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A kid I want to see do well
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eltigre Offline
Chief Headknocker
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Posts: 9,038
Joined: Dec 2003
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I Root For: Throat Punches
Location: Huntsville, AL
Post: #1
A kid I want to see do well
I searched so if posted before then hopefully "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead"

I just read this one and ..what a kid..I hope he makes it.


Being told Division 1 unlikely drives Bolton to stardom
By Ron Higgins (Contact)
Sunday, March 9, 2008

NFL draft sleepers

An occasional series on area players who may hear their names called on April 26-27.

rhiggins@commercialappeal.com

For a tailback whose running style is downhill -- and in the world of football that's a good thing -- Allen Ervin's career has been an uphill struggle.

His high school coach at Bolton told him he didn't think he was good enough to play NCAA Division 1-A football.

"It crushed me when he said that, but it also motivated me," Ervin said.

After his first two years at Lambuth University, an NAIA program in Jackson, Tenn., Ervin, a running back and kick returner, hadn't played much and was ready to transfer.


Lindsay McDonald/The Jackson Sun
Allen Ervin showed his stuff at Lambuth, rushing for 1,295 yards and 14 touchdowns and averaging 215.5 all-purpose yards per game this past season. Now, the NFL scouts have begun to notice.

Allen Ervin

"My Dad told me I didn't need to leave," Ervin said. "He said, 'If you're good, they'll find you regardless of where you're at.'"

Consider Ervin found.

After a senior season this past fall in which he led the NAIA in all-purpose yardage and following a sterling performance in a postseason all-star game against D-1 competition, the 5-11, 228-pound Ervin is regarded by the NFL Network as the top sleeper in the April 26-27 draft.

Ever since Ervin led his team in rushing with 36 yards on seven carries at the Texas vs. the Nation all-star game Feb. 1 in El Paso, his phone, and the phone of his Memphis-based agent Brian Parker, hasn't stopped ringing.

"Most of the teams in the league have called about Allen," said Parker, who found out about Ervin through another client, former Lambuth offensive tackle Stefan Rodgers of the Philadelphia Eagles. "They like what they've seen on film and in the game in El Paso. Once they get to know him as a person, they are even more impressed."

Everything about Ervin bleeds work ethic.

He graduated in December with a business degree. For the last two months, he has trained twice a day at Titus Sports Academy in Jackson under personal trainer Nick Stamper, whose last playing stop was for the 2005 af2 champion Memphis Xplorers. At night, Ervin works at GNC.

There aren't many possible NFL draft choices holding down a night job with the draft a month away. Yet for Ervin, it's part of his grounded persona.

"I've trained guys who thought they were the world," said Stamper, "but Allen might be the most humble kid I've ever been around. After every workout, he asks me, 'How did I do? What do I need to improve?' This kid is extraordinary."

Ervin is like a lot of kids Vic Wallace recruited during a 15-year head-coaching career at Lambuth that ended after this past season. He knew Ervin was a good person from a solid family. He knew he would work hard.

What he didn't know was how driven Ervin was, particularly by then-Bolton coach Tom NeSmith's blunt assessment that Ervin wasn't good enough to play Division 1.

At the time, NeSmith was right. Coming out of high school, Ervin was a 5-10, 190-pound back who didn't have much speed. He didn't earn any postseason honors his senior season.

"We used Allen as a blocking back who helped another kid gain 1,000 yards," said NeSmith, who now coaches at Central. "Allen was a great kid. Never missed a practice or an off-season workout."

Ervin was a spot player in his first two years at Lambuth, then started sharing time in the backfield as a junior with former Kirby standout Kevin Haynes.

Before this past season, Wallace's plan was to split time with Haynes again as the starter and Ervin as the backup. That all changed when practice started last fall as Lambuth shifted from the option offense it used the previous three seasons to a pro-style offense Wallace had used in the past.

"It was evident in preseason that Allen had made great strides," said Wallace, who is now special assistant for athletics to Lambuth President Dr. R. Fred Zuker. "By the third game, we settled on Allen being our starter. Once we did that, he just took it and ran with it. He honestly got better every week all the way to the end of the season."

In Ervin's fourth and fifth starts, he had back-to-back rushing performances of 229 and 201 yards. A few games later, he scored nine touchdowns in a two-game span. Against Bethel, he ran for 176 yards and had 147 yards in kickoff returns.

Yet when he walked off the field after the final game of his Lambuth career in a 3-8 season, the only thing Ervin hoped for was a chance to shine before pro scouts on Lambuth's Pro Day on March 20.

"At the very last game I played, a lot of people came up to me and told me 'This isn't going to be the last game you'll ever play,' and I took that to heart," Ervin said. "I prayed about it."

Wallace, who works hard to promote all his seniors, knew he had a special commodity in Ervin, named a first-team all-American after rushing for 1,295 yards and 14 touchdowns and averaging 215.5 all-purpose yards per game.

A Dallas Cowboys scout, after viewing Ervin's game tape, convinced Wallace to push to get Ervin into the Texas vs. the Nation all-star game.

"I called two or three people with the game and told them about Allen," Wallace said. "They told me their rosters were almost set, but they wanted me to send information on Allen. They were having a meeting that afternoon to finalize the rosters."

The next night, Ervin was sitting in his truck about to start his night shift at GNC when he received the call from an all-star game official extending the invitation to El Paso.

"I was in shock, there was so much stuff running through my head at that moment," Ervin said. "When I got off the phone, all I could do was sit there and say, 'Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you.' I just knew that God decided to bless me at that moment and I had to thank Him."

Ervin got the invitation about 10 days before he was to report for a week of practice on the National team coached by former NFL head coach Buddy Ryan.

At the start of the week, Ervin was fourth on the depth chart. By game time, after playing more than 100 snaps in practice, he moved up to No. 2, passing All-Pac 10 running back Louis Rankin of Washington and Penn State 1,000-yard rusher Rodney Kinlaw.

On his first series of the game, Ervin had back-to-back carries of 8 and 7 yards.

But it was his second series that he opened the eyes of the NFL scouts. On his first carry, he leaped a fallen lineman. But before Ervin got his feet back on the ground, he got rocked by Oklahoma State linebacker Rodrick Johnson with a decleating hit that can be viewed on YouTube.

"It was an awesome hit Allen took," Wallace said. "But he didn't fumble, and he jumped right back up.

"The next play, he blocked a blitz. And a couple of plays later, he had an 18-yard run. On that run, your mouth dropped open. He avoided one tackler, made two cuts, spun and took on a tackler, put his hand down and ran for another eight yards.

"That series of plays show NFL scouts everything you need to know about Allen. He showed the size, the strength, the quickness and the toughness. I was so proud of him."

On Wednesday and Thursday, Ervin took his first visit to an NFL team, interviewing with the Colts. By Friday, he was back in Jackson, happily sweating away in his familiar workout routine.

"That all-star game finally proved to me I could play with D1 ballplayers," Ervin said. "Even though you think you can, you're never satisfied until you prove it to yourself.

"When you're an athlete, you want to do the best you can, you always think that you can achieve at the highest level. When someone tells you that you can't, that competitiveness inside you says, 'I can't believe you told me that.'"

That's why NeSmith said he's happy that Ervin proved him wrong.

"I remember I was teaching a psychology class and our students had to write a booklet containing their career goals," NeSmith said. "Allen said that by the time he left college, he wanted to be an all-American.

"That drew a bit of a laugh from everyone. But I guess he's got the last laugh, and now I'm as proud as his poppa."

-- Ron Higgins: 529-2525
03-19-2008 12:04 AM
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