Big man, big plans

Haloti Ngata is NFL material, but one last year at UO awaits

By Jason Vondersmith

The Portland Tribune, Jul 29, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

EUGENE ÑBy August 2006, Haloti Ngata probably won’t be living with seven other guys, buying 50-pound bulk bags of rice, studying the Arab-Israel conflict or enjoying the simplicities of college life.

Barring anything unforeseen, Oregon’s star defensive tackle will be preparing to play in the NFL after having signed his first contract for something in the range of $40 million.

“Best guy I’ve ever seen, for an inside guy,” says Oregon’s new defensive line coach, Michael Gray, who will mentor Ngata in his fourth Ñ and final Ñ season with the Ducks.

Gray predicts Ngata will be a top-five pick in the 2006 draft.

“He’s the blue goose, a freak of nature,” Gray says. “You don’t find people that size that can move like him. He can dominate, actually. He’s a premium athlete.”

The Ducks open practice next week, and the prospect of contending for the Pac-10 title is exciting for Ngata, the junior behemoth from Salt Lake City who has landed on several preseason All-American lists.

But he also has his eyes on the big prize, a future NFL job. Former linemate Igor Olshansky, describing the leap from Pac-10 ball to the NFL, told Ngata that “it’s like college was to little league football.” But Ngata, who plans to earn his sociology degree by spring, says he will make it.

“I can do it,” he says. “I want to make my mom and family proud. If I’m ready, and there’s nothing to be gained for me footballwise here, why stay? Oregon would love me to stay, but Oregon is thinking about Oregon. It’s my future.”

Just about his only concern: how the big money will change people around him.

One big boy

Some things tend to stick out about the 6-5, 340 pound Ngata. Like his 32-inch thighs and the 55 inches around his posterior. Unofficially, it’s the biggest butt in recent memory at the U of O.

“That’s his power,” trainer Kevin Steil says.

Or, as Steil likes to say of the big defensive linemen, “The legs feed the wolf. É Strength is all in the lower body, for movement and drive.”

“It keeps me balanced,” Ngata says of his rear end.

Ngata rarely is seen in pants. He favors shorts, sweats or “lava-lava,” the colorful cloth worn by Polynesians. Nobody giggles when they see Ngata wearing one.

Ngata has always been athletic. He played rugby Ñ and plans to play the sport again someday Ñ and he has gained strength while at Oregon. He lifts 407 pounds in the clean, 505 in bench and 585 in squat.

His body is his future, and he takes care of it. Every day, he and the trainers are hard at work, concentrating on flexibility. Ngata missed the 2003 season after knee surgery, then injured his hamstring early last season, when he started out favoring the knee. “We work on flexibility of the quads, which helps the knees,” Steil says. “His legs are so heavy, it’s a workout for me.”

Ngata remembers going through five hours a day of rehabilitation during the 2003 season. But he refused to wallow in self-pity while lying on the training table, not after his father had died in a trucking accident in December 2002 and his mother had fallen into a state of depression.

“I was thinking about my mom a lot, and whether she was taking care of herself,” he says. “I couldn’t handle losing both parents. It would be a different world.”

Ngata’s mother, Olga, works for Southwest Airlines and has moved to Phoenix, and has recovered emotionally. It’s been three years since Solomone Ngata’s death, and “this is the first year she feels good,” Ngata says. “She was really sad, slumping around. She gained weight. She had to force herself to go to work. I couldn’t show pain. I wouldn’t want my mom to see I was struggling because Dad died. Because of my religion (Mormon), I know I’ll see him again.”

Another woman, Christina Adams, rocks Ngata’s world. She has been with the big fella since his days at Highland High in Salt Lake, and Ngata plans to marry her Ñ maybe after the 2006 draft.

“She’s good for him,” Oregon teammate Matt Toeaina says. “Low-key, soft-spoken. He doesn’t have to hold back on anything; he says anything he wants.”

Eight happy roommates

While the Ducks were recruiting Ngata, the coaches never told him about the other Polynesians coming on board. It wasn’t until he arrived in 2002 that he discovered five others had signed with Oregon. It delighted him greatly.

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