It seems like J.T. Mapu is reliving his freshman year all over again.

Mapu, a junior defensive tackle at the University of Tennessee, returned to the team after a two-year church mission.

Mapu called his return to Tennessee "weird."

"It was kind of like being a freshman, but it wasn't," he said. "Everybody who I met, they already knew who I was, so it made it a lot easier."

A 2002 Kahuku graduate, Mapu played in 2002 and 2003 before going on his mission to Texas and Louisiana.

"It was fun, it was a good experience. I grew up a lot," Mapu said. "Just learning about life, sometimes you get caught up playing football, playing at a big school. You get so focused on workouts and being successful on the field and in the classroom."

Instead, Mapu "worked with people who weren't so fortunate," when he served where hurricane Rita hit.

"We got to help a lot of people. It was good to put smiles on their faces," he said.

While on the mission, he wasn't allowed to do anything active but run.

"It's rough, I'm so behind," he said. "Everybody has been here (in Knoxville) working hard. For me to get back into things, I realize it's going to take some work. But I'm focused and I think I can do it. My mind is ready to go, but my body just isn't there.

"I get out and work out in the mornings. I was going to go running after practice, but coaches told me not to. I want to do extra to catch up to everybody, but I have to take it slow."

At 6-3, 275 pounds, he is expected to play this season, against even his own expectations.

"I had in mind to come back and redshirt," Mapu said. "They basically told me I was going to play this year, and I had to be ready the first game."

It will need to be a quick change for Mapu, who wore pads in fall camp for the first time in nearly three years.

"It was an adjustment," he said of his first practice on Aug. 4. "I was able to make it through. It was rough, but I made it through. It was hard at first, but after the first day, I just got back into it."

Mapu played in all 12 regular-season games as a true freshman, then started 10 of 11 games as a sophomore.

He missed the first game of his sophomore season when he returned to Hawai'i after his older brother, Daniel, was seriously injured Aug. 25, 2003, when struck by a vehicle during an anti-drug demonstration.

"It was right before the opening of the season," Mapu said. "(Daniel) was about to come up to watch my first game."

He dedicated the entire season to his older brother, with a career-high 26 tackles in his sophomore season.

And Daniel was finally able to make the trip to Knoxville, Tenn., to visit J.T., when the entire Mapu clan — father, mother, and four siblings — flew up to help J.T. get settled — again.

"They wanted to come up and bring me back to school," he said. "It helped me out a lot, just getting back into things. I wasn't by myself. I had to get to know people all over again."

Daniel's accident "really impacted us. We were always a close family, but we grew closer. We had to come together and talk it out."

J.T. said Daniel is "doing good, he's healthy," and that "he knew" he was in Knoxville when the family made the trip.

"It was just good to be around him," J.T. said.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.