By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN —
A couple of days back it was announced, with much fanfare, that Head & Shoulders had taken out a $1 million insurance policy on Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu’s flowing head of Samoan hair.
While this doesn’t quite have the sex appeal of the $1 million insurance policy that was taken out on Angie Dickenson’s legs in the 1970s, at least from this side of the male-female gender gap, it did cast attention toward the advertisements that the company runs.
With that so fresh in the mind, it made sense to check in with Bruce Irvin, West Virginia University’s new pass rusher who, if he has half as good as he is being touted, will someday have advertising executives beating his door down for endorsing their hair products.
Irvin, you see, has perhaps the best set of dreadlocks on this edition of the Mountaineers — long, bouncy dreads that certainly make him among the noticeable just standing and doing nothing but talking.
He, of course, will make his much-awaited debut after a couple of years becoming a junior college legend in California, when WVU tackles Coastal Carolina at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
It seemed only natural, in the light of the announcement of Polamalu’s insurance, just how much Irvin would be insuring his dreadlocks for.
He flashed a smile that would turn night into day, laughed a little, then said, “They’re priceless.”
So, it appears, is he.
He not only gives out hard knocks, but he is an alumnus of the school of hard knocks, a kid from the poor side of Georgia who had a troubled youth, could not get into a college because he had not graduated high school, forcing him to obtain a GED.
That story alone is inspiring, as is the fact that he played so well in junior college, recording 15 sacks in one season, was discovered by WVU, brought in here and joined by his older brother, Chad, who is seeing that he remains on the right path.
And now, it’s about time to play his first game.
“My family is coming to see me play for the first time in maybe four or five years,” he said. “It’s going to be a great feeling. Every day I wake up and thank the Lord for blessing me and giving me the opportunity to be here. Only He knows what I had to go through to be right here sitting with you. I’m thankful. I thank West Virginia. I thank Coach Stew.”
This is not politically correct talk. It is something that flows as easily from his heart as his blood flows through it.
“I’ve got chilled bones right now,” Irvin said. “Every night I think about it. I go home and talk with my brother about it. My mom texts me and says ‘R U ready?’ To be honest, I’ll be in class dozed off some times thinking about it. I can’t wait to see all them people in there and how they expect so much from me and are behind me and rooting for me. It’s going to be an unbelievable feeling.”
Indications are that there may not be quite as many people as Irvin expected, season sales being down 6 percent from last year and 9 percent from two years ago and with tickets still available on Thursday, but when you consider he has played before far smaller crowds in the past, it will be enough to keep the chill on his bones.
As a newcomer who is expected to be used as a pass-rushing specialist out of WVU’s 4-0 defense, which has four down lineman compared with the normal set which has only three, Irvin is unsure how much playing time he will get.
“They just told me to stand by coach and run in there when my name is called. I’ll run a 3.7 getting out there when they call my name,” he said.
Considering that Noel Devine does about 4.3 or 4.4, that’s pretty fast.
Faster yet is the way he gets to the quarterback. It isn’t that he hates all quarterbacks. It’s just like a hunter, and QBs are his prey.
“I love Geno Smith,” he said, speaking of his own quarterback. “If it ain’t Geno, I really can’t stand them. They’re all pretty boys.”
Irvin has spent most of this summer honing his skills but not getting his kills, so to speak. In practice, the defensive unit can pound on the running backs and wide receivers, but quarterbacks are off limit, which is like putting a cherry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in front of a man on a diet.
“You don’t understand how it is, running at Geno and then when you get there have to duck away and tag him,” he said. “They’ve got all these new rules to protect the quarterback. I’m just going to try to tee off on him as soon as I can.”
Indeed, the NCAA has adopted some new rules to protect the quarterback and Irvin obviously doesn’t agree with them.
“These rules, to me, they are taking the physical nature out of college football. But it is what it is, and I’ll do my best to lay the hat to him,” Irvin said.
And don’t be surprised if he does it quite often, for this is a super athlete as well as football player. Ask him what he can do that no one knows about and he thinks for a moment, then says:
“I could do a 360 slam dunk.”
And who has done that on.
“Me and Reed Williams played,” he said, referring to last year’s starting linebacker.
Someone asked if he could do it on Devin Ebanks.
“No, I can’t do it on Ebanks, but I could do it on Noel.”
He laughed at his own joke, Noel Devine being about 5-foot-7.
And when he gets that first sack, does he have anything planned.
“Just look at my Mom and blow a kiss,” he said.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
