A blind football player for the University of Southern California participated in his first college regular-season game on Saturday, snapping the ball on the final extra point in the fourth-ranked Trojans’ 49-31 home victory over Western Michigan.

The long-snapper, Jake Olson, lost his eyesight when he was 12. He has been a lifelong fan of U.S.C.’s football team and was eager to take the field at the Coliseum after two years of high school football and two years of practicing alongside his college teammates.

“It was an awesome moment,” he said in a phone interview Saturday night, adding that it all boiled down to practice. “It’s muscle memory — it’s not like magic,” he said. “It’s not like, ‘I hope this goes right.’ If you do it correctly, it will go right.”