Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
“Taking a year off makes you more hungry for the game, so I got more focused,” said Devin Ross as he walked off the football field Wednesday, his 20th birthday. “I just wanted to be out there when I was watching from the stands. It sucked, so I worked harder in the weight room, on the field, getting my routes better and my hands better so I can come out here and make a difference this upcoming season.”
You’ve heard it since the middle of the summer, and you’ve now heard it from Devin himself, the kid took his game to another level this offseason.
“I took Sefo out on Saturdays to go workout, get my routes better and build our one-on-one chemistry,” he explained. “I hit the jug machines really hard to work on my catching, and I got in the weight room to get stronger so I can block better on the perimeter.”
The speedy sophomore appropriately says his biggest improvement came in the area where he had the most room to progress.
“I definitely improved my hands, I catch way better now,” he told. “Focusing with defenders on me, that was my biggest downfall, but now I’ve gotten way better at that, and blocking I’m definitely better, just getting more physical. Also, getting in and out of my breaks, I was already good at that but I just sharpened it up even more.”
When working on his skills catching the ball, Ross was lucky to have a teammate with some of the stickiest hands in the country to take advice from.
“I feel like I was just so jittery, I just wanted to catch the ball and just get out so fast, I needed to just focus on getting the ball first,” he admitted. “That’s what Nelson [Spruce] taught me, just to focus, that’s what he does, so I just focus on the ball first and then get out. I’m fast, so I always wanted to get out so fast that I was taking my eye off the ball.”
Ross, who had six catches for 24 yards in 2013 before redshirting as a sophomore, is not too proud to see one of his teammates as somebody to look up to.
“He’s a really good mentor, I love Nelson,” he said of the 2014 Biletnikoff semi-finaist. “He’s a great motivator. He’s always there for me when I don’t know plays or when I need help with techniques, helping me get better with my hands, he’s just a great mentor and someone I’m happy to be behind.”
With Spruce getting all the national headlines, and a bulk of the attention from defenses in the second half of last season, Devin, like his teammate Shay Fields, says he hopes teams focus in on his mentor again.
“If teams want to double-team him, that’s their problem, if they want to do that, that’s up to them,” he stated with a grin. “I hope they do so everybody else can do their thing too. We have a lot of great receivers on this team, so I’m just excited for the season, for Nelson and for all of us.”
“If you double-team Nelson we have Shay [Fields], we have Bryce [Bobo], we have me, we have Donovan [Lee],” continued Ross. “We have so many receivers that there’s nothing you can really do, you can’t double-team anybody on this team anymore.”
As for his personal goals, Ross just wants to see smiling faces in that fancy new locker room.
“I really just want my team to do well, honestly,” he told. “I’m a team player, I love getting mine and getting touchdowns, that’s always fun, but I just love seeing my team happy. Everybody is doing their thing and we’re winning, I just love seeing smiles on my teammates faces.”
He doesn’t care how it happens, but don’t be surprised if Devin Ross is out there making plays that lead to post-game smiles this season.
