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Published Tuesday October 10, 2000 Toniu Fonoti Can Sure Flatten 'Em BY MITCH SHERMAN
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

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Lincoln - If it's actually possible for such a thing to happen, Toniu Fonoti plays football this year in relative obscurity.

That's all about to end for Nebraska's giant left guard, if not this year than certainly next year. It can be argued that Fonoti, a 6-foot-4, 337-pound sophomore who doesn't turn 19 until next month, is already the most dominant offensive lineman at Nebraska.

Toniu Fonoti

However, he lines up next to junior center Dominic Raiola, and Raiola plays next to senior right guard Russ Hochstein. But even Raiola and Hochstein, both legitimate Outland Trophy candidates, cannot match Fonoti's physical prowess.

"He's unbelievable," NU right tackle Jason Schwab said of Fonoti. "He's the most dominant offensive lineman I've ever seen. He's going to be the best ever here."

Through five games for the top-ranked Huskers, Fonoti leads the linemen with 79 pancake blocks, defined as a play in which he knocks a defender to the ground. On pace to total 173 pancakes in 11 games - the school record, set last year by Raiola, is 140 - Fonoti said he has yet to reach his potential.

In fact, he hasn't come close.

"I am still kind of unsure of myself sometimes," said Fonoti, who graduated in 1999 from Kahuku High School in Hauula, Hawaii, and then became the third offensive linemen ever to play at Nebraska as a true freshman. "I am a little step higher than last year, but I've still got more to improve on. I can tell that everything is not right.

"Even if I do something good, I'll usually see a little part of it that I could have done better."

Fonoti led the Husker pancake-makers in three of five games this season. He totaled 15 in Nebraska wins over San Jose State and Iowa, 16 against Missouri and Iowa State and 17 against Notre Dame for an average of 15.8. Hochstein, who tied a single-game school record with 23 against Notre Dame, ranks second on the team with 67 - 12 behind Fonoti.

Raiola averages 12.6 per game, ahead off his school-record pace of last season as the 2000 line paves a path for the nation's No. 1 ground attack, which gain 351.4 yards per game.

At times this year, Fonoti surprises even Raiola, a fellow Hawaiian who helped Fonoti adjust to many aspects of college last year.

"The way he threw around the Notre Dame ends when he was pulling, it was unbelievable," Raiola said. "He's still young, but he's a man playing with boys at times, it seems."

Fonoti said he often feels like a boy playing with men. The youngest member of the Huskers' 1999 recruiting class, Fonoti said, he still gets called "the baby" or "young pup" by other linemen.

But unlike last season, when he rarely understood the complexity of his duties on the field, Fonoti said his conversations this fall with Raiola and left tackle Dave Volk are much shorter.

It all came together for Fonoti prior to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl last year, he said. Though he played in every regular-season game and recorded 23 pancakes as the backup to James Sherman at left guard, Fonoti did not enjoy the season. He said he regularly missed home and even thought of leaving.

By the end of December, though, he began to adjust better. Fonoti played extensively in the 31-21 NU win over Tennessee. He still refers to the Fiesta Bowl as his best game.

But Fonoti and his coaches agree the best is yet to come.

"He's a naturally strong person, just by heritage," Offensive Line Coach Milt Tenopir said. "And he's gotten stronger than he was last year. He knows what he's doing better. Any time you do that, you can be a better football player."

Said Coach Frank Solich: "To come as far as he has in such a short period of time, being as young as he is, I think he's done a great job. And I don't think you'll find a guy more powerful anywhere when he comes off and wants to strike you and drive you."

Schwab said he expected big things from Fonoti before he ever enrolled at NU. Two years ago when Nebraska recruited Fonoti, Schwab saw tape of the big Hawaiian. In the first half of one high school game, Fonoti "put a guy on his back on every play but five, and those were all passes," Schwab said.

"If you've got 340 pounds coming at you, and it can run," Schwab said, "that's hard for anybody to stop. He will absolutely destroy our pancake record. And then he'll do it again."

Soft-spoken and studious, Fonoti lists husking coconuts as a hobby, according to the Nebraska news media guide. This year, he's been husking pancakes. Despite the words of praise and his school-record pace, Fonoti stays humble.

"I'm just doing my job, doing what I have to do," he said. "It's great to play with these guys. There's so much enthusiasm out there, but I can tell that everything is not right with me yet. I'm still a long ways away. I'm not there right now, but when I get there, I know I will have a feeling that tells me I did it."