Members of Tennessee defensive tackle J.T. Mapu’s family traveled thousands of miles from Hawaii to be in Knoxville for the first week of fall camp.

Mapu himself has traveled a lot farther, at least metaphorically.

“I think he’s made a million miles of strides, and still got a long way to go, but I think he’s coming,” defensive line coach Dan Brooks said.

Returning might be a better way to put it.

Mapu was primed for a breakout season after 2003, when he started 11 of the Vols’ 12 games at tackle. He finished the year with 26 tackles, nine of which came in UT’s five-overtime victory at Alabama.

But a two-year absence from the football field and any kind of intensive training during a Mormon mission caused the 6-foot-4, 290-pounder to arrive in something considerably less than football shape last fall.

Linebacker Jerod Mayo said that Mapu struggled to keep up in conditioning drills last summer. This time last year, he had trouble regaining his strength and his explosion off the line.

Last fall, he recorded just eight tackles despite playing in all 13 games. A redshirt would have been preferred, but an injury to All-American tackle Justin Harrell forced Mapu into duty.

“What we got out of him last year was a bonus. It’d been better maybe if he didn’t even play and got a chance to redshirt and maybe work out for a year,” Brooks said. “He brought something to the team, but he wasn’t anywhere to close to where he was when he left here.”

Now he’s miles away from where he was this time last year — and miles closer to the player that left Tennessee in 2003.

“It’s almost like night and day, as far as conditioning-wise, strength, everything,” Mapu says. “I feel really good.”

And that’s not just in certain moments, either. Almost across the board Mapu is better than he was at this point last year.

“I feel it at the beginning of practice,” he said. “Everything we do, we’re exploding out of our stance. That’s the main thing I didn’t have last year, just explosion out of my legs. Everything I do, I feel a big difference.”

Having his family in Knoxville has made a difference, too.

Among those making the 12-hour flight to Knoxville is his uncle, Junior Ah You, who has attended several practices this week.

Following a solid career at Arizona State, Ah You spent 10 seasons in the Canadian Football League on the defensive line for the Montreal Alouettes, twice helping them win the Grey Cup under coach Marv Levy.

Ah You also played in USFL and was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1997.

UT assistant athletic director for player relations Condredge Holloway remembers playing against Ah You while playing quarterback in the CFL.

“If you go to Hawaii and ask if they know Junior Ah You, everyone will say yes,” he said. “He’s kind of the Big Kahuna.”

That’s where Mapu wants to be.

“That was the main reason (they) came, to see how I was doing getting back into football shape and stuff like that,” said Mapu, who hasn’t seen his family since December. “That’s the main topic of our conversations. What I could do better, what I did wrong, stuff like that. It’s really helped me.”

Mapu figures to help the Vols this fall, too.

He is UT’s most experienced defensive lineman with the departures of Turk McBride and Harrell, both NFL draft picks.

“Us young DTs, we look up to J.T.,” says sophomore Dan Williams. “He’s the leader of the group. He sets the tone; he shows us how to work hard. I guess he’s the second in command under coach Brooks.”

Drew Edwards covers University of Tennessee football. He may be reached at 865-342-6274.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.