Friday, September 21, 2007
Don't mess with Hokies' 'bowling ball'
Randy King
Randy King's Tech Insider is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Thursdays in season.
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A player named Perez? All kinds of 'em in major league baseball, I immediately thought.
Perez? Right off the bat, I'm thinking Tony, Odalis, Oliver, Eduardo, Melido and Neifi.
But we're talking football here. Give me a Perez in pads? Pronto. Buzzer! You done.
That said, little wonder I've been somewhat intrigued the past few years to see this dude named Perez on Virginia Tech's football roster. Ever met this guy, Devin Perez? I haven't, either. Talked to him on the phone Thursday night, though.
Talk about a pretty good story. Oh, I've seen this cat wearing No. 44 before at various practices and scrimmages I've attended before. He makes you do a double-take, I swear.
And let me tell you, one look at this guy and he's hard to forget. The dude has upper arms the size of tree trunks. His biceps are bigger than many underfed writers' -- is that a oxymoron? -- thighs, folks. Talk about a human fire hydrant. What I'm saying is it's a dead pick-'em proposition here between which one I want to run into head-on -- the cast-iron fire plug that sits near the street on the left side of my home's front yard or the Hokies' 5-foot-8, 250-pound No. 3 fullback?
Forget No. 44, I say. Jeez, at least, I have a long-shot chance at hurdling the fire plug without making contact.
But run into Tech's No. 3 fullback dead-on and somebody is going to have to fetch a spatula from the kitchen somewhere to scrape me up off the grass.
"A bowling ball!" responded Hokies tailback Branden Ore when asked how he would describe Perez's body on Tuesday. "He's something else, man! When I say he loves collisions, he loves collisions! When we have the middle drill in practice, he's getting pumped for it like it's game time. He's something special, that's all I can say."
No kidding. Talk about old-school football throwbacks. This guy defines such.
"You picture a fullback and you just look back in the days of people with no teeth, just bleeding all over the place," said Perez, a fourth-year junior walk-on. "We're in the middle of it all, no glory. But you know what? The contact is the glory. Glory to me is just going out there and being able to hit somebody and knowing made the block, you know."
Doing some homework on Perez, it came as little surprise to me that the dude hails from New Jersey. He was born in North Bergen, grew up in Richfield. Being a huge fan of the now-dead HBO's "Sopranos" series, Perez certainly has all the looks of a guy who would have fit perfectly in big Tony's or Paulie Walnuts' muscle force.
"Oh, that's probably my favorite show," Perez noted. "I don't know exactly where the 'Sopranos' was filmed, but there's a lots of part of Jersey that you look around and it reminds you about the show.
"People mention the 'Sopranos' to me here and there, and about it being the home of the Mafia and Jersey ... blah, blah, blah ... but I don't really know a lot about that."
Perez paused a couple seconds, then broke into laughter.
"Give me a leather jacket and let me grow my hair out a little bit, and I'll fit in just fine!"
When asked for the tale of the tape on his massive, tattooed-filled biceps, Perez chucked again.
"I don't even know," he said. "I've never measured 'em, to tell the truth. I appreciate you saying they're huge, though. Really, I don't like to show off a lot so I kind of wear clothes that make ... you know what I'm saying! Coach [Mike] Gentry [Tech strength and conditioning guru] and his staff do a good job, so I just give them all the credit."
To think, Perez used to be even bigger than he is now. Coming out of New Jersey's Pope XXIII High School, where he was all-state in football and wrestling, Perez said he tipped the Toledos at close to 280 pounds.
"I was a defensive lineman in high school," he said. "My senior year in high school, [Tech assistant] coach [Kevin] Rogers, who was actually from my hometown, got in contact with me about a walk-on deal. I was used to playing defense and I knew I wouldn't be able to play big-time college football at D-line just 'cause of my height. So we got in touch with Coach Rogers and he was like why don't you go down for Fork Union for a year, lose some weight, and we'll go from there.
"Yeah, man, it was crazy. I look back and I can even imagine carrying 280 pounds on my short frame."
Perez has become much than just your normal circus-like sideshow since. After getting only a handful of snaps in goal-line blocking situations last season, he has been on the field for five plays on offense and 12 on Tech's kickoff-return so far in the season's first three games.
While few, if any, probably noticed, Perez said he got in a pretty good lick on the kickoff-return squad in Tech's 48-7 drilling at LSU on Sept. 8.
"I love that ... I'm actually right in front of the guys [Eddie Royal and Josh Morgan] returning the ball," Perez said. "It's my first time out there and it's a definitely a rush. The LSU was the most times, we had like nine kickoff returns, unfortunately, but on the first one I had a pretty nice block."
Playing behind his good friend, senior Carlton Weatherford, and redshirt sophomore Kenny Jefferson at fullback, Perez is still looking for his first tote of the ball in college. If it never he gets the ball or ever is awarded with a late-career scholarship, the pile-driver from Jersey says he will have lived his dream.
"I mean I always believed in my heart that I could play Division I football, so that was really a dream of mine," said Perez, adding that he's had the time of his life at Tech. "And then everyone always tried to downsize me because of my height, but I just never let that stop me. I've always had big dreams ever since I was a little kid to play Division I football and that's my motivation, man. My motivation is to keep going for all the people out there who have doubted me."
Perez's younger brother, Brandon, is a 5-9, 233-pound sophomore fullback at New Mexico State.
Think those two bowling balls didn't roll at each in the family's backyard on more than one occasion through the years?
"Oh, yeah, we were always fighting and stuff," Devin said. "But now he's my best friend. We talk every day. I mean I don't know what I'd do without him. He's my lifting partner, we hang out together."
And nobody messes with the Perez boys if they're walking en tandem down the street on a dark night in Jersey, right?
"Oh, we don't have much trouble," Devin said. "If so, we can hold our own."
