Oregon's heart of the program named to Polynesian Player of Year Watch List

From the offensive line, the defensive line and the secondary, they form the four chambers of the heart of the Oregon program.

Thursday the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame honored four Ducks by naming them to the Polynesian College Player of the Year Watch List, an award given out during Polynesian Bowl week, a celebration of Polynesian football and culture.

Center Iapani Laloulu, defensive end Matayo Uiagalelei, defensive end Teitum Tuioti and 6-4 redshirt junior cornerback Sione Laulea earned spots on this dream team, announced by Polynesian HOF chairman Jesse Sapolu., a four-time Super Bowl Champion with the San Franscisco 49ers at guard and center.

Sapolu said in announcing the selections,
“The Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Award has become one of the most prestigious honors in college football. It is a source of great pride for our community, recognizing the outstanding achievements of Polynesian student-athletes and giving us a powerful platform to share our culture with the world.”

Past winners of the Player of the Year Award include Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota, Outland Trophy winner Penei Sewell,
Tua Tagovailoa, national champion quarterback at Alabama, and Carolina first-round draft pick from the Arizona Wildcats Tetairoa McMillan.

In all 81 players from 40 college programs were named to the Watch List, including the four from Oregon.

The leadership these four provide for the Ducks is immeasurable, reflecting the pride they take in representing their families and communities.

At Oregon fall camp Tosh Lupoi said about Uiagalelei, second team All-Big-Ten in 2024, "This guy has elite smarts, in my opinion. So what that does for us? One, a guy that can communicate a call up front, get us aligned and help us there multiple positions."

"So we're rotating him. You're going to see him rushing interior. You're going to see him rushing off the edge. He lines up in a two-point, lines up in space, and we have absolute full confidence in him in those positions."

After Oregon's first scrimmage Dan Lanning praise Laloulu's leadership, integral in forming the cohesion on the offensive line,
"He’s done an unbelievable job of having poise in chaos, because there’s a lot of chaos. There’s not a look that we could put up there that Poncho wouldn’t have an understanding on how to handle.”

Laloulu's ability to recognize what the defense is doing and get the o-line working as a unit allows the to perform at maximum efficiency in hostile environments, both in protecting the passer and moving the chains with the running game. They won the Big Ten Championship with an undefeated regular season last year, a finalist for the Joe Moore Award.

Tuioti has become an unsung hero on the Oregon defense, a 14-game starter last season who piled up 58 tackles and 5.5 sacks, another smart player and quiet leader, now a reliable veteran on a unit with nine new faces.

Laulea didn't play much in 2024 as he utilized a redshirt season, limited to four games. Yet in one of those games he made a beautiful play on the ball, intercepting Illinois Luke Altmyer on a deep pass like he'd been in the huddle.

The anticipation he showed on that play showed the same brand of smarts and pride in performance that make this group special to the team.

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