Published: February 25, 2008 12:37 am      

Ryan Nehlen could be ‘steal of the year’

No matter how many Patrick Whites and Steve Slatons migrate into the West Virginia University football program, there is nothing more important to the community within which it exists than a stay-at-home player who makes good.

Be it Ben Collins following his North Marion career with an unexpected run as an undersized, overachieving middle linebacker or Marc Magro coming out of John Kelley’s University High program to fight through injury to help anchor a defense that reached a No. 1 national ranking and that won the Fiesta Bowl, they give ownership to the area in which the university resides.

That is why an announcement that caused no seismic activity in the media the other day could prove to be so important to the West Virginia program if it works out as well as Collins or Magro or, before them, Rich Braham, who rose from walk-on out of UHS to the National Football League.

Ryan Nehlen is staying home.

True, Nehlen got more media recognition than your normal invited walk-on, considering he is the grandson of Don Nehlen, who coached more victories than any other football coach at WVU and currently maintains three residences – one in Morgantown, one in Florida and one in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind.

But this is something more than the young athlete cashing in on a legacy.

This has the potential to be more like Barry Bonds or Ken Griffey Jr. growing out from the shadow of their famous fathers than Pete Rose Jr. being swallowed up in the darkness of the sinister shadow his father cast.

See, Ryan Nehlen, an All-State wide receiver, can play football.

“He could be the steal of the year,” said WVU coach Bill Stewart.

Now it’s true Nehlen is not as physically gifted an athlete as Noel Devine or White or Darius Reynaud, but he has those certain attributes that will allow him to develop into a potential star player. He has the genes that made his grandfather a wonderful quarterback at Bowling Green in his day with greater size and leaping ability that evolution has seen fit to give him.

And then there’s the attitude.

“He’s such a great boy,” Stewart said. “We’ll never have to worry about him going to class. You can’t get enough good guys, you know.”

Bowling Green was hot on Nehlen’s trail until he injured a shoulder late in the high school season. He played through it, but it required rather serious surgery once the season ended.

“The capsule was injured and there was tissue torn,” Ryan Nehlen explained.

To hold it together, they had to insert four screws. The doctors told him he’d be out three months, which not only hurt in that it cost him a chance for a scholarship, but is costing him his senior basketball season, where he had a shot at becoming an All-State player in two sports.

“With his shoulder the way it is, you’ve got to make sure it’s OK before you can offer a scholarship,” Stewart said. “But I was hoping Bowling Green didn’t offer him. He’s going to be a scholarship player here some day.”

Nehlen’s first choice always was to play at WVU, where he spent so many wonderful hours as a child. His fondest memories differ greatly from the players who were there when he was hanging around his father’s locker room – Dan Nehlen is the Mountaineers’ equipment manager.

“My greatest memories were two-a-days, running around with all the kids,” he said.

That may change when he has to go through that August heat during two-a-days as a player.

He missed the glory days of the unbeaten regular season of 1988 and is too young to remember very much about the unbeaten 1993 regular season, but he did get to see West Virginia football through the 1990s from a unique perspective.

With his grandfather as coach, he was able to observe him after big wins and terrible defeats, although he says it was hard to tell the difference.

“He really kind of hid his emotions,” the younger Nehlen said.

And, as you might guess if you know the way Don Nehlen operates, he did not inject himself much into Ryan’s athletic life, not pushing the coaches to do this or do that with him.

“He didn’t do a lot from a football aspect, but has always been there as a family member,” Ryan Nehlen said.

And, after his retirement, on Friday nights, Don Nehlen would be there in the stands watching his grandson play, sitting next to wife, Merry Ann, not playing the big celebrity role, just a member of the UHS family of parents and grandparents coming out for a Friday night of football.

Oddly, one suspects Nehlen would not have wound up at WVU had Rich Rodriguez stayed around, for Rodriguez seemed to have other ideas about the kinds of athletes he wanted.

But Nehlen says he loves Stewart as a coach, and the feeling is vice versa, to be sure.

“He has so much ahead of him,” Stewart said.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.