Faamatau took the long way to Norman
NORMAN — Underneath Dillion Faamatau’s mane of unruly black hair is a small braid. Since he started growing his hair out 10 months ago, his braid has grown too.
Just five weeks into his first season at Oklahoma, the small tail is about a centimeter wide and two inches long, all tied together with a small black band.
It’s impossibe to see unless the defensive lineman wrangles his shoulder-length curls into a ponytail, but that thin braid weaves a journey through so many of the things in his past that brought him on his unlikely journey to Oklahoma.
On the surface, his braid is a good luck charm, inspired by the hairstyle worn by Jedi Padawans in the Star Wars movies.
Faamatau isn’t a particularly big Star Wars fan, but he noticed the braid watching the movies with a couple of friends and thought it would be a neat addition to his look.
“I like the Jedi tail,” he said. “I thought it was pretty cool. So I wanted to try that.”
Braiding hair isn’t necessarily a skill a lot of college-age men know, but Faamatau was already a pro thanks to years of practice on himself and his younger siblings.
From the time Faamatau was 9 years old, he was helping his mom out by getting the two girls ready. As one of seven children, life in Faamatau’s family could be a little hectic, so he was always trying to help his hard-working parents out as best he could.
“When I grew up, I used to have long hair, so my mom was always braiding my hair,” he said. “I had my two little sisters, man, either my mom was going to braid their hair or it would be me and my older sister have to braid it.
“So I was like, ‘I’ll braid it.’ I started picking up on the habit and it’s just been real easy to me ever since.”
After growing up in Norwalk, California with his big family, Faamatau went to Arizona State to play for defensive line coach Jackie Shipp and learned about the Jedi tail from his ASU teammates.
“Like that’s dope,” he said. “(I asked) Why doesn’t anybody else have that? They were like, man, you’ve got to be a dog to have that. I was like, man, I guess I’ve got to be a dog. Once I grew my hair out, I was like, ‘I’m a dog.’”
When he arrived in Tempe, Arizona, Oklahoma wasn’t anywhere on his radar. But after a season of working with Shipp, an OU alum and former coach, Faamatau heard about the Sooners almost as often as he heard about the Sun Devils.
“He always reiterated Oklahoma within his coaching,” Faamatau said. “Like, ‘Gerald McCoy would do this, this and this.’ Or he’ll talk about players he’s really coached and sending them off to the league and being really successful. So I was like, man, hopefully I’ll get to play to that caliber or I get to play at that caliber.”
When Shipp and four other ASU coaches left throughout Faamatau’s freshman season, the California native knew he wanted to find some place with more stability. Rather than transferring to another Division I program, Faamatau chose to enroll at Cerritos College, a junior college close to home.
He planned on playing there for two years and committed to continue his football career at Southern California. If everything went like he thought, Faamatau would be playing Division I college football by January 2018.
Then Calvin Thibodeaux gave Faamatau a call earlier this year.
With Zacchaeus McKinney’s eligibility up in the air, the Sooners needed another defensive lineman in the 2017 class. Faamatau heard all about OU from Shipp. Now he was ready to see it for himself.
“Once I touched down in Norman, I was like, man, I love it,” he said. “I need to be here, I need to get away from that fastpaced life. It just comes from where it’s all traditional, where football is what you eat, sleep and breathe.”
The visit convinced Faamatau to flip his commitment from the Trojans to the Sooners, and he arrived in Norman prior to fall training camp.
He’s not quite a major key on OU’s defensive line — yet. Even thought he had experience playing toptier collegiate football, the transition from junior college hasn’t been easy.
“I think he’s still developing, getting in shape that you need to play at this level, getting everything in line, whether it’s footwork, whether it’s conditioning, whether its his hand placement,” defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said. “I think all that takes time coming out of junior college, and he’s developing.
“He’s got a big future in front and he works hard. He’s going to continue to add depth and eventually, I think he’s really going to become a playmaker for us.”
Even though he’s not getting on the field for many snaps yet, some of his family still made a point to visit him for the game against Tulane.
The first thing his little sisters noticed was the Jedi tail, the one he learned how to make on their hair so long ago.
“They all joke with me like, ‘Ew, take that rat tail out of your head. That looks weird,’ he said. “I’m like, ‘Man, that’s my good luck charm. Don’t shoot me down on that.’”