Troy Nolan

From NCAA College Football Information & Resource

Troy Nolan

Profile
College	Arizona State University
Position	S
Jersey No.	14
Class	Graduate Student
Career	2007 – present
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight	207 lbs (93.9 kg)
Nationality	American
B-date	September 7, 1986
B-place
High School	El Camino Real High School
Career Highlights
Awards
2007 All-Pac-10 2nd Team Defense 2007 Clyde B. Smith Award for academic achievement 2007 Gail Scott Most Improved Defensive Player Award 2007 Jim Thorpe Award watch list 2007 Phil Steele All-Pac-10 3rd Team 2007 Rivals.com All-Pac-10 Conference 2nd team 2007 SI.com 2nd Team Mid-Season All-American
Championships
2007 Pac-10 Conference Co-Champion
Bowl Games
2007 Holiday Bowl

Troy Nolan (born Troy Dana Nolan Jr. on September 7, 1986) is a safety for the Arizona State University Sun Devils in the NCAA college football tournament. While Nolan spent most of 2006 rehabilitating his injured knee on a stationary bike, the Sun Devils ranked 76th in the nation in scoring defense, 51st in total defense, and tied for 35th in interceptions with only 15 passes picked off. When he was activated in 2007 as part of ASU's starting defense, the team improved to 31st in the nation and 3rd in league in scoring defense, 30th in the nation and 4th in the Pac-10 in total defense, and 25th in the nation in pick-offs with 17. ASU has indeed improved drastically and Nolan is considered as one of the main factors for the turn-around. Entering his senior year, Nolan is now considered as the leader of a defense that continues to look for respectability in the Pac-10 and in the nation as a whole.

1 Personal Life
2 High School
3 Junior College
4 College
5 Career Stats
6 Highlights
7 Achievements
- 7.1 2008
- 7.2 2007
8 References

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Personal Life

Troy, a native of Los Angeles, Calif., is the only child of Troy Nolan Sr. and Karen Gatewood. He has already earned a degree (B.I.S., interdisciplinary studies) at Arizona State University and is planning to pursue a career working for the F.B.I once his football career ends. His favorite sports moment was when he helped his team win the Junior College National Championship while playing at the College of the Canyons.

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High School

Nolan was a versatile athlete at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California where he starred in the football, basketball, track and field and soccer teams, earning a letter in each sport. It was however in the field of football that he earned a number of accolades, much of which came during his senior season. In 2003, Nolan was a second-team All-West Valley Conference on defense and a first-team pick on offense. In 2004, he was christened as the team captain and emerged to become one of the best versatile players on the gridiron after receiving the West Valley Conference Most Valuable Player Award in addition to being named as a first-team All-West Valley Conference on defense and a second team All-WVC selection on offense. He capped that year by accepting the school's defensive Player of the Year honors in football.

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Junior College

After his stint with El Camino, Nolan had to spend some time at the College of the Canyons in Santa Clara, California where he played the free safety position under head coach Chuck Lyon and alongside future ASU co-signees Jonathan Johnson and Justin Tryon. Nolan immediately made an impact and was instrumental in the C of C's title bid in 2004 where it won the National Championship, the Western States Conference Championship and the California State Championship. In 2005, Nolan helped the Cougars to a unblemished 10-0 record in the regular season en route to a Western States Conference Championship repeat. For his efforts, he was named an All-Western States Conference first-team selection on defense.

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College

A three-star rated defensive back prospect, Nolan decided to sign with Arizona State because he wanted to compete in the Pac-10 Conference. He was part of coach Dirk Koetter's last signing class at ASU.

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2006

Nolan joined the team during the spring drills but sustained a knee injury that forced him to redshirt as a junior.

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2007

After a year on the sidelines, Nolan was ready to impress first year head coach Dennis Erickson which he eventually did by making plays like intercepting passes and tackling, doing so with less errors which apparently was enough to overtake Jeremy Payton for the starting safety position. In his first career start, he finished with three tackles as the Sun Devils picked up win number one over San Jose State, 45-3. The following week against Colorado, he made his first career interception off a tipped pass and returned it for a 26 yard touchdown which cut the Buffs' lead to a solitary point in the second quarter. He finished that game with four stops and a pass break up to help ASU claim a 33-14 win. Against San Diego State, Nolan picked another pass for the second straight game, snaring a pass attempt from QB Kevin O'Connell in the back of the end zone before finishing the game with six hits and a PBU in the 34-13 victory. In the Pac-10 opener against Oregon State, Nolan intercepted Sean Canfield twice which prevented the Beavers from taking the lead in the 44-32 ASU win. He totalled 68 yards gain off those two pick-offs and finished the game with a pair of solo tackles and a PBU. In the road opener at Stanford, he contributed three assists as the Sun Devils cruised to a 38-point victory. At Washington State, he tied for second in the team in stops (7) as the Sun Devils barely escaped with a 23-20 win. During the halfway point of the season, Nolan was named as a Second Team Mid-Season All-American by SI.com after leading the Pac-10 in interceptions.

Against Washington, Nolan intercepted another pass, returned it for a 35-yard score, and made two tackles as Arizona State made a quick work of the Huskies, 44-20. In the homecoming game against 20th ranked California, Nolan had six stops as the Sun Devils held the high-scoring Bear offense, 31-20. At Oregon, Nolan tied for third in the team with 8 tackles but ASU failed to put the clamps on 5th ranked Ducks to lose its first game of the season, 23-35. In the final road game of the season, Nolan broke up two passes and made six tackles to help Arizona State come-from-behind to win, 24-20. Against USC, although Nolan came up with a career high 10 tackles which included his first stop for a loss, the upstart Sun Devils succumbed to the 11th ranked Trojans, 24-44. In the Territorial Cup against Arizona, Nolan intercepted yet another pass, produced two solo stops, and had a PBU to help ASU secure a 20-17 win. In his first postseason appearance as a Sun Devil, Nolan chipped in five unassisted hits including one for a four yard loss in the Sun Devils' 34-52 defeat to Texas at the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl.

Nolan ended his FBS debut as ASU's third leading tackler with 64 stops, 2 TFLs, 7 PBUs, and a team leading 6 interceptions returned for 129 yards. He was named a second team All-Pac-10 selection by the league and was awarded with the Clyde B. Smith Award for academic achievement during the team's annual football banquet.

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2008

With his remarkable performance in his first season as a Sun Devil, Nolan has put himself in the level of the best defenders in the nation, earning spots in the Nagurski, Bednarik, Thorpe, and Lott Trophy watch lists.

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