There were a lot of fireworks around signing day for Oregon in December, While some of those fireworks had a lot more behind them, the commitment of Oregon’s highest ranked recruit in the 2023 class was a quiet moment with only the future bright for the Ducks defensive front.
This week from Hawaii, Matayo Uiagalelei is working against some of the best players in the nation, but the first thing on his mind is the opportunity to represent the Polynesian culture and all that represents.
“It’s pretty cool. It’s not just Polynesians here,” Uiagalelei began. “It’s people from all walks of life. People from the east coast, the south, maybe the Midwest. Everywhere. It’s throwing love. It’s just pretty cool to show love.”
Uiagalelei is a quiet, hard worker who really is just starting to get to know some of the Oregon commits. Iapani Laloulu talked about him in an interview and some of the others who he had traveled to Honolulu with on Sunday, but Uiagalelei is still just getting to know some of his new teammates. When asked about who his favorite other Oregon commit is, Uiagalelei was open about how he still wants to get to know some of the rest of the Oregon commits.
“I don’t know if I have a favorite. I mean like, I wasn’t close to any of the other commits, so just leading everybody, I like Ilapani, he’s my bro,” Uiagalelei said. “I met Vita (Pome’e) last week,. We’ve just been all hanging out. It’s just been fun.”
In 2017, a freshman Qb named DJ Uiagalelei first burst onto the scene. Oregon recruited Matayo’s older brother with vigor for the 2020 class and we spoke with Matayo about what it is going to be like to have his older brother just up the road at Oregon State to close out his college career.
“We were never like trying to plan to be at the same school,” Uiagalelei said. “Like some people that that we were a package deal, but it was just whatever was best for each individual. But it happens that we were just at the same place, so it worked out well,” Uiagalelei continued.
For Matayo, Oregon stood out for reasons unrelated to all of the stuff that those outside Oregon might have thought. When asked about his visits to Oregon he told Duck Sports Authority what really stood out during his visits.
“I like doing all of the pictures and stuff, but to me that’s just like the fluff you know. Just talking to the players and the coaches and seeing like the culture and what they are trying to build. That’s what kind of drew me to them,” Uiagalelei confided.
“For me, I really think that the whole recruiting process was going to be a faith-based decision, with Oregon it really was the coaching staff.
Uiagalelei has already begun classes with Oregon and is looking forward to his first year of college football. There has been some speculation by people that have not spoken with Matayo or others within the program about where the staff plans to have him play and Uiagalelei cleared that up0 quickly on Monday.
“I just want to play defense. I was definitely at a point where I was thinking about just like making the decision. But once I made the decision, I never thought about playing offense.”
On defense, he will play against his older brother for at least one game in 2023 and we asked Matayo what it was going to be like to play the Beavers with his brother at quarterback.
“It’s going to be really fun. And he’s not far, he’s only. So It’s just like cool. I’ve spoken to him a couple of times this past week.”
Are You looking forward to getting some sacks on him?
“Yeah. I will tackle him for sure. I’ll have some fun with him when we play. If I get that sack, I’ll talk a little bit with him and have some fun stuff. But it’s gonna be amazing to play so close to him next season.”
Matayo is big into music but is more pragmatic about the realities of making music in the future.
“It’s pretty good. I know there are a lot of schools that are well known for music, but I don’t know if Oregon is. Even if they didn’t have any music, I still could do it on my own. I don’t know if I will even take any classes for it,” Uiagalelei told Duck Sports Authority.
On a final note to our conversation, Matayo talked about what he is most looking forward to in his first year of college. “Just improvement. Even if I don’t start or get a lot of playing time, just knowing I got better is what really matters,” Uiagalelei concluded.
I watched a lot of Uiagalelei in drills on his first day and he has all the tools to be an elite player, but what really stood out to me is his desire. He was involved with every rep during drills, focused on what the coaches were trying to teach, working hard with his Polynesian Bowl teammates. The best thing I saw from Uiagalelei on his first day was not just that he is an elite athlete, but he has tremendous humility and respect for everyone out on the field.
He talked a lot about how blessed he feels to share the Polynesian culture with others and the family feel he gets with a lot of the players in Hawaii this week.
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