From Seattle to Eugene, ‘Taki’ Taimani explains how Ducks have set career on track
Once you embrace the dark side of the force, there’s no going back to the light. Or is there?
Maybe being a Washington Husky isn’t quite as bad as being the dreaded Darth Vader, but in Oregon Duck fans’ eyes, it’s fairly close.
So when someone who was once part of the dark side in Seattle goes back to the light of Eugene, it’s rare and you have to take notice.
That’s what defensive lineman Sam “Taki” Taimani is attempting to do as he spent four years at Washington before transferring to Oregon where he will have two seasons of eligibility remaining. Although it was a big change, the Ducks are hoping for a smaller Taimani when the season gets underway.
He arrived in Duck camp at a hefty 350 pounds, but with hard work and guidance from the new strength and conditioning coach Wilson Love, Taimani is well underway to becoming a lighter and much better player.
“I want to get to 300 (pounds). I want to move a little better. I look a little slow,” Taimani said. “So I want to move a little better and show that I got a lot of speed. It’s just the weight that kind of holds it down. But I feel a lot better though. I feel like I lost it in good ways. I feel a lot stronger, and I’m still able to play those blocks how I want to so that’s perfect.”
Taimani had his best season thus far in 2021 for what a tumultuous season for the Huskies that saw them go through two head coaches and ultimately wound up at 4-8. But he was able to play in 11 of the 12 games and collected 43 tackles, including nine against Oregon State. His previous high for tackles came in 2019 with 16 tackles.
Taimani told The Athletic back in January that although it was tough to leave his Husky teammates, Oregon reached out almost right away and defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi can definitely relate to also being a former Husky who is now wearing green and yellow.
Me and Tosh sat down and talked, and he told me he was a Husky, too, and he understands what it’s going to be like to do that. He went through his phase of not liking Oregon, too, and he said, “I promise you, (the criticism) will be bad, but I’ll be right here with you. You won’t just take the heat by yourself. It’s going to be me and you.” And I was like, well, yep, then let’s do it.
Taimani might relate to Lupoi, but it’s coach Love who will ultimately get him to be the player he truly wants to be with the conditioning and the weight loss.
“I love it, it’s fun here. I love the players here, I love the coaches here, and I especially love the strength staff here,” Taimani said. “I came in around 350 and got down to about 315 now. So that’s a lot of weight. I struggled a little bit to lose some weight but now that I’m here, I kind of got it on track. (Coach) Love helped me get on track.
“We really had that face-to-face talk about my career and what I had to do to get to where I want to be, so he helped me with that. All the recourses they have here have just helped me become a better athlete.”
Taimani’s weight loss and newfound flexibility will ultimately be Oregon’s gain.
