Ippolito Comes Full Circle
Sometimes life can take interesting paths. For Cody Ippolito, things are coming full circle and he’s returning the school where his career could have started. We all take different routes to eventually get to where we need to be and for Ippolito, he’s excited to be where he wanted to be, at the beginning.
Ippolito had committed to the University of Utah as a preferred walk-on during his senior year of high school, but soon received a scholarship offer from the University of Arizona. With the insistence from his high school coach, he visited Tucson and—with a scholarship in hand—his plans changed.
After a promising start to his career, injuries exhausted his time with the Wildcats. Knowing he could gain a medical hardship, he turned to the school and the coach he knew he’d feel instantly comfortable with, Kyle Whittingham and the Utes. Why was it such an easy choice?... Because of the family atmosphere.
“It made me feel like family when I came down here, talking to coaches and talking to the coaches on the phone,” said Ippolito. “Sometimes when you’re just walking around the facility they come up to you and don’t even talk you about football. Just those little things that make you feel like a family, I know every program says, ‘We’re family.’ Here they really emphasize it. They really make you feel it.”
Injuries plagued a good amount of his career at Arizona, but when he was playing, Ippolito was a promising defender. He played in 27 games, starting eleven of them. He’s accounted for 80 tackles, with 10.5 of those being a tackle for loss.
“I just want to help the team as much as I can,” said Ippolito. “Of course, I have my personal goals to be a player, to be able to get out there and contribute during games and stuff, but I just want to play my role. Whatever role they put me in, is whatever role I’ll do.”
His role for the Utes program might be different this year as he has guys like Sunia Tauteoli, Kavika Luafatasaga, and Cody Barton to compete with. But the leadership and experience he has is something that he can help use to encourage the younger guys to stick with it. One thing that has stuck out to him is something Tauteoli told to him.
“You may be new, but you have probably the most, if not, top three most experience playing in actual games and stuff,” recalled Ippolito. “It’s cool because you get to help these younger guys, these freshman that come in. It’s not being a coach, but it’s like getting other people better. It’s setting them up for greatness.”
As he’s transitioned from one program to another, he’s noticed a difference in the two programs. One of this year’s mottos for the Utah team is “Own the Program” and Ippolito is excited to be part of something special this season.
“Coming from a different school, just seeing the difference, seeing some of the differences—I mean Arizona was great, I loved that school,” said Ippolito. “I have nothing bad to say about them. I had a great time over there, I loved my coaches, loved everything about it. But, coming here, you see the guys really getting on each other's butts about ‘Oh, yo, go get some extra work in. Yo, stop slacking.’ It really comes from these seniors that are here now, these leadership guys that get people.
Coach Whitt does a great job of getting people to actually buy into this program instead of doing the outside source stuff, having too much of a social life stuff like that. He emphasizes, you’re here, be here. Let’s contribute and let’s be great.”
Whatever short impact Ippolito makes on the program during the 2017 season, its safe to say the Utah football program will leave a lasting impact on him, as well.