we can build from that. ... The expectations for that young man is obviously high.”

Savea and UT Martin transfer Deshawn McKnight have emerged as potential starters at defensive tackle for Arizona. Johnson said McKnight “is a transfer and is a new guy, but he really proved himself and is a great player.”

“Deshawn is an amazing guy,” Savea said. “He talks a lot and I’m not the guy to talk a lot, so we’re opposite. We go back-and-forth and just push each other and all that.”

Following a productive spring, the humbled and reserved Savea wants to let his play on the field do the talking.

“I want to prove that I can be a factor on the field,” he said. “That’s how I want to end (my college career), just knowing that I was able to be out there to affect plays and all that.”