When he’s not playing pickleball, or perhaps dreaming of hosting his own HGTV home remodeling show, Paul Moala is immersed deep in thoughts of football. How can he be better? How can he make his team better? How can he use these next three months, his one final season in college playing for the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech, to improve his prospects of making the NFL?
A younger Moala probably wouldn’t believe how far today’s Moala has come.
“With my story, and by the grace of God, I just wanted to go until I couldn’t go anymore,” Moala said. “Being granted this opportunity, honestly, just kind of opened my eyes to God’s plan and what he wants for me. I’m kind of just taking it with a grain of salt and going as far as I can go and as far as my body will let me.”
A 6-foot, 229-pound linebacker, Moala will make his Tech debut at 7:30 p.m. Friday when the Jackets play Louisville at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Arriving at that point has come only after quite a journey for a relatively unheralded prospect out of small-town Indiana.
Tech brought Moala to Atlanta this summer to join a revamped defense under first-year coach Brent Key and veteran defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker. There’s a cautious optimism that Moala, who had an outstanding preseason for the Jackets, will put together the best season of his career while helping Tech as a whole turnaround their fortunes for the better.
A country boy can defend
Moala was born in Salt Lake City, the child of Tongan immigrants. His dad, Pule Moala, played for Tonga’s national rugby team in the 1980s.
The Moalas then moved to Mishawaka, Indiana, when Paul Moala was 8 and Moala quickly assimilated to life in the small midwestern town just down the road from South Bend, Indiana. He played some basketball, some rugby like his dad once had and began competitive football in the fifth grade.
Athletics and academics were all that the Moalas knew. And Moala, one of nine children, excelled in both.
As a senior at Penn High School, Moala had 67 tackles, returned five kicks for touchdowns, caught two touchdown passes and was named an IndyStar Mr. Football winner while taking his school to the Class 6A state championship game. He was the pride of Penn and had even started dating his high school sweetheart, Maddy Wiseman, who now is his fiancé.
“Naturally, he was special,” Penn coach Cory Yeoman said. “Even from a young age, when he did things, he jumped off the page at you. He is so humble. He’s got the ‘it’ factor, but he’s also very unassuming off the field. And caring. And kind. He’s just a good person. He’s been brought up the right way.”
Still, for all his successes, Moala went a bit under the radar in college football’s cutthroat recruiting world. His lone FBS scholarship offers as a senior were from Iowa, Nebraska and Vanderbilt and he was considered only a three-star prospect in the 2018 signing class.
Moala began his prep career as a linebacker but graciously agreed to move to safety for the betterment of Penn’s prospects. He remained a defensive back throughout high school.
Nearby Notre Dame wasn’t all that familiar with Moala, he said, until they came to recruit Moala’s teammate, Anthony Torres, now a tight end at Toledo. Notre Dame defensive coordinator Mike Elko, now the coach at Duke, spotted Moala and invited Moala, who had become a major Fighting Irish fan from having watched former Notre Dame star Manti Te’o’s career, to a prospect camp.
Moala was offered a scholarship in the summer of 2017 and committed to the Fighting Irish a few months later.
Fighting injuries
Moala made enough of an impression his first season on campus at Notre Dame to crack the lineup on special teams. He played in seven games and made his first career tackle in a win over Syracuse.
The following season Moala continued to work his way up the depth chart as a reserve linebacker and played in 11 games making a modest 14 tackles. He also returned a fumble for 27 yards for a touchdown in a game against Navy. The foundation was laid for Moala to make an impact in 2020.
Fate had other plans.
“That first year (2018) was the harder year. It was kind of the first time I was actually challenged, not only physically but mentally, trying to get be myself,” Moala said. “The initial happening of the second injury was pretty tough on me. There were some emotional nights thinking, ‘Is football really for me?’
“I think the biggest thing that helped me cope was staying true to who I was and then leaning on God. A big part of me is being able to build that relationship with God and look forward to the blessings that he has on the way.”
On Oct. 10, 2020, Moala tore his Achilles tendon in his right foot. It took nearly a full year for him to return to the field, but when he did, in Notre Dame’s 2021 season opener, that same Achilles tendon tore again.
In January 2022, Moala put his name in the NCAA’s transfer portal and would soon leave South Bend with a degree in industrial design in hand.
“I think that having that mindset that kind of knowing there’s something bigger out there for me kind of allowed me to sit back and allow things to take their course and to know the grass will be greener on the other side,” Moala said about leaving Notre Dame.
He just didn’t expect the grass to be almost 2,000 miles away.
Moving to Moscow
Moala suspects most college coaches in 2022 were turned off by Moala’s injury history. An undersized linebacker coming off back-to-back major tendon tears was viewed as damaged goods.
But a graduate assistant at Notre Dame lent a helping hand to Moala and reached out to a friend on the coaching staff at Idaho, a program which as recently as 2016 had made a bowl game – but also a program that had moved to the FCS ranks in 2018. Moala took a visit to Moscow, Idaho, to check things out for himself and, not being left many other options to continue his football career, took a flyer on the Vandals.
“I’m used to country, but that was country,” he said. “It was the middle-of-nowhere country. It was a humble lifestyle for me. It allowed me to kind of hone in on my football skills, understand football and take time out of my day to have no distractions and focus on football solely and better my knowledge of football. It was truly a blessing.”
Big Sky country turned out to be just the sort of breath of fresh air that Moala needed. He would finish third on the team with 61 tackles and tie for the team lead with four interceptions. In Idaho’s first two games of the season, against Washington State and Indiana, respectively, Moala tallied 10 stops – two for a loss – and forced a fumble.
His confidence, and more important his health, had returned.
“I wanted to play football. I love football,” Moala said. “Just being able to play football made me a happy guy. I didn’t really look at it as a thing not to consider a blessing.”
Moala put his name back in the transfer portal in April. A month later he announced he’d be moving to Atlanta.
“After seeing what I was capable of at Idaho, I just said a few prayers and thought to myself, ‘If I want achieve the goal and the dream of playing at the highest level, then I’m going to have to make a decision to compete against higher-level teams.’ I chose to look for a bigger school,” he said. “The coaching staff (at Tech) was really good about recruiting me.”
One final fall
Cracking the starting lineup was not a foregone conclusion for Moala before he came to Tech. Key also signed Minnesota transfer Braelen Oliver, Texas A&M transfer Andre White and Rutgers transfer Austin Dean to possibly play alongside returner Trenilyas Tatum at linebacker.
Moala, however, battled through the month of August to state his case to be considered to take one of Tech’s starting linebacker spots. Key lauded Moala’s ability to understand coverage, pinpoint his own strengths and weaknesses and to diagnose plays.
“I see maturity. I see experience. I see a level-headed guy. I see a leader,” Key said. “I see a guy that impacts others around him, not just what he says but how he does everything, how he goes about his business off the field and on the field, how he handles himself in the locker room, how he handles himself on the field.”
Said Tech linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer: “What I like about him is, obviously, he’s a mature guy. The first few days (of preseason practice) he’s a quiet guy, and you can tell he knows what he’s supposed to do, he’s just trying to do it our way. Now he’s starting to become more comfortable with our way and he’s starting to show up a little bit more. I’m excited about him.”
Clark Lea, a former Notre Dame defensive coordinator who now is the coach at Vanderbilt, recalled this week how he helped recruit Moala to Notre Dame. He’s now watching from afar and expecting Moala to rise to the level the Fighting Irish once hoped to witness.
“I’m excited for him and his progress through his career,” Lea said. “Anytime between player and coach, you spend a lot of time together and you connect. Obviously, we helped him through his adversity with injuries, too. He and I formed a special relationship, and I’ve got a ton of confidence in him. Excited to watch him flourish.”
Moala’s parents, who work as caregivers, now reside in California. His mother had the hard decision to move there for a better career opportunity when Moala was in middle school and Moala said he and his brother, Inoke Moala, a former football standout at Indiana State, constantly are driven to try to give their parents an easier life. Younger sister Janet Moala plays volleyball at Menlo (Calif.) College and younger brother Kapeli Moala plays volleyball at Davenport (Mich.) University.
But all eyes are on Paul Moala this season on the big stage in the ACC. And if he has the season he expects to have, the season his teammates and coaches are confident he’ll put together, he’ll be well on his way to making his professional football dreams a reality.
Dreams that seemed unfathomable two years ago.
“I definitely do have faith that I can play at the next level,” he said. “I’m pretty excited to see what God allows within this next season, and I’m pretty excited to see how the talents and abilities he’s blessed me with pan out.”
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