Rams receiver Puka Nacua: His growing brand explained by his high school basketball coach

Sitting in SoFi Stadium watching Puka Nacua zip around making huge plays for the Los Angeles Rams was surreal for his high school basketball coach, Golden Holt.

It was a Rams victory over the Cleveland Browns on Dec. 3, a day Nacua broke the all-time franchise record for receiving yards by a rookie.

There was Puka, a kid Holt had watched grow into a man, capturing a stadium with his passion and playmaking.

Sitting in SoFi seats provided by Nacua, Holt soaked in all the No. 17 Nacua jerseys around him and the adulation heaped upon the young star, who he had started on his guard line at Orem High when just a ninth grader.

A guy sitting next to him, a broker, asked Holt who he was. He introduced himself and said he was from Utah and was there as a friend of Nacua. The man was impressed — he knew Puka?

Holt witnessed the energy of his former star player, the impressive Nacua pass routes that somehow magically carve up coverage to get open. He saw Nacua’s microburst of speed after making cuts that created separation from defenders. He saw the gifted high-pointing of the ball, the soft hands, the concentration, athleticism and adoration by Rams fans.

Setting records

Just four months earlier, Nacua was trying to make the Rams roster as a fifth-round draft pick. On that day, Holt saw Nacua as a legitimate candidate to be the NFL’s Rookie of the Year. In fact, Pro Football Focus rates Nacua the highest ranked rookie in the NFL.

Nacua has joined Odell Beckham, Anquan Boldin and Randy Moss as the only receivers to surpass 1,100 yards receiving in their first 13 NFL games in the NFL era.

Nacua got Holt tickets on the 20-yard line and a postgame pass to the corporate VIP area across the street where players, friends and families can converge and visit after games.

When Nacua hit the turf, injuring his ribs in the first half and was attended to for a long seven minutes, Holt looked around and saw the hushed concern on the fans’ faces. He listened to a young Rams fan sitting behind him lament a possible serious injury. He then witnessed the elation when Nacua returned to the game in the second half and continued his assault on the Rams’ record book.

After the game, Holt heard how Rams coach Sean McVay gave Nacua a game ball,  triggering chants from teammates in the locker room of “Puka, Puka, Puka.”

What Holt learned about his former high school point guard was that Puka Nacua is fast becoming a household name in Los Angeles, a sort of icon in one of the biggest media markets in the world.

Jersey demand

He learned Nacua has acquired an endorsement deal with Pepsi that would pay him more than his football salary. Holt said Nacua has had contact from NBA legend LeBron James and rapper/actor Snoop Dogg. “It’s the music stars, the other stars, it’s Hollywood and he’s in the thick of it. It isn’t Minnesota,” said Holt.

When Holt went into a souvenir shop he saw Nacua jerseys featured with the Rams’ top four players, including quarterback Matthew Stafford. It wasn’t a rack filled with a bunch of Rams jerseys, but actual singled-out star jerseys.

“They probably had those made before the season and had to put a rush order out for No. 17,” said Holt.

Suddenly TV commercials, freeway billboards and transit signs with his smiling face were tangible for Puka. His bigger-than-life personality, 1,000-watt smile and endless energy are an obvious score for marketing types who foresee him as an unreservedly contagious, sellable product.

Even San Francisco 49er linebacker Fred Warner is praising Puka’s iconic personality.  “This guy is dialed in.”

In short, Holt’s day at the game confirmed what he’s always known about his starting guard for all four years at Orem High: He has the “It”  factor. He is a force. He is the one and only Puka.

“He’s a rock star,” said Holt. “I haven’t been to many NFL games and SoFi was enormous. It meant so much to be there and see him because we’d bonded over the years for a lot of reasons.”

On that day, Dec. 3, Nacua broke the Rams rookie receiving record held by 1996 Rams draftee out of LSU, Eddie Kennison, who had 936 yards. Nacua busted that mark and did so in three fewer games. When Nacua walked off the field that day he’d passed the 1,000-yard receiving mark.

The remarkable thing about passing Kennison is that Kennison was a 4.3 sprinter in the 40 and the knock on Nacua after his pro day was that he was too slow with a 4.57 time. But on his 70-yard touchdown catch that day, a Next Gen Stats scoreboard graphic indicated he had run 21.05 miles per hour, which would make him the 10th fastest wide receiver in the league.

Four games into his NFL career, Nacua led the NFL in receptions with 39. No other NFL player had that many in four games — ever.

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“Nothing surprises me with him anymore,” the Rams coach told reporters after that game.

After watching Nacua gut it out after his rib injury and come back to play in the second half, it cemented McVay’s admiration of his rookie out of BYU by way of Washington.

“Congratulations to him as well, setting a rookie franchise record for receiving yards. He’s done a great job, and the best thing about him is he’s going to just continue to get better, continue to be coachable and accountable, and only going to take steps in this type of direction and we love him.”

Coachable, accountable

Holt coached Orem High basketball, sponsored and coached an AAU basketball team from Utah that produced more than 25 major college players, and he developed a golf course called Sleepy Ridge in Vineyard, Utah, where he employed Nacua and all his older brothers during high school.

When Holt started Puka at Orem High as a ninth grader, he inherited a football player who would go on to set Utah state receiving records with 260 catches for 5,226 yards and 58 receiving touchdowns.

In the thick of his high school basketball career, Nacua’s football commitments continued through the year as he traveled all over the country for football events that involved combine camps, all-star games and recruiting visits. All that traveling put Holt on the spot.

Holt learned Puka wouldn’t be available to go on a basketball trip to Myrtle Beach and couldn’t go to a tournament in Tennessee either. He had commitments to play in Honolulu for the Senior Game and Dallas for another football event — gone for two or three weeks of the season.

“I’ve never had to deal with that,” said Holt. “It grinded on me. How do you tell the rest of the boys they have to show up for practice every day but Puka doesn’t? He’s special and he gets to go travel around the country and come back on Friday night and play the game. I just couldn’t do it. I’m old school, like Gene Hackman in Hoosiers. That wouldn’t fly.”

He decided to tell Puka he was done — off the team.

Holt loved Nacua and was very close to his family, including his queen of a mother Penina.  But how could he “manage” the Puka situation and be fair to what he demanded of his other players? He decided to suspend Puka, let him do what was needed as a MaxPreps and USA Today football All-American, but not play hoops on his team.

When he took his decision to his principal, Lynn Gerratt, Holt was counseled that Puka’s situation wasn’t black and white — just like life isn’t that way — and that there were gray areas and he should reconsider. Holt decided on a plan. If Puka did not practice with the team the week of the games, he would not play. He would, however, keep his place on the squad.

This was the case for three or four games that season, said Holt.

The first game this happened, Puka dressed in street clothes and sat on the bench.

But what Holt got out of Puka was surprising and inspiring.

Instead of a sulking, moody, distraction of a player on the bench, he gained an energized, enthusiastic, boisterous cheerleader. Puka’s encouragement to his teammates, his pure unfeigned love and his motivating rally for his friends from the bench was effective and set a fire under those who were playing on the court.

This was pure, unadulterated Puka Nacua. Filled with laughter, yelling so hard the veins in his neck were showing, Holt saw that Nacua was as engaged and having as much fun as if he were playing in the game. He simply transferred his role on the team to an Energizer Bunny without a uniform or ball.

Holt said benching him without losing him had a significant impact on the season. “I’ve got to tell you, that was the greatest thing I ever did for that team,” said Holt.

“Some of my greatest memories of that season were of Puka on the bench. I’m telling you, after a play, at a timeout, a critical point, he was coaching, he was whooping and hollering, he was just pumping everyone up. He was so happy for their success and he’s sitting on the bench. You don’t fake that. He had that kind of charisma, genuineness, good heart and team attitude so lacking in today’s world.

“It comes to Puka naturally. You can go back to him losing his father Lionel at a young age, having to fight like hell with his brothers for everything and you can imagine his mother having to kick all their butts as a single mom, trying to keep them in school and their bills paid. It’s in his upbringing or his DNA. He is special,” said Holt.

“I’ve told everyone, his brothers, the media, anybody who asked about him that Puka simply has that ‘It’ factor. He walks into the gym, he has it. He walks on the football field, he’s it. It didn’t matter. He never practiced basketball or his shooting, but his athleticism, sheer will and determination are off the charts. He was all-state in basketball as a senior.”

Sitting in SoFi, Holt reveled in the adulation he saw Ram fans throwing at Puka. “They just love him. For me, the last three months, it’s been exciting to see what’s happening with him. I’ve spoken to him three or four times and then got to see him in person against Cleveland. It was pretty cool.”

Ram fans have definitely caught Puka fever. His unique name, his enthusiasm and hustle, his ability to catch almost everything he can touch is all on full blast in Los Angeles.

Rookie of the year?

Houston’s CJ Stroud may have a word.

But Puka definitely will have the last word if it’s up to him. His numbers are doing all his talking.

And the volume is deafening.