Safety Isaiah Pola-Mao reflects on playing starring role in USC's opener
It should have been the story of the game, the first question to coach Clay Helton afterward, the main highlight being replayed over and over.
But Isaiah Pola-Mao's game-saving interception late in the fourth quarter Saturday night was overshadowed a bit by USC's quarterback news -- the loss of starter JT Daniels to a season-ending knee injury and the debut of true freshman Kedon Slovis in his place.
The truth is, though, the Trojans might not have that season-opening 31-23 win over Fresno State if not for Pola-Mao's instincts.
The USC defense had just given up a back-breaking fourth-and-10 conversion on a 36-yard pass from Jorge Reyna to Chris Coleman down to the 15-yard line with a little more than 2 minutes remaining. On the very next play, running back Ronnie Rivers beat cornerback Isaac Taylor-Stuart on a wheel route down the left sideline and had his arms out awaiting a potentially calamitous touchdown for the momentum-less Trojans.
But Pola-Mao, the redshirt sophomore safety, had read Reyna's eyes from the near hash and already began moving toward that sideline. He arrived just in time to snatch the ball right in front of Rivers and get in bounds for the momentous interception -- the first of his Trojans career.
"I just got a good call from the DC and I seen that they motioned out the receiver or the tall tight end so I knew that they wanted either a fade or some type of one-on-one, and as soon as he looked over there I just ran over there," Pola-Mao explained. "I was in the right spot at the right time."
He's waited a while to be in such a position. A starter to open last season, he dislocated his left shoulder on the opening series in Week 2 against Stanford.
Even with his limited game experience, though, with all the talk this preseason of USC's young secondary, the counterpoint of optimism has always been the safety tandem of Pola-Mao and sophomore Talanoa Hufanga.
"It's good, but it's also a humble moment because even though I made that play I still messed up on a lot of things," Pola-Mao said afterward.
He actually finished as USC's second-highest-graded defensive player by Pro Football Focus, scoring a 75.7 (on a 1-100 scale). He received an isolated 80.2 grade for coverage while being knocked down for rush defense (55.4) and tackling (58.6).
Pola-Mao was also credited with a sack, tripping up Reyna in the backfield after defensive end Drake Jackson had flushed him out of the pocket late in the second quarter. Overall, he finished with 5 tackles and played 69 of 80 defensive snaps, according to PFF, rotating out for Chase Williams at times.
The final of those snaps was the most impactful for Pola-Mao and the Trojans, preventing any shot at Fresno State tying the game and forcing overtime.
After the game, reporters quizzed him on what he was thinking each step of that interception, and Pola-Mao gave an answer his coaches will surely appreciate.
"I don't really think that much during a play. I just play," he said. "As soon as I seen him look that way, I just wanted it so I just took off."
The previous fourth-and-10 conversion, which came as Coleman out-positioned nickel Greg Johnson to high-point the catch, had created a collective tension in the Coliseum. And if one was focused solely on the ball on that next pass, it sure looked like Rivers was about to have a touchdown to set up a potential game-tying 2-point conversion, until Pola-Mao darted into the screen to seal the game.
"It was a good play by them, but I just had to clear my mind and get back to football," Pola-Mao said of refocusing after the previous play. "The ball's in the air, I've got to go get that. As a DB you're taught to go get the ball whenever it's in the air so that's what I did -- I did my job."