Elder Soli happy son is at UA

The scouting report on Mataio Soli is all about speed with his feet and his hands. Arkansas’ sophomore defensive end exudes explosive talent.

With Father’s Day approaching, it was time to visit Junior Soli. He’s just “Pops” to Mataio, but a great Razorback to those who remember early SEC days at Arkansas.

Junior Soli was an AllSEC nose tackle on the 1995 Arkansas team that won the SEC West. As a player he has one similarity to his son: both signed with a head coach who didn’t make it through their freshman season with the Razorbacks.

“I got one game with Jack Crowe,” said Junior, a four-year UA letterman whose first game was a 10-3 loss to The Citadel that resulted in Crowe’s firing the following day. “I did get to play from some great coaches, including Joe Pate and Jim Washburn. Those were my position coaches.

Danny Ford got us back to winning.”

What Pate and Washburn raved about Junior was not a quick twitch, like Mataio. It was a great lower body, unusual natural strength. No one moved Junior Soli.

That was the story from Washburn when reached via phone. He ached for a chance to praise Junior, his player in his first two years on Ford’s staff.

“I’ve coached and coached against some great Samoan football players,” Washburn said. “All of them were warriors. Junior was the ultimate warrior.

“I respected him so much. Our guys looked up to him on the defensive line. He had an innate toughness.”

Pate recruited Junior out of Columbus, Ga., and sold him on the future Arkansas would have in the SEC. Junior said he didn’t really know much about the Razorbacks, or really any other program.

“My dad was Air Force,” he said. “We lived all over. I lived in Okinawa [Japan], Germany and a lot of other places. So I didn’t know much about college football, or the NFL, either. I couldn’t tell you if the Dallas Cowboys or the Arkansas Razorbacks played each other.

“I just knew I thought Arkansas looked like a great place and Jack Crowe sounded like he was ready to tear the SEC apart.”

Washburn said none were tougher than Junior Soli.

“It was that lower body,” Washburn said. “He had the legs of a sumo wrestler. He was bottom loaded with great balance.

“I don’t think it was from lifting weights, just the strong lower body his parents gave him. He was a stud. He was an oak tree.”

The Solis share a warrior mentality, evident when Mataio played through a broken hand last season. It’s been instilled from Junior, who also coached Mataio in high school as the defensive line coach at Douglas County High in Douglasville, Ga.

Junior said one of the great thrills from his coaching career was a few seasons back when his bookends were Mataio on one side and older brother Solomon.

“I wanted to coach college and I was at that level at Ole Miss,” said Junior, who was an assistant strength coach under Houston Nutt. “But moving down to high school has been fun because I’d never gotten the opportunity to coach my two sons if not for that.

“You had to learn how to give a high school player different techniques. So I adapted. But it’s been a blessing to coach this level.”

Junior said he spent time trying to get another college job once Nutt was fired at Ole Miss following the 2011 season.

“It just didn’t happen,” he said. “So I took the family and moved to American Samoa so they could get to see life on a Pacific island and know their grandfather and our family.”

That’s when he coached his sons for the first time.

“They were in middle school, just there one year,” Junior said. “We had a flag team. Mataio played cornerback. He actually does have the speed to play defensive back.

“It was a great time to be on the island and let my family see what it’s like and know their roots. I think Mataio will say it was a great year.”

Junior is delighted Mataio picked Arkansas. It made mom happy, too. Karen Soli is from tiny Sparkman in south Arkansas. They get to as many Arkansas games as possible.

“It’s great to go back and see what has happened there,” he said. “It’s hardly the same place. Really, I never paid attention to the crowd, the stadium or anything else. I think as a player I was just focused on things between the lines.

“I never even knew stats from my games. I can tell you about some of the games from that great 1995 season when we won the SEC West. I recall going up 27-0 on Auburn. I recall that we didn’t allow Alabama a first down in the second half of that game in Tuscaloosa.”

The Razorbacks defeated Alabama and Auburn for the first time with last-second heroics that season. J.J. Meadors’ touchdown and Todd Latourette’s extra point with six seconds left sunk the Crimson Tide 20-19, and Soli blocked a long field goal attempt as time expired after Auburn rallied to within 30-28 in Little Rock.

“I remember how much fun we had and how good we were on defense and that offense with Madre Hill,” Junior said. “He was incredible all season long. That was a highly memorable season for all of us.

“My family has one thing from that ’95 season, a copy of Hawgs Illustrated with me on the cover. My uncle has it framed on the wall at his house. (Former Arkansas football player) Eddie Bradford gave it to me and you can see his address on the label

“That was a really strong team. It was great to play for Jim Washburn, a great coach and a great family man. How he was with his family made an impression with all of us.”

Washburn reminded that Joe Lee Dunn, a Ford assistant for just one season, coordinated the 1995 defense.

“I’ve been around football for a long time and the best coach I worked with was Joe Lee Dunn,” Washburn said. “He was remarkable.

“One of the things he did was his conditioning, something he called ‘Packer Days.’ He did it everywhere he coached. It consisted of running and up downs. It was 15 minutes of up downs followed by 40-yard sprints. He got it from Vince Lombardi.”

No player ever forgets. “No, it was stressful,” Junior said. “I’ve never seen anyone do anything close to that in my coaching career. We did that to end the morning practice in twoa-days and you had nothing left for the afternoon.

“But that made our defense. We knew we were in better shape than any team we played.”

Some wondered if Junior was in shape in ’94 when he lumbered into the Auburn end zone in 1994 with a 51-yard interception return.

“Junior had gone home to American Samoa for his grandfather’s funeral and missed a week of practice,” Washburn said. “He had eaten poi all week. His teammates caught up with him to celebrate and he started throwing up. Poi was everywhere.”

Junior said, “I did leave some Polynesian cuisine on that field.”

As a high school coach in Georgia, Junior got to know his son’s new head coach, Sam Pittman. He expects Arkansas to have some “real big boys” soon playing on the offensive line for Pittman.

“I told Mataio he should be excited because Sam will have a great line for the defensive front to compete against every day in practice,” Junior said. “I like Sam a lot.

“And, Mataio is seeing the best in the country every week in practice. I tell him the SEC West is like an NFL junior varsity team.”

Mataio has SEC West speed, if not NFL speed.

“I’ve seen him,” Washburn said. “It’s good that they played him at Arkansas last year. You don’t burn a redshirt with that kind of talent. He’s only going to be there three years. He’s got that kind of speed.”

That’s the scouting report.