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New Noel Devine article on cnnsi.com:
Quote:
Devine intervention
Hyped RB has traveled difficult road to West Virginia
Posted: Monday July 9, 2007 12:42PM; Updated: Monday July 9, 2007 4:26PM
If it were only about football, Noel Devine would be a household name. Like the cult of nearly 175,000 viewers who have made him a YouTube sensation, you would stare in disbelief at this video as he rips off run after run, unleashing an uncanny elusiveness and speed, and you'd swear those highlights just had to be doctored.
If it were only about football, all that would matter is that the five-star prospect is eligible and is already in Morgantown, W.Va., taking theater and sports management classes and preparing to become another weapon for an already explosive West Virginia offense led by Heisman Trophy candidates Steve Slaton and Pat White.
If it were only about football... But with Devine, it always extends well beyond the 100-yard field. It extends well beyond the 6,894 yards and 92 touchdowns the running back amassed at North Fort Myers (Fla.) High -- and he has come to accept that.
"I can't make everybody like me," he said from his West Virginia dorm, where he's rooming with fellow freshman Brandon Hogan. "No matter what I do there's going to be people who don't like me and then talk bad stuff about me, try to bring me down."
Such is the story of Devine. The spectacular talent who has drawn comparisons to Barry Sanders and Reggie Bush collides with a tragic and sometimes bizarre past that has led Devine to the cusp of being the next big thing -- or the latest can't-miss prospect to, well, miss.
Devine is no stranger to heartbreak and tragedy: both of his parents died of AIDS before he was 12 and he saw a close friend shot to death his sophomore year of high school. He also has two children (Andre, 1, and Desirae, 2) with two different women, and despite the fact that his maternal grandmother is his legal guardian, has lived with a family for the better part of seven years. Most infamously, Devine was nearly adopted by Deion Sanders last August before taking a Cadillac Escalade from Sanders' Dallas-area home, driving it to the airport and leaving it parked at the curb before flying back to Florida.
"I think everything that he's ever loved has either died, left him or wronged him in some form or fashion," said Sanders, who remains close to Devine, sending him daily inspirational text messages.
While the nuggets of his past fuel the message boards and plant the seeds that have caused people to shackle him with the tag of another troubled, ultra-talented teen with no discipline and no direction, those closest to Devine paint a very different picture: one of a misrepresented lightning rod who has simply been dealt a bad hand and made some questionable choices. To his biggest defenders, the so-called bad boy with the gold grill and the braids is anything but bad.
Try misunderstood.
"He's had some stumbles but what people don't see about Noel Devine is that he's a great, great kid," said Ken Burns, the North Fort Myers assistant principal who was a central figure in helping Devine qualify academically for college. "Once you really get to know him you just fall in love with him."
For the record, Devine doesn't do drugs or drink alcohol. He has never been arrested and thrives on being involved in the lives of his two children. He is also an unusually shy kid who typically shuns interviews. (Devine has been burned by the media before, including his local newspaper, the Fort Myers News-Press, which put him on its Top 10 "Turkeys of the Year" for fleeing Sanders.) He would rather spend his free time fishing, which he did on a vacation in Indiana before reporting to West Virginia last week.
"He doesn't have the trademark of a young, troubled teen with heinous crimes or stuff like that," said Sanders. "Having two kids and being 18 years old? I don't condone that at all, but if you really look at it as a whole, this kid is very quiet and very soft-spoken."
But few see that quiet side of Devine. Instead, many choose to focus on his past, his mistakes and his decision to stay largely out of the media spotlight. It has all added to the mystery surrounding Devine that prompted one recruiting expert to label him "an enigma within an enigma." This uncertainty makes every conversation about Devine sway to what many expect will be his inevitable failure.
"People get so locked in on [his past] in spite of the kid and they are just waiting for something bad to come on, to happen or something bad to be said and that's what they look for," Burns said.
Devine has become accustomed to dealing with his reputation, whether he believes it's warranted or not. He prefers not to discuss the events that led him to leave Sanders' 30,000-square-foot mansion, saying: "I have my reasons. I wouldn't just look at him like a superstar, 'Oh my God, Deion Sanders.' Any other kid would have jumped on it because it's him and they probably want to be rich. But I'm not like that." And he understands he is in a position where the praise and criticism often flow too freely. Devine says he tries not to put too much stock into either, realizing "people are going to hate."
"I've been used to it but I think it's mostly because I have two kids, and I don't know, [people] probably feel that I got too much freedom," he said. "But I take care of whatever I have to take care of."
That includes making sure he shot down the naysayers by qualifying for college.
Struggles in the classroom and an inability to achieve a standardized test score that would allow him to play as a college freshman led many to believe Devine was headed for prep school. But he surprised recruiting experts and Sanders -- who had been advising Devine but was not involved in his final decision between WVU, Alabama and Florida State -- by giving a verbal commitment to West Virginia the day before National Signing Day in February. "I think they have a good chance of getting that ring on their finger this year," he said of the Mountaineers. But Devine then pulled another surprise by not signing a letter of intent the following day, waiting until March 30.
While he waited to sign with WVU, Devine put his academic studies into overdrive with the help of Burns, North Fort Myers coach James Iandoli and principal Kim Lunger. On the afternoon of April 21, he received word that on his third try his ACT score had risen to a point where he could qualify for NCAA eligibility with his 2.5 GPA.
There would be no prep school for Devine.
"I wanted him to keep taking the ACT and Noel wasn't really that interested in prep school, so we just kept focusing on the SATs and the ACTs and let the chips fall where they may," said Iandoli. "A lot of people didn't think he had the mental fortitude, [but] I always knew he did."
Devine's abilities on the field have never been in doubt. "Football is the least of my worries with Noel," Sanders said. "Football-wise, I haven't seen the gift he has in a lot of NFL players in my life, and that's saying a lot."
Devine says Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez has already told the 5-foot-8, 175-pounder with 4.4 speed that he will be used on kick returns, as a slot receiver and in the backfield along with Slaton. "But I'm not going to keep that in my head," Devine said. "I'm going to work for it. But I'm not sure they tell everybody else that."
If it were just about football, all we would care about is the nightmare Big East coaches will face with Devine in WVU blue and gold.
But as with everything involving Devine, off-the-field questions linger as he ventures away from Fort Myers for the first time since Sanders' ill-fated attempt to bring him in last year. Being responsible. Making smart decisions. Not being influenced by others. This is what concerns Devine's inner circle. But Devine thrives on overcoming your preconceived notions of what he's going to do.
"That's my thing," Devine said. "That's what I like to do is prove everybody wrong... the people who doubt me, that's what I work for."
Some will watch, waiting to see something sensational. Some will be waiting to see something scandalous. But of course, we'll all be watching, because with Noel Devine, you simply just can't look away.
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