Rey Maualuga

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Rey Maualuga
Maualuga with "DAD" eye black stickers
Maualuga with "DAD" eye black stickers
College USC
Conference Pac 10
Sport Football
Position Linebacker
Jersey # 58
Class Senior
Major Sociology
Nickname Rey Rey
Career 2005 – present
Height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Weight 250 lb (113 kg)
Nationality USA
Born January 20, 1987 (1987-01-20) (age 21)
Oklahoma
High school Eureka High School,
Eureka, California
Awards
2008 Rose Bowl Defensive MVP

2007 All-Pac-10 First Team
2006 All-Pac-10 Second Team
2005 Freshman All-American

Rey Maualuga (born January 20, 1987 in Oklahoma) is an American football middle linebacker for the University of Southern California Trojans football team.

Contents

[edit] Early life

He lived in Oklahoma for a few years, then moved to Hawaii, where he lived in Waipahu, Hawaii. He grew up there for about 8 years, at which point he then moved to California.

[edit] High school career

He attended St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura, California where he played with Lorenzo Booker. He moved to Eureka, California before his junior year where he played with Nebraska University wide receiver Maurice Purify. His team, the Eureka High School Loggers completed their perfect 13-0 season with a North Coast Section championship at the Redwood Bowl during his junior year. That year he posted 146 tackles, 43 tackles for loss, 11 sacks and 1 interception. In his senior year he had 96 tackles, 37 tackles for loss, 4 interceptions (2 for TDs), -2 fumble recoveries and 1 kickoff return for a touchdown. Eureka went 20-2-1 during his junior and senior seasons. Following his senior season, Maualuga played in the 2005 U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

[edit] High school honors

[edit] Junior year (2003)

  • Student Sports Junior All-American
  • Cal-Hi Sports All-State Underclass first team

[edit] Senior year (2004)

[edit] College Career

Maualuga on the sidelines of Nebraska's Memorial Stadium
Maualuga on the sidelines of Nebraska's Memorial Stadium

Maualuga plays college football for the University of Southern California. He wears number 58, which was previously worn by Lofa Tatupu who like Maualuga is also of Samoan descent.

Maualuga is a 2007 preseason Athlon and CBS Sportsline All-American and on the 2007 Bednarik Award, Lombardi Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch lists and was considered a top choice for the 2008 NFL Draft. But he decided to stay for his senior year in college.

At the end of the 2007 regular season, Maualuga was selected to the All-Pacific 10 Conference first team for the second year in a row by league coaches.[1] He was the defensive player-of-the-game in the 2008 Rose Bowl.[2]

In 2006 he was nominated for the Butkus Award and second team All-Pac-10.

He made the 2005 Football Writers Association of America Freshman All-American first team and Scout.com Freshman All-American first team; also he won USC's John McKay Award (most competitive spirit).

Some NFL scouts have compared Maualuga to former Trojan and current Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu for his aggressive style of play at linebacker, although Polamalu played both positions at USC before switching to safety for the Steelers.

[edit] Trivia

Pregame Ritual

He writes "RIP" on the eye-black sticker under his right eye and "DAD" on the eye-black sticker under his left eye in honor of his dad who passed away two days before the Rose Bowl after battling brain cancer during Maualuga’s freshman season.

Quotes
  • “We have many guys on our team who we know by the sound of their voice but we know Rey by sound of his hits” — Pete Carroll on Rey Maualuga.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pac-10 Football Awards and All-Conference Team Announced, Pacific 10 Conference, December 3, 2007.
  2. ^ Chris Foster, USC's Maualuga caps a strong defensive effort, Los Angeles Times, January 2, 2008.