Successful business

PROVO — Manase Tonga is BYU's biggest running back, best protector, lead blocker and a more-than-capable receiver. Once upon a time he signed to play at Utah, paying his own way to attend school there, but will wear a BYU uniform on Saturday in Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Tonga calls switching colors just a matter of business, nothing personal. He was once a Ute, became an orphan, and now he has found a home, and it's nobody's fault, nobody to blame — it's just the way it is.

Ron McBride signed Tonga out of Aragon High in San Mateo, Calif., but Tonga paid his own way for fall semester before going on an LDS mission to Honduras. Tonga, a power runner, was in the mold of a Brandon Warfield, a smaller Quinton Ganther.

Since his senior year at Aragon, coaches at both BYU and Utah have been in position to recruit Tonga. The list includes McBride and assistants Steve Kaufusi and Alex Gerke; former Utah coach Urban Meyer, offensive coordinator Mike Sanford and recruiting coordinator Barry Gonzalez; former BYU head coach Gary Crowton and his recruiting coordinator, Mike Empey; current BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall and his recruiting coordinator Paul Tidwell; Utah coach Kyle Whittingham and recruiting coordinator Dave Schramm; Ute assistant Kalani Sitake and BYU assistants Kaufusi, Cougar running back coach Lance Reynolds and Brandon Doman.

It was BYU assistant Brandon Doman who ultimately closed the deal.

For the record, Tonga being at BYU is not the failure of Utah's Sitake to do his job, according to the Tongan sophomore.

"It was just a matter of timing. My brother (Matangi) was recruited by BYU while I was on my mission, and things just came together for me at the right time," Manase said.

Steve Kaufusi remembers visiting the Tonga home as a Ute assistant back in 2001-02 when U. assistant Alex Gerke actually finished signing him. "It was a matter of him being a mission guy and Utah didn't have a scholarship for him out of high school. He came, paid his own way, and then left on a mission," Kaufusi said.

When Kaufusi got a job at BYU, he told then-head coach Gary Crowton about Tonga, that he was on a mission, and asked if the Cougars were looking for a running back. Kaufusi had heard from Aragon's football coach that Elder Tonga didn't know his football status and might be looking for a change after paying his way at Utah for one year.