{"id":596494,"date":"2026-04-21T00:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/596494\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T00:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:05:08","slug":"meet-semi-taulanga-utahs-317-pound-tight-end-thats-going-viral-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/596494\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Semi Taulanga, Utah\u2019s 317-pound tight end that\u2019s going viral \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

One 10-second clip posted by Utah football\u2019s social media took the college football world by storm last week.<\/p>\n

In the short video, quarterback Devon Dampier completes a short pass to 5-foot-11, 317-pound tight end Semi Taulanga, who barrels down the middle of the field, easily shrugs off a would-be tackler and barrels forward into the end zone.<\/p>\n

The video, fittingly, is set to a song with the lyrics, \u201cdon\u2019t touch my truck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was set for pass protection. Devon told me to pop over, safety comes to release. Safety, green dot, popped over, I got the ball,\u201d Taulanga said. \u201cFirst contact, I think it was Kash Dillon that was trying to tackle me. And then first contact, after that, just get yards after catch and get to the end zone.\u201d <\/p>\n

In an online world starved for college football content, Taulanga\u2019s spring touchdown went viral.<\/p>\n

The EA Sports College Football video game account posted, \u201c@EASPORTS_CUT legend incoming \ud83d\udcc8\ud83d\ude9b.\u201d<\/p>\n

Popular football podcast \u201cBussin\u2019 With The Boys\u201d posted \u201cSemi Taulanga might have the most fitting name in CFB,\u201d while Barstool Sports wrote an article titled \u201cHEISMAN WATCH \u2014 Utah Football Has A 5-Foot-11, 317-Pound Unit Of A Tight End Named \u2018Semi.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As reporters gathered around the soft-spoken Taulanga last week following one of Utah\u2019s spring practices, his teammates started teasing him about his new-found celebrity status.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still the same person,\u201d he joked back.<\/p>\n

At the same time, though, he\u2019s enjoying the attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels pretty good. It feels pretty good that my name is kind of getting out there, being as a rhino. Looking at the comments and everything, everybody\u2019s saying, \u2018Oh, he\u2019s a fullback.\u2019 \u2018He\u2019s a tight end,\u2019 I mean, you could pretty much put me anywhere, but I\u2019m just glad my name\u2019s getting out there,\u201d Taulanga said.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s practice clip wasn\u2019t the first time that Utah has creatively used Taulanga in a position they\u2019ve dubbed the \u201crhino.\u201d This year\u2019s rhino group features Taulanga and 5-foot-11, 276-pound Sione Motuapuaka.<\/p>\n

\u201cNastiness, mean, aggressive football, and they\u2019re athletic,\u201d Utah coach Morgan Scalley said. \u201cJust when you think they\u2019re just going to pound your face in, they slip out on a slide route and they\u2019ve got good hands.\u201d <\/p>\n

Last year, Taulanga played 124 snaps for the Utes, often being used as an extra blocker. Against BYU, though, offensive coordinator Jason Beck got creative, sending the big fella out as a receiver. With no one expecting it, Taulanga was uncovered, and as he turned upfield, he made one Cougar defender miss with an agile move and then rammed into another BYU defender to get well past the first-down marker on a 10-yard completion.<\/p>\n

The next \u2014 and last time \u2014 Utah tried to get the ball to Taulanga, the Cougars were ready, wrapping him up for a loss of seven.<\/p>\n

Time will tell just how much Taulanga will be utilized as a pass-catcher or a ball carrier this year, but at the very least, it\u2019s a good card for offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven to have in his back pocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we got those two rhinos in there that I\u2019m like, \u2018OK, I haven\u2019t really played with the rhino. These guys are really cool.\u2019 I just know that they\u2019re in there and they\u2019re knocking people around,\u201d McGiven said. \u201c\u2026 Whether you call them a tight end or fullback, how do you work with those guys to the fullest extent? It\u2019s a good problem to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Scalley: \u201cYou take a look at the Rhino position with Sione and Semi, and if we\u2019re not taking advantage of those guys and running some power run game …\u201d<\/p>\n

Taulanga arrived in Salt Lake City from Mater Dei High as a defensive tackle, but Utah quickly took note of his unique athleticism.<\/p>\n

Taulanga played tight end in his freshman year of high school before focusing on defensive tackle. That experience helped, but Taulanga attributed playing rugby to developing a lot of his athleticism. <\/p>\n

That agility is what differentiates the two \u201crhinos\u201d and allows them to be light on their feet while catching the ball.<\/p>\n

While they will be used for blocking in the majority of their snaps, there could be some fun wrinkles planned for them this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s surprising to me how athletic they are and they move better in space than I thought they could early on,\u201d said tight ends coach Luke Wells. \u201cAnd so those guys, we\u2019ve been able to do more with them than I thought we could. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously they\u2019re really good at the point of attack. And I think that\u2019s the obvious thing that you see. Both of them are strong kids and they both bend really well and have pretty good change in direction where they can actually block guys on the second level as well. And I\u2019ve just been pleased with how they show up to work every day. They got a great attitude, both of them do.\u201d <\/p>\n

Everyone loves a big guy reception, and if things fall into place, fans could be seeing some more viral highlights this fall.<\/p>\n

\"\"Utah’s Semi Taulanga during spring practice. | Utah Athletics <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One 10-second clip posted by Utah football\u2019s social media took the college football world by storm last week.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,3125,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-596494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-news-feed-local","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}