Well-Traveled Tuioti Puts Career Back on Track in Las Cruces : College football: After overcoming a knee injury, former Santa Ana standout hopes to realize his potential at New Mexico State.

George Tuioti had anticipated the trip home for months.

Since early in the year, when Tuioti arrived in Las Cruces, N.M., for spring practice with the New Mexico State football team, he had not seen his family and girlfriend. Or his buddies. And he definitely had not seen anything resembling one of his mother’s Samoan dishes.

So when Tuioti, a 6-foot-5, 260-pound defensive end, was with the Aggies at Santa Ana Stadium 12 days ago to play Cal State Fullerton in a Big West Conference game, it wasn’t difficult to pinpoint his whereabouts for that post-victory celebration.

George Tuioti, your team just defeated the Titans, 35-12, for its first victory of the season. Where are you headed now?

“Me and about six of the guys are going to my parents’ home for a Samoan dinner,” Tuioti said after the game, which was attended by about 50 relatives. “It’s going to be the best home meal I’ve had in awhile. All I usually eat now is fast food.”

But for Tuioti, a former all-county linebacker at Santa Ana High, surviving on assembly-line food on a college campus hundreds of miles from his old stomping grounds is better than not being there at all. That’s what almost happened to Tuioti after his well-chronicled high school football career.

At Santa Ana, Tuioti (pronounced tee-OH-tee) was the defensive backbone of the Saint teams that were among the county’s best in 1986 and 1987. He also was a marvelously colorful character. He wore bandannas under his helmet, earrings--including a diamond one--and skintight elastic pants under his uniform.

He also was as versatile as he was flashy. His senior season, Tuioti played quarterback when Santa Ana starter Richard Fanti was declared academically ineligible, and passed for 968 yards and eight touchdowns in helping the Saints to the Southern Section Southern Conference semifinals. But it was his physique, 6-feet-4, 226 pounds at the time, and his skills at linebacker, that attracted recruiters from major colleges throughout the country.

After visiting several schools--including Nebraska in minus-15 temperatures, a factor that was not lost in his selection process--Tuioti accepted a scholarship to USC.

“I felt without a doubt that George could play big-time football. He had good speed and a lot of tools,” Santa Ana Coach Dick Hill said after watching Tuioti get a sack and four tackles against the Titans. “Then he got his knee hurt and that kind of hindered him.”

That turning point in Tuioti’s career came as he prepared to play in the 1987 Orange County all-star football game, an event that some highly touted seniors--former Capistrano Valley standout Todd Marinovich, who is now a Raider backup quarterback, for instance--often prefer to forgo for fear of injury.

Tuioti ended up living those fears. During a no-contact drill at a practice with the South team, Tuioti suffered torn ligaments in his left knee and underwent arthroscopic surgery the following week.

The injury preceded an additional jolt. Because Tuioti did not meet the NCAA’s freshman eligibility standards under Proposition 48, USC officials told him to attend a community college. Tuioti balked and instead grabbed a scholarship offer from San Diego State. He sat out his freshman year because of the rule, which gave him time to nurse the knee. Then he got more bad news.

San Diego State Coach Al Luginbill declared Tuioti a “medical hardship” before the 1989 season because of the knee problems, ending his Aztec career before it even started. That sent Tuioti scurrying to the community college ranks that USC had suggested. He sat out that year, but played defensive end and tight end at Rancho Santiago College last season. It was there that a call from New Mexico State Coach Jim Hess revived Tuioti’s hopes of playing at the Division I level.

“When the recruiters came to Rancho Santiago, I thought I’d better listen to every coach,” Tuioti said. “In high school, I listened to the coach I wanted to listen to because I knew I was that good. But when I was at Rancho, I knew I couldn’t be picky about it.”

One coach he heard clearly this time was Hess, who had just endured a 2-9 season in his first year at New Mexico State. The Aggies, who had won six games the six seasons before Hess took over, were not even on Tuioti’s depth chart of prospective colleges when he was at Santa Ana. But circumstances can humble a person, so Tuioti headed for Las Cruces.

“One reason I chose this school is because Coach Hess reminds me so much of Coach Hill,” Tuioti said. “They treat you like a man. Both are very similar. They hardly ever yell or get carried away.”

The move was difficult. Although born in New Zealand to Samoan parents who met and married while attending college there, Tuioti grew up in Western Samoa in a close-knit family with three brothers and a sister. He came to Santa Ana with his paternal grandparents in 1975, and the rest of the family followed two years later.

All but George returned to Western Samoa last fall and came back to Orange County this year in time for his brothers Aaron and Anthony to play football at Santa Ana Valley.

“This place (Las Cruces) is real different than Orange County,” Tuioti said. “There’s not much to do here, so they (residents) are real sports oriented. But there are a lot of people who say that the football season here is something to do until basketball season starts. There are a lot of fair-weather fans here.”

Tuioti is doing his share to silence the football program’s critics--he has 57 tackles on the season--and improve awareness of Samoan costumes among his teammates and coaches.

“He gave all the coaches Samoan outfits (lava lava),” said Aggie defensive coordinator Gary DeLoach. “I tell you, he’s a great guy. We feel very fortunate to have him. He’s been one of our most consistent players all year. I seriously think he has a chance to play pro football.”

That would be fine with Tuioti, but he’s not jumping ahead of the script.

“Right now, I’m not pro material. I don’t feel I’m there as a complete player yet,” Tuioti said. “I’m lacking the experience in Division I. In order to go to the next level, you have to have that. With this year’s experience and next year’s experience, the pros won’t be that far out of sight.”