Dom and Nate: How 2 Utah defensive linemen are 'keeping the energy up' for Utes

SALT LAKE CITY — It doesn't take long to see that Junior Tafuna and Keanu Tanuvasa are different.

Watch the duo for a minute before game time and you'll easily pick up what they're all about. Sure, they have big frames and they have an attacking mindset for a defensive line that has been consistently talented for as long as anyone can remember, but these two interior lineman are the life of the defense.

If they're not wreaking havoc on opposing offensive lines, they're pumping their chests or trying to get the fan base hyped up ahead of the next play.

That type of behavior hasn't been that common for an interior defensive lineman at Utah over the years, though. The players to occupy these positions have been immovable objects and fierce competitors, but talk to them out of a game setting and they're the "gentle giant" types — soft spoken and reserved.

Think Star Lotulelei and Leki Fotu type players.

They want to be in the background, simply and humbly doing their job to make Utah's defense go. There's nothing flashy about them, just a consistent group that clogs up lanes and puts pressure on the quarterback at a high level.

Not Tafuna and Tanuvasa.

They want you to know they're there, and they'll still effectively wreak havoc on the game — take Tanuvasa, for example, going on a full sprint after Bryson Barnes last week right up the middle to lay the blow on his former teammate for a sack.

At the same time, they're the trash talkers, the energy givers, the players who motivate and inspire.

"You can hear him all practice long," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said on his coaches show about Tanuvasa. "He's getting people fired up and keeping the energy up — same in the game and in the locker room, pregame, halftime. I mean, he's a guy that really brings the juice and the passion. Him and Junior, as well. They're kind of sidekicks with each other, and they both do a great job being leaders on that defensive side."

Tanuvasa goes by Dom and Tafuna goes by Nate.

Dom and Nate — Dominate!

"His name is Dom, my name is Nate, so together we dominate. We came up with that today," Tafuna joked on Tuesday. "We've both got one goal, man, and that's to make it to the league, and we know we can't do that without each other, and so we're just playing our best game, playing it for the team.

"And so if we're doing that, man, especially doing with each other, because you have that a special bond, it's awesome. Just feels like when you're on that field, no one's gonna break you because you're with your brother. And that's how we feel with everyone else on the field, too."

It's what Tanuvasa describes as a "blessing" to have a teammate that can carry the energy with him. To him, it's a way to bring energy to the game, to lift up the defensive side of the ball and play complimentary football — or connected football.

"The nice thing is, we bounce off of each other so well, and both of our personalities are very complimentary," Tanuvasa said on the coaches show on ESPN 700. "And then from that front, it just echoes all the way to the back, and everyone is able to just reciprocate that energy."

Already, the two have combined for 10 pressures and 11 defensive stops — or what Pro Football Focus describes as tackles that constitute a "failure" for the offense. But their effort alone has been contagious to the other players on the field as the 21st best defense in the country so far.

There's still more work to do, as evidenced by some mishaps against Utah State on Saturday, but it's something the players believe is easy to fix in the coming weeks.

"We've just got to be more disciplined — not that we aren't — but just take a little bit more due diligence and studying our assignments and just playing assignment sound," Tafuna said.

"I don't think we've hit our potential," he added. "If anything, it's just every game, we just elevate and get better."

The duo will be instrumental in stopping a veteran offensive line in Oklahoma State that features one of the best running backs in the country behind it in Ollie Gordon on Saturday.

In short, they hope to dominate.

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