Check out this interview with Noel Devine (Edit: It’s working.) and/or read any of the stories it inspired. Form your opinions. Now match them with those you had and projected of the kid when he was being recruited, when he arrived and when he started so promisingly. Now please share how one set of opinions meshes with the other.

I’ll go first.

Back in 2006 and 2007, I didn’t know Noel Devine and only knew of him, which wasn’t necessarily fair when I first started writing about the kid. What I knew was he had a terribly troubled past, a huge online following and every school in the free world after him and that it would have been easier to get Salman Rushdie on the phone.

For some reason, I held that last one against him — I had and still have an apprehension about kids who are protected and hidden by their handlers.

Once, at the place I used to work, I wrote a Signing Day column about Devine that was, I thought, thoughtful, fair, accurate, restrained and real. Simply, I wondered if he’d sign at WVU if he hadn’t signed on Signing Day, but noted nothing will come easy with him. “Noel Devine is a complicated character and his decision could not have been so quick or so easy,” it was written in what was a time jammed pack with wild and unchecked reports and speculation. This is the case that set off the fervent Terence Kerns-Tevita Finau-add any other name here obsession we now know so well.

Anyhow, I can only recall a few other times I received so much feedback at that place, which, you have to remember, says something since that paper isn’t readily available online. It still made its rounds and the basic repsonses were “Right on!” and “You have no idea who you’re talking about!”

I didn’t say anything terribly harsh about Devine because I just didn’t know him, but it was suddenly very clear some people didn’t want the trouble and other people were very, very supportive of the kid and wanted to defend the reality of who he is against the perception of who he might be.

And now, two-plus years later, who is he? Yes, he’s had one misstep when he got involved in a fight downtown between his freshman and sophomore seasons — and I can’t remember off the top of my head if anything came of that case. Apart from that, though, he’s been pretty normal.

OK, off the field. Yes, he’s wont to dodge the media and he can be guilty of generic or short answers. So? I’ve honestly had some great conversations with him, though it’s frequently one-on-one, or in a small setting, away from the cameras and microphones, which is the case with a lot of kids. 

On the field, he’s abnormal. He’s a freak. He’s been reliable, durable, productive, so on and so forth. I wonder if people really expected that to happen given his height and, of course, the hype. And remember, he’s going to get better as a running back, as opposed to a runner. There’s a difference and, for some reason, I believe we’ll see that.

Off the field, I also wonder if people expected him to be what he’s been. I didn’t expect trouble — nor do I with anyone because that often leads your down a bad alley with kids you have to deal with and get to know — but I was curious if he could maintain his focus on school and football with so many … hmmm … distractions in his life.

Actually, distractions isn’t the right word. He has real stuff to deal with: kids, haunting memories, heartache, so on and so forth. He does venture home from time to time and miss a practice here and there, but, from here, that can be forgiven. It’s a wonder it doesn’t happen more.

It’s safe to say now Devine was worth the effort and the alleged risk. I don’t feel like I yet know him very well — he’s intensely private and was actually a little bashful last summer when asked to discuss a camp he did for kids back home — but what I do know I do like and I do believe he’s growing into himself and maturing before our eyes. He’s helped WVU so much, perhaps in no greater way than teaching how perception is not always reality.