Noel Devine

From NCAA College Football Information & Resource

Noel Devine

Profile
College	West Virginia University
Position	RB
Jersey No.	7
Class	Sophomore
Career	2007 – present
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight	173 lbs (78.5 kg)
Nationality	American
B-date	February 16
B-place
High School	North Fort Myers High School
Career Highlights
Awards
2007 CollegeSportsReport.com 1st Team All-Freshman 2007 Phil Steele Honorable Mention All-Big East 2007 WVU Danny Van Etten Rookie of the Year Award
Championships
2007 Big East Conference Co-Champion
Bowl Games
2008 Fiesta Bowl

Noel Devine (born February 16) plays running back for the West Virginia University Mountaineers in the NCAA college football tournament. A Fort Myers, Fla. native, Devine is hyped to be an updated version---faster and more explosive---of C.J. Spiller although comparisons to Barry Sanders and Reggie Bush are not entirely new. His ability to make quick decisions and change directions to make opponents miss are one of his highly admirable traits which made him not only the highly recruited running back of his class, but also the most watched football player in Youtube.

1 Personal Life
2 High School
3 College
- 3.1 2007
- 3.2 2008
4 Highlights
5 Career Stats
6 Achievements
7 References
8 External Links

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Personal Life

Noel is enrolled in general studies at the West Virginia University. Both of his parents died of AIDS; his father passed away first when he was 3 months old while his mother died when he was 11. Although his grandmother, Lee Turner, is his legal guardian, he chose to live with Liz and Robert Harlow Sr, the parents of one of his friends. Noel is also a father to two children named Andre and Abbigail (named after his mother) who are born of different mothers. In 2004, when he was only a sophomore in high school, Noel witnessed a shooting where one of his friends, 15 year old Rashard Patterson, was killed by a shotgun blast to the chest.

At one point, Noel was nearly adopted by his mentor and fellow North Fort Myers alumnus Deion Sanders in August of 2006. In fact he already moved to Prosper, Texas where he lived with Sanders. Things however didn't work out when a few weeks later, Noel took a ride on Mrs. Pilar Sanders' Cadillac Escalade to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, left the vehicle parked at the curb, and flew himself back to Florida. Amidst the incident, the two still remain in contact, with Sanders regularly sending Noel inspirational text messages. Sanders wrote about his being a mentor to Noel in his column for The News-Press, a Fort Myers news outlet.

Noel, also nicknamed Skittles, is addicted to the colorful candy according to his high school coach. Back then, his lunch was often consisted of two bags of Skittles.

Noel was interviewed by ESPN The Magazine under their NEXT editions, which picks the next big athlete of the year. He was nominated to be part of the 2008 edition alongside other athletes such as Brandon Roy, Joba Chamberlain, Tyson Gay, Patrick Willis, and Novak Dokovic. In that interview, he told ESPN that his idol is Barry Sanders, and that his best game of his career at that point was against Maryland.

In February of 2008, Noel and teammate Jock Sanders were accused of beating and stomping two students outside of Club Z in Morgantown. A month later, the two, along with Eian Smith, and Brantwon Bowser were all arrested. All four pleaded no contest to battery, a misdemeanor, in Morgantown Municipal Court.

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High School

Prior to high school, Devine already had a reputation on the football field, with recruiters attending midget football games just to watch him play. Many football fans anticipated what school he was going to choose but in the end, he went to North Fort Myers High School where NFL stars such as Deion Sanders and Jevon Kearse came from. When he was a freshman, Devine made his varsity debut after filling in for a Division 1 recruit, rushing for an 82-yard touchdown against Barron Collier. Devine went on and finished his freshman season with 1,092 yards rushing and an average of 9 yards per carry, even impressing Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden who sent him his first recruiting letter. Football enthusiasts were quite impressed as well, after his freshman year highlight reel posted at sunshinepreps.net got downloaded 50,000 times in one day which practically crashed the site down.

As a sophomore, Devine showcased his running prowess in a game against Estero High, where he returned the opening kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown, and rushed for 365 yards and six touchdowns on only nine carries to lead North Fort Myers to a 63-7 victory. He went on and finished that year with 1,667 rushing yards and 23 TDs on 143 carries with a whooping 11.7 yards per carry average. He improved his stats during his junior year, rushing for 1,934 yards and 24 touchdowns on 173 carries before finishing his high school career with 2,735 yards and 47 touchdowns as a senior to lead Coach James Iandoli’s Red Knights to an 11-2 mark all the way to the third round of the state playoffs. In one of his senior year games against Mariner High School, Devine scored on a 65 yard touchdown run late in the 3rd quarter to become the all-time leader in rushing yards for Lee County, breaking the record set by Mariner High alumnus Earnest Graham.

His high school numbers totalled school and Lee County rushing records of 6,842 yards and 92 touchdowns, earning for himself three Florida Class 5A all-state selections and the Fort Myers News-Press area player of the year honors. Devine went on to play in the 2007 U.S. Army All-American Bowl game, competing in the East team alongside Eric Berry and Arrelious Benn. In that game, he took a kickoff back 88 yards before catching his right toe on the turf and falling short of the end zone.

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College

Devine's highly remarkable high school career landed him a No. 3 ranking in the running back position, nationally, according to both ESPN's 2007 Recruit Tracker and Scout.com. Despite some negative off-field issues that surfaced later on---including a school fight as a senior, a locker room incident at an all-star game, and a struggle to perform well inside the classroom---the 5-star rated running back was still one of the top prospects overall and was still heavily pursued by the likes of Nebraska, Alabama, and Florida State.

In February of 2007, Devine gave a verbal commitment to West Virginia the day before National Signing Day but did not sign his letter of intent the following day, opting to wait until the 30th of March. Apparently, he used the "waiting period" to work on his academics, and with the help of Burns, Iandoli and principal Kim Lunger, was able to achieve a 2.5 GPA on his third ACT attempt which was good enough for an NCAA eligibility.

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2007

During the offseason, coach Rich Rodriguez told Devine that he will be used on kick returns, as a slot receiver and in the backfield along with Steve Slaton.

Devine made his collegiate debut at the Mountaineer Field in the 4th quarter of the Western Michigan game, where he was given a standing ovation after his first collegiate carry, which netted a yard. Then after gaining 23 yards on a spin off a defender, he was able to score his first collegiate touchdown on an 8-yard run to score WVU's final score in the 62-24 win, finishing the game with 7 carries for 44 yards to go with a catch for 19 yards. The following week, Devine has his first road game as the Mountaineers travelled to in-state rival Marshall to face the Thundering Herd. He managed to score on his first carry before finishing the game with five carries for 76 yards and two touchdowns in the lopsided 48-23 victory. He also had his first two kickoff returns which amounted to 46 yards in that game. At Maryland, he sprinted 31 yards to the 1-yard line on his first carry, 76 yards to the 1 on his second before finishing the game with 136 rushing yards on just 5 carries for a remarkable 27.2 yard average, while in the process making himself the fastest player to gain 100 yards rushing in a game in school history when it took him only two attempts to gain 100 yards. He also had two kickoff returns against the Terps for a 52-yard gain. After the game, teammate Owen Schmitt said, "In the game, he kind of did those things he did on YouTube." Against East Carolina, Devine rushed 7 times for 11 yards, a reception for 7 yards and a kick return for 25 yards to help WVU claim its fourth straight win.

At South Florida, Devine gained 36 yards each on rushes and kickoff returns as the Mountaineers got upset by the Bulls to the tune of 13-21. At Syracuse, he was held to 13 yards rushing on 4 carries, a 12-yard catch, and 33 yards on 2 kickoff returns in the 55-14 win over the Orange. He was benched against Mississippi State after missing a practice earlier that week, but was inserted back into the lineup against No.25 Rutgers, where he had 6 carries for 40 yards in the 31-3 triumph. Following his 2-rush, 11-yard rushing, 4-kickoff, and 97-KO yard game, Devine was rumored to have "torn up his locker" in a fit of anger due to the lack of playing time. Devine later on dismissed the rumors and told Rivals.com in an interview that "If I really wanted to play I would have gone to a sorry team...I didn't expect a lot of playing time...I think I have played fairly. There's people that are not playing and they're on the team and they're happy. You got a great running back ahead of you. Really, I'm not expecting a lot."

At No.22 Cincinnati, Devine had a season low 2 carries for 23 yards in addition to 86 yards on 4 kickoffs as the Mountaineers handed Cincy a 28-23 defeat. Against No.20 Connecticut, Devine had his first 10+ carries of the season after rushing the pigskin 11 times for 118 yards and 1 scoring run in the 66-21 victory, a win that secured the Big East championship for the Mountaineers. In the 100th edition of the Backyard Brawl, Devine had 7 carries for a season low 11 yards with 1 kick off for a 48-yard return in the fourth quarter of the 9-13 upset loss to the Panthers. In his postseason debut against Oklahoma at the Fiesta Bowl, Devine filled in for the injured Slaton and was handed the football 13 times for a gain of 108 yards and 2 TDs, including a 65 yard run which settled the final score of the game. His 65-yarder established a new West Virginia bowl record for longest rush and was the second longest play from scrimmage for the Mountaineers in the season. He also showcased an all-around play with 2 receptions for 47 yards and 4 kickoff returns for 88 yards in his first bowl game appearance.

Devine finished his inaugural campaign with 627 rushing yards (3rd on the team) and six touchdowns on 73 carries. He was 7th in the league in all-purpose running (102.33, behind Slaton and White), 5th in kickoff return average with 23.23 per game (70th in the nation), 10th in rushing and 17th in total offense (52.25 rush per game). The coaching staff also named him as the Danny Van Etten Rookie of the Year and was also included in some Freshman All-American lists as an honorable mention.

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2008

When coach Rich Rodriguez left to take the coaching vacancy at Michigan, Devine contemplated on transferring to another team but decided otherwise upon further weighing his options. Along with White, the duo was named as the #1 "scary star" of the 2008 by Rivals.com. During the spring, Devine maxed out at 405 pounds at the bench press then had 6 carries for 33 yards in the Gold-Blue Spring Game.

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