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Apr. 6—MOSCOW, Idaho — The new volunteer coach helping with the University of Idaho’s offensive line this spring is a big guy.
Presumably, he has a big man’s appetite. If he ever needs to grab a sandwich and smoothie, he will certainly be welcome at the UI student-athlete fueling station. After all, he was a major donor.
If the pantheon of the Vandals’ greatest offensive linemen starts with Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer, you don’t have to go far down the list to find All-Pro, four-time Pro-Bowler, Super Bowl XLVII starter and consensus All-America, Outland Trophy finalist and 2009 Humanitarian Bowl winner Mike Iupati.
Iupati starred for the Vandals between 2006-09. The UI quarterbacks he blocked for, Nathan Enderlee and Brian Reader, must have labored under the happy delusion that pressure from the interior defensive line was a quaint football anachronism, like leather helmets.
A chronic neck injury prompted Iupati to retire from the NFL at age 33 following the 2020 season after five years with the San Francisco 49ers, four with the Arizona Cardinals, and a final two with the Seattle Seahawks.
Iupati and his wife, Ashley, and four sons have set down roots in Star, Idaho, near Boise, and for the past couple of years,
Iupati has scratched any residual football itch by volunteering part time as a College of Idaho coach. He also kept up his ties to the Vandals as a financial contributor.
This spring, though, he has returned to Moscow.
“He was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life, and he got the blessing from his wife,” to investigate coaching as a career, according to UI head coach Jason Eck, a former UI assistant nearly two decades ago who helped recruit Iupati.
“Mike is a great Vandal. We reconnected right away when I got back here,” Eck said.
A change in NCAA rules that permits Football…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/idaho-great-mike-iupati-welcome-035900118.html
Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
Publish date : 2024-04-07 03:59:00
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