Published: October 19, 2008 10:13 pm      

COLUMN: WVU’s Jalloh full of style, substance

MORGANTOWN — For each home football game, West Virginia University publishes a program called “Mountaineer Illustrated.” While it is jammed full of information about the game and the people who play it, the one can’t miss feature is entitled “Up Close.”

Spread throughout the magazine, it takes one player after another and asks them one question after another in an effort to give you a little insight into that person and what he’s really like. The questions range from “what is your favorite pizza topping?” to “what is your dream vacation?”

You learn that players like sausage on their pizza and that Brazil or Jamaica or Hawaii — sun, beach and sand — is where they’d most like to kick back.

However, when it comes to one question, there is almost unanimity among the respondents over the year.

That question is “Who is the best dressed on the team?” and almost always, if the player doesn’t give you “Me” as an answer, they arrive at Dorrell Jalloh, the smooth senior receiver. Toss in a host of votes for Jalloh as “the best dancer on the team” and “the best singer on the team” and you have WVU’s “Mr. Cool.”

Jalloh doesn’t shy away from the title.

On a campus where sweats or shorts and grungy T-shirt can pass as dress of the day, Jalloh is always styling, even if it is a pair of sweats and a T-shirt. They are crisp and clean.

“I dress to impress,” he admits. “You get only one chance to make a first impression.”

This is not an egotistical thing with Jalloh. He honestly believes in some respect that clothes make the man … and if that really isn’t the full truth he is sure they create the perception of the man.

“I never want to take away from my perception with my dress,” he said. “My mother told me to always dress well and to present myself properly. You should be well groomed, have your hair back, be well mannered.”

Jalloh is a pleasant, engaging fifth-year senior out of Greensboro, N.C., a high school phenom who caught more than 100 passes in a season but who here has found himself caught up in an offense that has treated the forward pass as something of an outcast.

This has kept him from displaying his greatest skills on the football field, although he has made the most of his moments, a pair of two-point conversions producing overtime victories in some of the most thrilling games in Mountaineer history.

If he hasn’t been able to take full advantage of his skills on the football field, he has done so academically, possessing a degree in journalism and now seeking an advanced degree in sports management that he is certain he will put to use in his future life.

As he pursued that first degree, he sat down and actually did a paper on appearance and presentation.

“People judge you before they get to know you,” he pointed out.

If you are going to look good, you might as well look good on the dance floor as well, and Jalloh is one of those people who can dance to the music.

“I dance exceptionally well,” he said.

Again, this isn’t an egotistic statement. He has grades to prove it.

“I took African dance for three years, and I danced in the school’s African ensemble,” he said.

If it has a beat, Jalloh can handle it. From M.C. Hammer to “The Twist,” Jalloh handles it all.

And then there’s singing.

“I do a little singing, harmonizing,” he said. “I’m not Luther Vandross.”

In other words, he’s a Pip rather than Gladys Knight.

That, of course, would not be a criticism of his voice when speaking to someone whose cat runs away when he begins to sing, proving either that music does not always calm the savage beast or that what comes out of this mouth is anything but music.

Jalloh sang in the school chorus in eighth and ninth grade, but gave it up and leaves most of his singing to time spent in the shower.

“Put me in the shower and you’ve got an American Idol winner,” he said.

From the way he looks and carries himself, Jalloh might someday wind up as a host of American Idol.

If not, look for him putting that master’s degree in sports management to use.

“I would love to be where Ed Pastilong is right now,” he told Mountaineer Illustrated.

If WVU loses to Auburn, he might be able to get that job next Friday morning.

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