Ohio State’s Sualua Is a Reluctant Fullback : College football: Former Mater Dei star sticking with sport until he decides what he really wants to do.

Nicky Sualua was told once, just once mind you, to make dinner for his younger siblings. Moana Levale, his mother, never had to mention it again.

Sualua, then 9, made meals while his parents worked nights. Sure, frying hamburgers was about the extent of his culinary skills. But he cooked every night, because his mother told him to, just once.

Considering her influence, it’s clear how close Sualua came to walking away from his starting fullback job on the Ohio State football team last spring.

He never really enjoyed football, even at Mater Dei, and could no longer endure the game. He had decided it was time to quit. But his mother told him to stay, just once . . . then twice . . . then three times.

Levale begged, pleaded and arm-twisted, then enlisted the help of relatives and former coaches. For her struggles, Levale had a $700 telephone bill and a few frayed nerves. But Nicky, finally, did as he was told.

“I was feeling like I’d had enough,” Sualua said. “I couldn’t motivate myself to keep on going every week, every day. I don’t really see a future for me in football.”

But he stayed anyway.

“I try to do whatever my mother tells me,” Sualua said.

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This is no momma’s boy.

Sualua, a sophomore fullback, is known for using his 5-foot-11, 260-pound body to plant Big 10 defenders. Tailback Eddie George has made a pretty good living following that wide body through the line.

Those efforts don’t go unnoticed. There are plenty of reasons why the Buckeyes are ranked fourth in the nation and Sualua is certainly on the short list. But Coach John Cooper does call him the best blocking fullback in the nation. A few pounds lighter and he’d be the best fullback, period. Or so Cooper says.

There might be a few NFL teams willing to test that theory.

Yet, football is not the answer, not to Sualua. The questions, though, still perplex him.

Where is he going? What is he going to do once he gets there? Heady stuff for a guy whose sole purpose is to seek and de-cleat linebackers.

“The question that kept coming back to me was, ‘What would I be doing if I wasn’t playing football,’ ” Sualua said. “If I could answer that tomorrow, I would go and do it. Until then, I’m staying here and doing what everyone else wants me to do.”

Which is to play football.

All agree--from his mother to his high school coach to his current coach--that Sualua’s destiny is to be a fullback, whether he likes it or not.

“I told him to use his brain,” Levale said. “He was blessed with a talent and an opportunity that others would die for. He finally cried, ‘OK, Mom, I’ll play.’ ”

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He’ll play. But enjoy it? That’s a different ballgame.

Sualua doesn’t dawdle after games, win or lose. His record, he says, is 15 minutes--from the final gun to showered and out the door.

“I do my job as quick as I can so I can go home,” Sualua said. “When I get excited on the field, it’s because I’m relieved that I’ll be going home soon. My teammates think I’m weird.”

That doesn’t concern Sualua, as long as he gets to go home.

There is no one to talk football in the three-bedroom apartment he shares with two other students, who are not athletes. No one mentions football. No one watches football. It’s paradise.

“I can just sit back and listen to reggae music and sleep,” Sualua said. “I’d sleep the whole day if I could.”

Many around the Big 10 would prefer he never receive a wake-up call.

Sualua might not like what he does, but he does it well.

Against Washington, Sualua knocked seven players off their feet. George gained 212 yards in the Buckeyes’ 30-20 victory.

Against Penn State, it was Sualua’s crushing block that paved the way for George’s game-winning touchdown.

“He’s had so many of those blocks, they all kind of blur,” Buckeye assistant coach Tim Spencer said. “We expect it and just wait for it to happen. Basically, you better come at Nicky correctly or Nicky is going to correct you.”

It has been that way since Sualua came to Ohio State. As a freshman, Cooper would insert Sualua into the scout team offense just to put the first string defense on its toes.

“He’d go in and then things would really get exciting,” said former Buckeye assistant Frank Falk, now an assistant with the San Diego Chargers. “You’d hear the defensive guys yell, ‘Oh-oh, here comes Nicky.’ He would not back down.”

Sualua never has, even if he has been a bit reluctant about playing. He didn’t volunteer, he was drafted. Football was a family mandate.

His uncles, Kennedy Pola and Aoatoa Pola, starred at Mater Dei and played in college--Kennedy Pola at USC and Aoatoa Pola at Penn State.

His father, Sualua Levale, tried to sign him up for youth teams on three occasions. Each time, Nicky Sualua was too heavy for his age-group’s maximum weight and too young for the next level.

His mother saw football as a chance for a college scholarship and an education. Her second oldest child, Leie, plays at Oregon. Her youngest sons, 13-year-old Aoatoa and Junior, 10, also will play football.

So Nicky never had a choice.

“I loved volleyball,” said Sualua, who, like his brothers and sisters, uses his father’s first name as his last name said. “But my mom wanted me to play football at Mater Dei. I didn’t want to, but mom thought it was best.”

Mother, again, was right.

Sualua was a two-year standout for the Monarchs. He helped them win the Southern Section Division I title as a junior and scored six touchdowns in one playoff game as a senior.

Everyone said he was something special. Sualua cringed at the attention.

“Not every kid plays football for recognition and awards,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said. “If Nicky could just play football and never get his name in the newspaper or be mentioned on television or have a question asked of him, then I think he’d be a lot happier.”

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Ducking the spotlight is easy at Ohio State.

The offense features such glow-in-the-dark performers as George, quarterback Bobby Hoying, wide receiver Terry Glenn and tight end Rickey Dudley. George and Hoying have even been mentioned as Heisman Trophy candidates.

So a somewhat shy Samoan fullback, no matter how large, can get lost in the crowd.

“That’s fine,” Sualua said. “I couldn’t handle the interviews. Fortunately, I don’t stand out.”

When Sualua is allowed to run with the ball--which is rare--he averages 6.0 yards per carry. In the Citrus Bowl last season, he waded through six Alabama players on a 19-yard gain that his coaches still talk about.

Against Wisconsin this season, Sualua caught a third-down pass, then did his best bull-in-a-china-shop routine, running over three defenders for a key first down.

But what makes him exceptional is the way he clears a path for George. He does everything except lay down palm fronds. George has rolled up 1,100 yards this season.

“I know Eddie appreciates Nicky being there,” Cooper said, “because Nicky pancakes anyone in his way.”

Yet, Sualua almost wasn’t there.

There came a point last spring when it became clear to Sualua that he had wandered too far down this career path. He failed two classes, which he attributed to time spent playing football.

It brought all his unhappiness to the surface.

“Usually I can tell when Nicky is having a problem,” Levale said. “This time, he came out for spring break and everything seemed fine. When he got back to school, he called and said, ‘I want to quit football.’ ”

Sualua didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, just that football wasn’t going to be a part of it. All he wanted was to complete his college education while searching for his niche.

There was one hitch.

“I had to yell and scream at him, ‘How are you going to pay for your school?’ ” Levale said.

Moana Levale talked to him. Sualua Levale talked to him. Cooper talked to him. Rollinson threaten to fly to Columbus. When Moana threatened the same, Nicky relented.

“My ear was getting tired from so many phone conversations,” Levale said. “I had to call him every day. Some days I was two, three and four hours on the phone. I finally told him, if you quit now, you’ll quit the rest of your life. You’ll always wonder what might have been.

“That phone bill was worth it.”

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The payoff took time.

Sualua took six classes in the summer to get back on track academically. He got three A’s, two Bs and a C.

The time off this summer left him out of shape, and a bit out of favor. An ankle injury slowed him some more.

Still, by the third game, he was the starting fullback. So what if the focus every game is getting home? Sualua runs over a lot of opponents to get there.

Someday, Sualua might find what he wants to do. For now, he does what he does best.

“I’ll hit somebody, but I just don’t see the thrill in it,” Sualua said. “I do my job so my teammates won’t get mad at me.

“All I want out of football is to get a degree from Ohio State. The future? Well, my mom hasn’t talked to me about that yet.”