5A— Francisco Mauigoa, LB, Miami
One impressive number for the ‘backer who goes by “Kiko” is miles traveled in high school and college. He was a Tafuna HS freshman and sophomore on American Samoa, transferred to Aquinas HS in San Bernardino, CA, for one year — where he starred at QB/LB and was named Ambassador League Offensive POY — returned to American Samoa for his senior year, went to Florida’s IMG Academy, then back to the West Coast for two seasons at Washington State, then back to Miami for his final two seasons. Tack on the Miami-to-Newark leg of his football higher education and he’s at more than 22,000 air miles in relocation travel alone.
More important to Jets fans is his gridiron distance, which he covered just as adeptly in college. He had a team-leading and career-high 96 tackles for the Hurricanes last season. And in his two seasons at UM combined he was in on 31 tackles for loss, officially totaling 26.5 TFL when half-tackles are factored in. Since they all came in his 26 starts, he averaged 1.2 tackles for loss every game for the Hurricanes.
5B— Tyler Baron, DE, Miami
When it came to spending time in the opponents’ backfield, Baron did from the Miami defense’s first level what Mauigoa did from the second level. Baron’s totals for ’24, his only season as a Hurricane, were 11.0 tackles for loss, tied with Mauigoa for the team lead, and 5.5 sacks, also tied for the team lead.
In fact, if we mix some New York big apples with some Florida oranges and throw in some Tennessee tomatoes, we can say that over his last seven seasons of football — two at Knoxville Catholic, four at the University of Tennessee and one at Miami — Baron powered his way to 70.5 TFLs and 30.5 sacks.