Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty
INDIANAPOLIS – When you are taken away from the game of football for two years in college, one has to wonder if other interests naturally pop up.
That doesn’t appear to be the case for Laiatu Latu.
After the Colts took Latu with the 15th overall pick in the 2024 Draft, the decorated pass rusher made his way to Indianapolis the following day for his introductory press conference.
With the presser winding down, Latu was asked about his interests off the field.
“None,” a laughing Latu says. “It’s crazy.”
All ball?
Somewhere Shane Steichen is smiling.
“Before having it taken away, I never took for granted football. I loved it so much,” Latu says. “I looked up to my big brothers that were at U-Dub (Washington) and I tried to take after them. No one can be ready for adversity like that. I just have a different appreciation for the game. I love every minute being out there on that field.”
While the reason for Latu not playing football for 2 years—the Washington medical staff not clearing him following a spinal procedure—brings up some obvious long-term NFL concerns, it also further ignited an innate passion for the game of football.
Miraculously, Latu went from a pedestrian freshman season at Washington (0.5 sacks, 1.5 tackles for loss) to siting out football the next two seasons, and then returning to the game with UCLA in 2022 with consecutive double-digit sack seasons, producing the most sacks in college football from 2022-23.
The passion of separation making the heart grow fonder certainly occurred for Latu in his time away.
But the fact that he returned as a dominant pass rusher, with simply training by himself, and not in team settings, is quite remarkable.
“I was already in love with football, but being in that down period where you don’t really have anyone else but yourself,” Latu now says. “I had my family, but I was in Seattle (and) they were in California. I just had to take it upon myself where I was taking little tools, little techniques (and) little drills from a pass rush coach here. I would see T.J. Watt or J.J. Watt do this in a game so I’m going to take that and mix it into my drill. It was a bunch of just really falling in love with the sport, falling in love with my craft and just learning as much as I can during that down period because I did tell myself I was going to be at a stage like this.”
As Latu now transitions to the next level, there are many reasons why the Colts are optimistic about him potentially impacting than most early rushers.
One, Latu proved he can rush on either side of the defensive lien formation.
And two, and probably more important, Latu has a variety of pass rush moves that he proved to be successful with in the Pac-12.
“So Von Miller says to keep three moves in your bag, but I like to work a lot of things because I see pass rushers as being in comfortable and uncomfortable situations,” Latu explains. “I like to rep consistently certain moves and break it down into slow motion and to really see how I’m feeling in certain ways. I see that come out come game time. Like I might be running, and I might not even throw a move, it’s just a reactionary thing that comes out from the heart – from the extra work I was putting in and the consistency that I was doing that. It just translates to the field.”
It’s clear Latu views pass rushing as an art, on top of having tremendous athleticism.
Him getting to fully showcase that was by no means a guarantee when he got word from the Washington medical staff about his neck issue.
And it was also confusing for what Latu was feeling.
“What the doctors were telling me I didn’t agree with because I didn’t feel that at the same time,” the California native says. “It was easy for me not to give up. It was easy for me to be confident with everything. Obviously, it was emotional because I’m being told and I can’t control what they’re telling me. So obviously it’s emotional, but I never got in a negative mindset. I never got down on myself. I always believed that I was going to work towards this.”
The story has the sounds of a future movie and the Colts hope they can add a few more must-watch scenes to it.
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Colts Expecting Early Impact From Laiatu Latu was originally published on 1075thefan.com
