Buzz about Devine and the Blue Devils

Originally Published: May 24, 2004

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By Bruce Feldman
ESPN The Magazine
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The kid's name is Noel Devine, and up 'til about two weeks ago, he was a little-known prep tailback from southwest Florida. Sure, the people around the town of Fort Myers knew of him. After all, Devine had built up quite a rep running wild in Pop Warner ball for the Cape Coral Junior Dolphins smashing touchdown records, evoking comparisons to Fort Myers' original game-breaker, Deion Sanders.

Last fall, the 5-foot-7, 170-pound freshman also had quite a varsity debut for North Fort Myers High, rushing for 1,092 yards (over 9 yards per carry). However, five months after the season ended, Devine's rep has really taken off.

Why? An eye-popping six-minute highlight package of Devine's best runs surfaced on the web a few weeks ago, and his moves -- particularly on an 80-yard catch-and-run where he broke 10 tackles thanks in part to a trio of 360-spins -- had fans posting links to the video on college sites all across the country.

The reactions were pretty similar: "Unreal ? He's another Barry Sanders ? WOW!! ? Hope our coaches have seen this."

Ah, the wonders of the web. Last time we saw this kind of grass roots Internet buzz was when the X-rated Paris Hilton video made the rounds. Devine's video was courtesy of Tampa-based Sunshine Preps, an independent recruiting service run by 29-year-old Derek Williams, a finance consultant who created the free site to help Florida kids get noticed. Mission accomplished.

Less than two weeks after Williams posted a "Hey, check this out" link on a local bulletin board to Devine's highlight reel, his site was getting hammered. "I think we had 20,000 hits one day and my website lady called and said she had to take the video down because it crashed the site," says Williams.

For the skeptics out there, Devine's performance did come against solid competition. (North Fort Myers is not only Sanders' alma mater, but Jevon Kearse's as well.) As the video shows Devine has outstanding balance, quickness and speed (he's a 10.7 100-meter man already). His coach James Iandoli, who also coached one-time Florida phenom Willie Green at Kissimmee Osceola, reports that Devine even benches 330 pounds. Iandoli says the thing that really catches his eye though is how Devine runs with such a forward lean and cuts "downhill." Still, the coach admits he's leery about his young back's sudden celebrity. "People have been calling him 'The Next Deion' for awhile," he says. "He's a good kid. I just hope he can manage it all."

Random Notes

No, we're not predicting a Top 25 finish by Duke this fall, but we believe the Blue Devils are on the rise. New coach Ted Roof's staff has impressed prep coaches with its energy and determination. It is no secret that David Kelly, who Roof brought on as an associate head coach over from Stanford, has a huge rep as a recruiter from his days at Georgia and LSU, but another big key is the presence of QB coach Tom Knotts.

A former Blue Devil D-back, Knotts came over from Independence High, where he won a state-record 62 games in a row, and helped groom budding UF star Chris Leak. Knotts' old school has one of the South's top wideouts Mohamed Massaquoi, a 6-2, 185-pound honor student (and the cousin of Michigan TE Tim Massaquoi) who has been offered by everyone, but is close to his old coach and might wind up in Durham. Better still, Independence QB Joe Cox, who comes from a Duke family, also is high on reuniting with his old coach.

Remember David Richard? The former blue-chip tailback who led Michigan State in rushing as a true freshman with 654 yards and 5 TDs in 2002 before transferring to Missouri, has emerged as an exciting linebacking prospect for the Tigers. The 6-2, 242-pound Richard locked up the SAM linebacker slot, impressing the Tigers coaches with athleticism and ability to go sideline-to-sideline. "He really has the ability to separate off of blockers and has great snap," says MU D-coordinator Matt Eberflus. "That's really God-given."

In care you're wondering, the Tigers look set with two slick running backs, Damien Nash and dynamic redshirt Marcus Woods, a little blur from Michigan who gave Mizzou's first-team defense fits last fall.

To say the Wyoming defense was bad in 2003 is a bit of an understatement. "Oh, we su-uucccked," Cowboys D-coordinator Mike Breske told ESPN.com recently. No kidding. The Cowboys not only had the Mountain West's worst defense, they were dead last in run defense and almost 60 rushing yards per game worst than the next-to-last unit. However, Breske -- in his second season with the Cowboys -- has more talent to work with and his players have a better grasp of his system. One other big element he now has is transfer nose guard Dusty Hoffschneider.

Truth is, Hoffschneider actually isn't so big. In fact, at roughly 5-9, 265, he's the size of some fullbacks, but he relied upon his quickness and tenacity to dominate at D-II Northern Colorado. That quickness and leverage also enabled him to win three Colorado state wrestling titles and finish 12th at the NCAA Wrestling Championships earlier this spring. "He's very unique," says Breske. "He's very hard-nosed and he really understands leverage." Hoffschneider made such an impact on the Cowboys D that he beat out senior Jacob Bonde, a returning starter who is 25 pounds heavier.

After a rough first season at East Carolina, John Thompson had what most experts (a few rival coaches we spoke with) consider a vastly underrated recruiting class. Thompson landed a guy our coaching buddy hailed as a genuine sleeper in Orlando's Chris Johnson. A 5-11, 175-pound tailback who projects as a wide receiver, Johnson sustained a fractured left fibia in the first quarter of a preseason game, an injury that sidelined him for all but four games. Recruiters also had doubts about whether he would qualify, but former Florida Gator standout Jerry Odom, now ECU's defensive coordinator, hung with Johnson, who took night-school classes, and it paid off. And anyone still wondering whether Johnson had regained his blazing speed only need to see the Florida state track finals earlier this month where Johnson was even with Walter Dix (possibly the fastest prep player in the country) for 80 meters before the Coral Springs sprinter pulled away, clocking a 20.62, breaking (LSU signee) Xavier Carter's state record of 20.69. Johnson clocked a 21.30 to finish second.

Countdown To Kickoff
It's about this time every year where we start the countdown until players report for fall camp (if the baseball geeks can have their "Countdown to pitchers and catchers reporting", why not one for football side too, right?) Anyhow, we're all desperate for college football but since there's little to keep an eye on -- other than some random police blotter stuff -- we had to resort to some track stuff. So here's what we've got:

NC State linebacker-turned-DE Manny Lawson continues to make his case as the nation's fastest lineman. True, he is only about 6-5, 220, but you have to be impressed by any guy that size who can run on his school's 4x100 meter relay team, a team that along with fellow Pack gridders Richard Washington (WR) and Lamont Reid (CB) finished fourth in the ACC championships last month. Earlier in the spring Lawson, already one of the country's top kick blockers, long jumped 24-5.

Texas DE Brian Robinson, who looks like he's ready for a breakout season in new Longhorn defensive boss Greg Robinson's scheme, has been having an even better spring as a thrower for the UT track team. The 6-3, 250-pound redshirt soph, a weight room freak with a 485-pound bench and 40-inch vertical, is a former U.S. junior champion in the discus, finished third in the shot put (60-8 1/2) and fifth in the discus (187-2) at the 2004 Big 12 Outdoor Championship. He has qualified for the NCAA Regional Championships in both of those events. Coincidentally, Robinson, like Lawson, has a knack for blocking kicks, tying the UT record last season with four.

Stanford cornerback Stanley Wilson, the son of the former Cincinnati Bengals RB of the same name, clocked a 10.46 in the 100 at the Pac-10 championships this weekend. He finished fifth, but still attained the sub-10.50 time needed to make the NCAA Championships.

In the prelims of the 100-meters of the Big East track championships, Miami football players took five of the top six spots with WR Devin Hester taking first with a 10.42, followed by WR Darnell Jenkins (10.47), CB Travarous Bain (10.52), CB Tanard Davis (10.59) and WR Aikeem Jolla (10.70).

Bruce Feldman is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. His first book Cane Mutiny: How the Miami Hurricanes Overturned the Football Establishment comes out in the fall of 2004. He can be reached at bruce.feldman@espn3.com.