RUSTON, La. » Cradling passes is nothing new for Royce Pollard, whose athleticism dates nearly to the cradle.

"I always knew he would be special," Anthony Pollard said of his son, who scored three touchdowns and set career highs of 10 catches and 216 receiving yards in a 44-26 victory over Louisiana Tech on Saturday.

Anthony Pollard used to bring along his son when he played in pickup basketball games in Kaneohe. Unwilling to sit on the side, Royce Pollard found his way onto the court.

"When he was a baby, he learned how to walk, on a basketball court," Anthony Pollard said. "The guys would go, ‘Here comes Royce again.’ He wanted to be on the court with us."

Anthony Pollard remembered when his son was about 1, sitting in a car seat, clutching a stuffed pillow-like football.

"I threw it to him, and he caught it with his two hands," Anthony Pollard said. "Just like that, he caught it, and held it. He looked at it. I was like, ‘Wow, he’s 1. He’s going to be special.’"

Saturday night, Royce Pollard out-jumped defensive backs to secure three of his catches.

"It’s always been my thing to jump," said Pollard, who could dunk a basketball in the eighth grade.

A few years ago, Pollard cleared 6 feet, 10 inches in a high jump competition.

This past summer, quarterback Bryant Moniz and Pollard trained together at Leilehua High.

"Camp Wahiawa helped a lot," Moniz said. "We put in a lot of work. We learned about each other."

Moniz said those sessions transcended to games.

"A lot of times when I’m in trouble, I throw it up there and let Royce make plays," Moniz said. "I know he can make plays."

Pollard proved he is skilled in tossing, too.

Pollard, one of four UH captains, is in charge of making the call during the pregame coin toss. He called "tails" Saturday night, then told the referee the Warriors would defer until the second half.

That gave Louisiana Tech the choice of what to do for the opening kickoff. But instead of making the official request to receive the kickoff, a Bulldog player said his team would "defer."

"The referee asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’ " Pollard said. "I told him, ‘We want to defer to the second half.’ He said, ‘I understand that, but (the Bulldogs player) deferred, so do you want to kick off or receive?’ "

That’s when Pollard realized UH would have the opportunity to receive the kickoff at the start of both halves.

"The first step is to win the coin toss, and we did that," Pollard said. "Getting the ball twice is a bonus."