Arizona DT Zac Siulepa turned a Costco trip into a football career

It's easy to not miss Siulepa. He's 6-6 and previously weighed around 410 pounds. Siulepa also has a mullet-style haircut with his hair flowing down his back. 

While shopping at Costco in Gold Coast, Australia, in 2022, "an American came up to me and said, 'You'd do really well playing American football.' I sent him my rugby highlights and we're here now." 

That was the first domino to Siulepa's football journey and now he's currently in the Tucson chapter of his career, playing meaningful snaps for the Wildcats this season and being a part of a unit that just won Big 12 Defensive Line of the Week for holding Cincinnati to 74 rushing yards. 

The stranger who scouted Siulepa at Costco knew members of the coaching staff at Garden City Community College in Kansas — and Garden City, Kansas, is deep Kansas. It's a central point for Albuquerque, Denver and Kansas City and it's a town with a population of just over 27,000 people. 

Siulepa was in a completely different world. Not only was he over 8,000 miles away from home in 2023, Siulepa never played football. The most challenging part about playing football, "to be honest, it was just trying to breathe with the equipment on," he said.  

Siulepa, who moved from New Zealand to Australia when he was 8 years old, wasn't accustomed to having pads and a helmet on. He was used to body-slamming people in a rugby uniform.

When Siulepa was 10, he was rugby teammates with Arizona punter Chase Ridley, who is a freshman at Arizona and someone who was committed to play for West Virginia, the team Arizona is facing on Saturday in Morgantown. 

Ridley "was a bit chubby, so we played the same position," which was prop forward, Siulepa said. 

"That's where we catch the ball and run as hard as you can into people," he added  

Siulepa came to Arizona a year before Ridley, who played Aussie rules football and joined the Wildcats via the renowned "Pro Kick Australia" pipeline. 

When Ridley signed with the Wildcats, he reached out to his old childhood rugby teammate. 

"I said, 'It can't be no way this is Chase Ridley,'" Siulepa said. "It was pretty surreal, to be honest, having one of my boys from back home and my childhood, living out the dream with me." 

Siulepa said "playing rugby my whole life, it gave me a little bit of an advantage to be more twitchier with my size and the physicality is something I brought over from rugby (to football)." 

Siulepa's size and athleticism was evident on Garden City's defensive highlights. Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales was recruiting one of Siulepa's teammates, but he became enamored with the Australian defensive lineman. 

Gonzales called Garden City head coach Kiyoshi Harris, who previously coached at Boise State, "and I was like, 'What's the story of this kid?'"

Harris sent Gonzales videos of Siulepa weightlifting and power-cleaning 325 pounds. 

"At that point, it was, 'How do we get him to school?'" Gonzales said. "'How can we figure him out? And then we can teach him how to play football.'"

Siulepa signed with Arizona in December 2024 as a member of the Wildcats' 2025 recruiting class.

The transformation

"I love it in Tucson," Siulepa said. "Coming from Kansas and my old (junior college), it's a very big culture shock and I'm loving every second it."

The culture shock?

"The food," he said. "I love the food here. I'm very big on Mexican food and there's a big variety of it here." 

One problem with that: Siulepa came to Tucson around 410 pounds and he needed to transform his body and endurance to be a reliable force in games. 

"That's the most challenging part about being in Tucson my first semester," Siulepa said. "There's so much good food around here, but I just have to have a great mindset to lose weight." 

Siulepa's roommate, Arizona defensive lineman Julian Savaiinaea, has "helped a big way in this progression with me and my weight loss."

"He's basically my guardian at home," Siulepa said of Savaiinaea. "He looks at the food and gives his opinions on it when I'm eating it." 

Savaiinaea said in the spring that he's "just helping him out on what not to eat."

"He has help from our nutrition team," Savaiinaea said. "I just hold him accountable and make sure he's not grabbing too many snacks and desserts."

No more Costco chicken bakes and double-chocolate chunk cookies for Siulepa. His diet was aligned with the mixed veggies and frozen protein aisles — and whatever plan Arizona's nutrition staff has for them at Bear Down Kitchen inside the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility. 

"It's been an A-plus effort from them," Siulepa said. "They've been locked into me, so I've been giving them the same energy back and being locked into them."  

Siulepa is down 63 pounds and weighs 347 pounds, he said. 

"I feel like a completely new player," Siulepa said. "It doesn't feel like there's extra baggage on me. It feels good moving around and breathing."

Arizona center Zach Henning has noticed a change in Siulepa's play in the nine months he's been here and said Siulepa "is definitely a different player."

"With the weight loss, he's a lot of faster, a lot stronger," Henning said. "He's tough to block." 

Siulepa went from playing 20 defensive snaps a season ago, to now 68 through five games this season, according to Pro Football Focus. He was one of 11 defensive linemen who played in Arizona's Big 12 home opener against Cincinnati.

"Our D-Line has been pretty effective, because we have a deep rotation on the defensive line,” Siulepa said. “We've got a lot of people that can gut people and run 100 miles per hour at people's faces." 

Siulepa only has two tackles this season, but his role doesn't often show up on the box score. The nose tackle is occupying blockers and taking up space at the line of scrimmage, clogging up gaps and making it easier for linebackers and downhill safeties to make plays.

Siulepa has a hand in Arizona's rushing defense that ranks 11th nationally, third in the Big 12 behind Houston and BYU. The Wildcats are only surrendering 79 rushing yards per game. Arizona is facing the third-best rushing offense in college football in West Virginia on Saturday. Siulepa also has three quarterback hurries this season, per PFF. 

"He's a young man with a high ceiling with a lot of underdeveloped traits that I'm fired up for," Arizona defensive line coach Joe Salave'a said earlier this year. "He's going to be a big part of our front, not just this year, but next year (as well)."

Siulepa is only in his fourth year of playing competitive football, but he loves the "dog-eat-dog game," he said.

"It's dirty and I like that kind of game," he said. 

Siulepa has been on a long journey, "but it's been a very gratifying, fun and special journey to watch him grow as a person and a football player," Gonzales said.

"I think the world of Zac Siulepa for everything, because I've been a pain in his side for two years," Gonzales said. "He walks around without a shirt on. If you watch the Colorado game last year, he's chasing the ball doing this (tugs on shirt near stomach) during the play.

"It's amazing what confidence can do to a young man and he's playing like it. I'm super, super proud of him."

Costco has everything: food in bulk, a pharmacy, an optometrist, a place to take passport photos, a tire shop, furniture, home goods and apparently football careers.