Published: August 09, 2009 12:03 am      

HERTZEL COLUMN: Devine made biggest gains off the field

MORGANTOWN — Much has changed about West Virginia University running back Noel Devine since he walked through the door of the Puskar Center two years ago, all of it good.

As a freshman he was shy, withdrawn, untrusting.

His answers were often single words. To get a complete sentence out of him was a major accomplishment, even though it offered nothing in the way of insight or knowledge.

It wasn’t that he was trying to be rude or unintelligent. It was just that he was suspicious.

Life had not been kind to him and, to be honest, the only place he really felt comfortable was on the football field, where his quick feet, deft moves and spectacular balance spoke for him.

That part has not changed. When someone mentioned to him that defenses would be shooting for him this year without Steve Slaton or Patrick White around, he answered: “If they want to get at me, they’ve got to catch me.”

One thing he never lacked was confidence in his ability to play the game.

When he arrived at WVU, though, this lack of confidence in his social skills was taken by some as a lack of intelligence. Devine had read over and over that he would have trouble qualifying academically, that he would have trouble making grades.

“At the bowl game, the media wrote I wouldn’t qualify to play. I made a 2.8. I got an A in English. They didn’t put that in the paper,” he said.

The truth is, due to privacy laws, they don’t put out the grades ... be they good or bad, although somehow they do get word out when someone qualifies for the athletic director’s honor roll, which means he or she made a 3.0.

Devine’s progress has been almost startling, however, as unexpected as it was.

It has brought him to the point where now he’s almost an outspoken leader on this team, a player who knows what the burden that is on him and accepts it to the point that others are looking up to him for more than just his athletic ability.

Surely someone pushed him in that direction. Who was the man who was leading Noel Devine?

“I’ve never really been a follower,” he said.

Perhaps it was because he found himself off on his own so early, his parents dying from AIDS complications, being passed around from relatives, almost adopted by Deion Sanders, the flamboyant former NFL player from his North Fort Myers High School.

Sanders certainly had a lot to do with his ability to survive through the tough times and he remains in contact with him.

“He’s a great guy and I call him now and then, but he’s Deion, a busy dude,” he said.

The person at WVU who has had the greatest influence on him has been running backs coach Chris Beatty, a younger coach.

“He has helped me a lot,” Devine said.

The way Devine tells it, the two have talked ever since Beatty arrived. The talk hasn’t always been about football.

“We’ve talked about life, about how to handle things,” Devine said.

Beatty shies away from taking credit for the metamorphosis Devine has made.

“He’s done it all himself,” he said. “When Pat White was here, when Mike Dent was here, they were the older guys. You kind of just play your position and let those guys lead. Now it’s more his team. He’s more of the elder statesman.”

But Beatty knew instinctively he had a role to play with Devine.

“I try to let him see things he hasn’t seen before, things the way an older person has seen them. He didn’t have that in his life,” Beatty said. “I haven’t been through what he’s been through, but I have some life experience.”

And Devine was starved for just that kind of leadership, a black male adult who gave him good advice.

“He’s one of those guys who has to trust you because he’s been through so much,” Beatty said. “Once he trusts you and believes in you, he’ll open up.”

He now understands how important that is and wants to pass some of it on to others.

“It’s his time,” Beatty said. “It’s kind of like Jarrett (Brown). You do your apprenticeship for a while, then it becomes time to step up and become one of the leaders.”

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