“After the visit, (Saturday) night we had a little meeting,” he said. “We talked about how the visit went, how it compared to other visits. I think this is one of their favorite visits that we’ve taken.
“With Nico’s grandfather here, my dad had someone to talk to a lot in Samoan, because my dad doesn’t speak English — not very well, but he tries his best. Having him accompanied by someone old, but someone that has the experience and knows where his grandchildren are heading to, that kind of gave him an idea of how Tennessee is and stuff like that.”
Mauigoa said “it’s the experience they had over here” that made the trip stand out to his parents, and he and his family enjoyed learning about a few different aspects of Tennessee’s program, from how the Vols could develop him on the field to their facilities and academic support.
“From talking with them, they like — because me, I look at the football side of it,” he said. “My dad looks at the facilities side of it. My mom looks at the academic side of it, so that’s how we base our look.
“I know my mom doesn’t know nothing about football, so (she) will look at the academic side of it. My dad rarely speaks English, so he’ll look at, like, the facility and is there, like, everything an athlete needs to work with? I look at the football side of it, the development side of it. So I think everything that they saw was there.
“The new facility, my dad loved it, that they showed us. Academic side of it, my mom had a lot of questions on the football players when we had our little meeting with the football players and with the academic advisors. I know my mom loves asking questions.”
Mauigoa said enjoyed spending time with Tennessee coach
Josh Heupel and “getting to, like, build that relationship and have that trust with him.” Vols offensive line coach
Glen Elarbee also talked extensively with Mauigoa, telling him how Tennessee can help him as a player and what he could add to the Vols’ offensive line.
“I talked with Coach Elarbee. He’s a really good guy,” Mauigoa said. “He never had a five-star. He always got the three-stars and two-stars kind of kids, so I know, with him developing those kids, (getting them) to the NFL, that means a lot.
“Three-stars and two-stars, I don’t know, but, to me, those are the kids that somewhat — they hardly make it to the NFL. But Coach Elarbee, he will guide you. He will coach you. He will love you. He’ll make sure that you get it right, and he’ll put you in the right spot.”
That’s important to Mauigoa, who said he’s focusing on “the development” he could get at each school.
“Academics is there. Every school, every college that I took my official visit to, academics is there, so we don’t have to worry about academics,” he said. “It’s the development part of the football. I can get myself to the NFL if I put in the work. But I need someone to just guide me there.”
Iamaleava, who posted “#INEEDFRANCIS” on his Twitter account late Saturday night, also did his best to convince Mauigoa to join him at Tennessee.
“I got to the hotel (Saturday) night from dinner. I already seen (Iamaleava) yelling and screaming at people, like, ‘Oh, Francis, go Vols!’ — stuff like that — so it was amazing,” Mauigoa said. “The support group and the fan base over here, it’s immaculate. It’s very awesome.”
With his official visits now behind him, he said he expects to arrive at a decision in the coming days. But he and his family still have some thinking to do before he reveals his choice.
“We’ve still got some family-based decisions,” Mauigoa said. “Got to talk with the whole family, because my parents have been taking videos and sending it back to the family, to a little group chat we have with my family. We’ve still got stuff to talk more about.”
sounds to me that Madden is already in the boat
