He’s Quiet, and Then ... Snap

If you could see Troy Polamalu up close--close enough to peer inside his facemask--you would know he whispers to himself before each play. He says a quick prayer that no harm will come to him or anyone else on the field.

“There’s a very fine line in football,” he says. “You don’t want to go out there and break a guy’s neck.”

But the game requires a certain ferocity, even from an otherwise gentle and deeply religious young man. So when the ball is snapped, something inside him changes.

“Kind of like an assassin,” a teammate remarks. “He’s real quiet ... and then he turns into a beast.”

Polamalu turns into the leader of the USC defense, a strong safety who always seems to find his way to the action. That penchant has made him an All-American and a player to watch when the Trojans face Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl on Christmas Day.

“He is the guy we’re worried about,” Utah offensive guard Ed Ta’amu says. “When we watch film, everywhere we look he’s in the picture.”

Such compliments make Polamalu a little uncomfortable, a bashful smile emerging from beneath his wild head of black hair. Gentleness that morphs into controlled rage is only one of the seeming contradictions in his nature. His reticence belies a dramatic flair, a knack for blocking punts and intercepting passes.

Coach Pete Carroll, who worked with the likes of Ronnie Lott and Lawyer Milloy in the NFL, ranks Polamalu among the best safeties he has coached.

Again, Polamalu demurs.

“I’m just blessed,” he says softly. “This is a sport where you’ve got to be grateful for every play.”

Clearly, reporters do not flock to him for controversial quotes. However, Carroll and his first-year staff quickly turned to the quiet junior when they began rebuilding the program last spring.

Game films from the Trojans’ disappointing 2000 season revealed good and bad about the defense. There was talent. There were gaps. So the coaches decided to find the best 11 players and, no matter who they were, put them on the field together.

Safeties Frank Strong and Matt Grootegoed shifted forward to linebacker. The prodigious freshman Shaun Cody switched to defensive tackle, though his size was better suited to end. And Polamalu, initially listed at free safety, was moved back to the strong side, where he started last season.

The return was significant because Carroll has always featured the strong safety in his defenses.

“That made Troy our centerpiece,” associate coach DeWayne Walker says. “He’s our guy.”

The new defense required him to be versatile, sometimes dropping into pass coverage, sometimes creeping up to bolster an undersized front seven that struggled against the run, especially early in the season. There was no question he had the work ethic to assume added responsibilities--he is famous for staying after practice to hit the blocking sled or run extra sprints--but it wasn’t easy.

More than anything, the 20-year-old needed to infuse his game with the self-control that marks his personal and religious life. He had to stifle the urge to simply charge after the ball.

“At times, I felt like, man, I needed to do something special,” he says. “I’d take my shot and half the time I would miss.”

Conversely, when he began to play under control, the game flowed to him. Big plays ensued.

First came a blocked punt against Stanford, then an interception return for a touchdown at Washington. Against Notre Dame, Polamalu recovered a fumble that led to a score. In a victory over Oregon State, the coaches designed a play to free him on the punt rush, and he responded by blocking a kick into the end zone, where it was recovered by a teammate for a crucial score.

This is the stuff, Carroll says, of exceptional players.

“You can put guys in position to make plays,” he says. “But not everyone comes through.”

In the final two weeks of the regular season, Polamalu returned an interception 58 yards for a touchdown against California, then had another interception and another punt block against UCLA.

That made for a total of three interceptions, three blocked punts, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery, not to mention a team-high 98 tackles. And that made him USC’s first All-American safety since Mark Carrier in 1989, though he would prefer to talk about how the defense, a question mark at the start of the season, ranked near the top of the conference by late November.

“I hate to get an award that separates me from the team,” he says.

Now comes the final contradiction--a bowl berth that has Polamalu spending Christmas in a place known as Sin City. The bright lights and gambling hold little allure for a guy who prefers to stay in the background at parties, watching everyone else have fun.

His first night in town, Polamalu walked around the Strip for a few hours but went back to his hotel room early. He says he can’t wait for the game.

In an odd way, he finds peace amid the violence of football. He says the Lord gave him talent to play, so that is what he does. And when Christmas comes around, if you look closely enough, you might see him praying before the snap.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Big Difference

Junior strong safety Troy Polamalu is one of the reasons the Trojans have won five of their last six games to earn a spot in the Las Vegas Bowl. This season, Polamalu has recorded a team-high 98 tackles, made three interceptions, blocked three punts, forced two fumbles and recovered a fumble. Here’s a look at some of the big plays he has made:

*--*

Date Highlight Score Sept. 29 Blocked a punt against Stanford 21-16 loss Oct. 6 Returned an interception 22 yards for a touchdown against Washington 27-24 loss Nov. 3 Intercepted a pass against Oregon State 16-13 win Nov. 10 Returned an interception 58 yards for a touchdown against California 55-14 win Nov. 17 Intercepted a pass and blocked a punt against UCLA 27-0 win

*--*