[Buckskin86]

Devine is now on ESPN

The kid's name is Noel Devine, and up 'til about two weeks ago, he was a little-known prep tailback from southwest Florida. Sure, the people around the town of Fort Myers knew of him. After all, Devine had built up quite a rep running wild in Pop Warner ball for the Cape Coral Junior Dolphins smashing touchdown records, evoking comparisons to Fort Myers' original game-breaker, Deion Sanders.

Last fall, the 5-foot-7, 170-pound freshman also had quite a varsity debut for North Fort Myers High, rushing for 1,092 yards (over 9 yards per carry). However, five months after the season ended, Devine's rep has really taken off.

Why? An eye-popping six-minute highlight package of Devine's best runs surfaced on the web a few weeks ago, and his moves -- particularly on an 80-yard catch-and-run where he broke 10 tackles thanks in part to a trio of 360-spins -- had fans posting links to the video on college sites all across the country.

The reactions were pretty similar: "Unreal ? He's another Barry Sanders ? WOW!! ? Hope our coaches have seen this."

Ah, the wonders of the web. Last time we saw this kind of grass roots Internet buzz was when the X-rated Paris Hilton video made the rounds. Devine's video was courtesy of Tampa-based Sunshine Preps, an independent recruiting service run by 29-year-old Derek Williams, a finance consultant who created the free site to help Florida kids get noticed. Mission accomplished.

Less than two weeks after Williams posted a "Hey, check this out" link on a local bulletin board to Devine's highlight reel, his site was getting hammered. "I think we had 20,000 hits one day and my website lady called and said she had to take the video down because it crashed the site," says Williams.

For the skeptics out there, Devine's performance did come against solid competition. (North Fort Myers is not only Sanders' alma mater, but Jevon Kearse's as well.) As the video shows Devine has outstanding balance, quickness and speed (he's a 10.7 100-meter man already). His coach James Iandoli, who also coached one-time Florida phenom Willie Green at Kissimmee Osceola, reports that Devine even benches 330 pounds. Iandoli says the thing that really catches his eye though is how Devine runs with such a forward lean and cuts "downhill." Still, the coach admits he's leery about his young back's sudden celebrity. "People have been calling him 'The Next Deion' for awhile," he says. "He's a good kid. I just hope he can manage it all."