How Washington State offensive lineman Esa Pole swapped self-doubt for confidence

4-5 minutes 8/3/2023
PULLMAN – Somewhere in the middle of a collection of giant offensive linemen dressed in red practice jerseys, Esa Pole raised his voice.
The Washington State offensive lineman, a 6-foot-7 hulk of a man, wanted his teammates to stop thinking – to kill hesitation.
“Go now, think later,” Pole told his fellow linemen. “Go now. Go full speed.”
As Pole and his teammates baked under the Thursday morning sun, running drill after drill during their second practice of fall camp, a certain realization might have set in for keen eyes: This guy directing his teammates was not a returning starter, not a veteran, not even a player with anything resembling a meaningful role locked up.
It was Pole, a junior college transfer taking part in his first fall camp at Washington State. His story is intriguing for many reasons: He only picked up football some two years ago. His older brother Toni played at WSU. He tried basketball when he was younger, only to realize his frame would be more useful in football, and now he’s vying for a starting spot on a Power Five club.
The craziest part of all, though, might be the reality that only a short time ago, Pole would have given anything for the confidence to encourage his teammates like he did on Thursday.
During his time at Chabot College, a junior college in his hometown of Hayward, California, Pole always had the physical tools. He weighed around 320 pounds. He had the body of an offensive lineman, and considering he only started playing football in 2021, it was remarkable how quickly he learned the position.
What didn’t come as naturally to Pole was confidence. He questioned, hesitated, wondered if he belonged around teammates who had been playing a decade longer. None of that changed when he came to WSU, where he faced all-conference edge rushers Ron Stone Jr. and Brennan Jackson in spring ball this year, so Pole kept searching for assurance.
“I didn’t really come in prepared mentally,” Pole said. “The biggest thing that (my brother) always told me every play, every time I step up or line up or even during workouts and lifts, he’s always said, ‘I’m in my head.’ ”
“I think there’s moments where you have a little bit of uncertainty, and that creates hesitation,” WSU head coach Jake Dickert said. “Hesitation kills performance.”
Pole kept competing, kept coming to practice and fighting for a job on the offensive line.
“But it was more the battle within myself that was definitely the biggest struggle for me,” Pole said.
When WSU’s spring practices ended, the Cougars started holding team meetings. Strength and conditioning coach Ben Iannacchione stressed to his guys one theme: “You can do hard things.”
“And I really just had to think to myself, it’s like, ‘I’ve done hard things,’ ” Pole said. “So it doesn’t change now that I’m at a Division I school. If I can do hard things at any level, I can do hard things.”
Now Pole will get a serious look at the left tackle spot, where he’s competing with 6-5 redshirt sophomore Christian Hilborn, who started all 13 games last season.
Pole said he isn’t worried about getting snaps at the spot. He doesn’t see Hilborn as someone to beat, only a teammate to encourage.
Starter or not, Pole has earned a chance to play left tackle for WSU. How quickly things change.
“We as players like to focus on the physical things,” Pole said. “How we can get stronger, how we can get faster, how we can be more physical? But at the end of the day, if you don’t control and really attack that mental aspect of the game, it can be really, really challenging for anybody.”