With the media assembled by his side Tuesday for the first time, Bruce Irvin said he was all business and explained he’d already done the college thing with “palm trees and beaches” in California.

And why was the 22-year-old defensive end in California?

Irvin grew up in Stone Mountain, Ga., a place referenced late by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his “I Have a Dream” speech. Irvin never graduated from high school. His academic issues kept him from taking scholarship offers in the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conferences.

“I wanted to get away,” said Irvin, who as a defensive end has been more impressive than any other newcomer in WVU’s first 10 days of preseason practice.

“There ain’t nothing at home but trouble. I wanted to get as far away as possible. You can’t get no farther from home than Cali without leaving the country.”

Just to calrify a few things about Irvin: Never graduated high school, put passed the GED. Had ACC and SEC offers — he mentioned North Carolina and  Tennessee — out of high school and committed in junior college to Tennessee and Arizona State.

Oh, and he’s actually a former receiver who juco coaches recruited as a safety before turning him into a defensive end.

“I had little knowledge of the plays,” he said. “At safety, you’ve got to read the receivers and I was clueless. Coach said, ‘Put your hand in the dirt and go get the quarterback.’ That was pretty easy.”

Irvin had four sacks and forced a fumble in his first game at defensive end. He’d sack the quarterback in nine of 13 games and had three more games with two sacks.

He finished with 16 sacks and 21 of his 72 tackles were for a loss. Irvin helped the Mounties to a 13-0 record and a second national junior college title.