Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Max Puts Mission On Hold
August 10, 2009 | Football, B.G. Brooks
The unpredictable part continues.
After earlier declaring he would leave Colorado to embark on a two-year Mormon mission, partly to allow his damaged knees a respite from football, the young offensive lineman said Monday that plan has been scrapped.
Tuioti-Mariner is delaying his mission indefinitely, staying at CU this season and hoping an accelerated rehabilitation regimen will have him ready to play by the Buffaloes' Big 12 Conference opener (Oct. 10 at Texas).
"It was just a family situation . . . I'm not calling off my mission, it's just not that I'm not going to go right now," Tuioti-Mariner, a redshirt freshman, said.
Past surgeries on both knees have canceled his senior season in high school and the bulk of his freshman year at CU. Another injury - and yet another surgery - to the same knee he injured in high school occurred during winter conditioning work and knocked him out of spring drills this April.
It also left him not quite ready to begin August camp last week, which factored into the initial decision to embark on a mission.
But after prolonged back-and-forth discussions with his family, he's now staying in school and focused on returning to the starting lineup - a goal attained last season before he was injured in non-conference play.
As a result, Tuoiti-Mariner, of Corona, Calif., was granted a medical redshirt for the 2008 season. He has a conventional redshirt season available but is determined not to use it this season.
"I just want to come back . . . I want to play," he said. "The 10 wins and no excuses (coach Dan Hawkins' off-season challenge to the Buffs), I want to be a part of that.
"I want to work my way up so I can try and earn my starting job back, but there's a lot of talented offensive lineman here who are really competitive."
Currently running with the first offense at guard are Blake Behrens (left) and Ryan Miller (right). Both are sophomores.
Tuioti-Mariner, now sporting a buzz haircut, also said if he went ahead with the plan to leave on his mission, he would have lost contact with many teammates when he returned in 2011.
"I didn't want that," he said. "My teammates mean a lot to me."
Tuioti-Mariner said both of his knees "feel good now, but it's just that I need them strengthened. I'm cleared to do squatting, power cleans, basically all the Olympic lifting . . . I've got my full range of motion. I just need to work on my strength.'
He said CU's medical and training staff are "going to work my butt off," adding, "I'm going to listen to whatever (they)are telling me to do; they're here to help me, not kill me.
"They're on my butt . . . now that I'm staying, they've got me on a really rough schedule. And that's just how my rehab is going to be.''
Hawkins said Tuioti-Mariner remains on scholarship, but currently is not among the 105 players counted against the NCAA mandated limit.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
