USC's blind snapper sets up final point

Sep 3, 2017 - 3:01 AM There will be debates over how well USC's Heisman Trophy candidate, quarterback Sam Darnold, played in Saturday's season-opening, 49-31 win over Western Michigan University, but there is no controversy over the single most dramatic moment in the game.

And it transcends USC's struggle to prove its pregame No. 4 national ranking is deserved.

With 3:13 left in the game, after Marvell Tell's 37-yard interception return for a touchdown, the Trojans called a time out and sent Jake Olson onto the field to snap for the extra point. The snap was true and the kick was good. It was the first play in a live game for Olson, who has been totally blind since he was 12 years old.

Olson grew up a Trojans fan and became a constant guest of the team at games when the team was led by coach Pete Carroll, now the Seattle Seahawks' head coach. Olson was born with retinoblastoma, a cancer of the retina, and lost vision in is left eye when he was 10 months old and in his right eye at 12 years old.

Carroll heard of Jake's story, invited him to practice before he lost his eyesight, and Jake was on the sideline during a game the day before losing sight in his right eye. Young Olson accompanied the team to several games, home and away.

A native of Huntington Beach, Calif., Olson earned a jersey as a walk-on and is now a redshirt sophomore listed at 6-4, 225 pounds. He was granted a waiver to practice with USC in the fall of 2015 and snapped for two kicks in the 2016 spring game.

The waiver was necessary because the NCAA determined the scholarship he was given to attend USC was an athletic one. Olson is on a scholarship from the Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship fund, which was deemed to be an athletic scholarship.

"Growing up a huge Trojan fan really makes me appreciate the significance of putting on a jersey and being part of the team, it's a very special time and thing that I get to do," Olson said last year. "More than that I just love football. I love the game of football, I love the camaraderie that goes on within a team and just being out there and playing the great game."