On the surface, it would appear that George Selvie’s former high school football coach, Jerry Pollard, faces a mind-numbing dilemma while he watches South Florida play Syracuse this weekend.

As a lifelong Duke basketball fan, Pollard, the head coach of Pine Forest High School in Pensacola, Fla., has cheered on former Blue Devils point guard Greg Paulus for the last four years.

With Paulus suiting up as the starting quarterback for the Orange these days, Pollard will be watching one of his favorite players go up against one of his former players, USF’s defensive end Selvie. But Pollard’s preference as to which one comes out on top is clear.

‘It’d be great if (Selvie) hits him,’ Pollard said. ‘I’m all for George. I hope he has nine sacks this weekend.’

Five years ago, though, it would’ve been crazy to think that Pollard would be talking about Selvie on a national scale at all.

The 6-foot-4, 250-pound sack machine has become the scariest face in Big East football the past three years, defying the odds that have been stacked against him since he was a toddler to become a force on the Bulls’ defensive line. Currently, he’s second in Division I in active sack leaders with 26.5.

During his four years with South Florida, Selvie has become arguably the most recognizable defensive player in the Big East conference.

But the improbable part is how Selvie got to the defensive side of the ball in the first place.

Selvie has heard all of the criticism against him. He’s too small. He can’t play defensive end. He’ll never play in the NFL.

The one thing he doesn’t remember hearing, though, is the Buick that rolled off a car jack and onto his head when he was just a year old. The gash required eight stitches and left a scar that serves as the only reminder of the incident.

‘You just always thank God for blessing you,’ Selvie said. ‘After something like that as a toddler, you’re not even supposed to be here right now.’

Perhaps that was the first hint Selvie would have tough skin.

Pollard noticed more unique signs from Selvie when he first set foot in Pine Forest High’s gymnasium for freshman orientation. Pollard was recruiting freshmen for his team when he saw a 6-foot, slender kid approach him, accompanied by his mother, a minister and his father, who served 20 years in the Navy.

Pollard immediately thought he had a quarterback, running back or wide receiver.

‘I asked him what position he wanted to play and he said, ‘Center,” Pollard said. ‘I thought that was kind of strange, but I knew then I had someone pretty special.’

Still, Selvie went largely unnoticed as a football player who could potentially do to quarterbacks what that Buick did to his head.

Unheralded as a recruit, Selvie’s only Division I-A scholarship offer came from South Florida. He had offers from only two other programs: North Alabama and Delta State. Even as his good friend, Alabama All-American guard Mike Johnson, pleaded with Alabama to take a look at Selvie; they deemed him too small.

‘I was very surprised he only got one offer,’ Pollard said. ‘I have most every college coach in the country come through here, and I would show them film of him, but none of them projected him to be the player he is today.

‘That,’ Pollard added, ‘was very poor judgment on their part.’

South Florida was interested in his ability to play center, which he did for most of high school. He moved to defensive end against his wishes when the Bulls were short on the defensive line and USF’s defensive coaches thought his abilities could translate to the other side of the ball.

‘George was a darn good center,’ USF head coach Jim Leavitt said. ‘I still think center could be his best position.’

But Leavitt is pleased Selvie has been stationed in his defense for the large majority of his career. In 2007, his second year on the job, Selvie had one of the better defensive seasons in college football history, recording 14.5 sacks and 31.5 tackles for loss, one short of the NCAA record.

Still, the transition wasn’t effortless. Fighting to stay above 225 pounds, especially during a long season of practices and games, Selvie went on a massive binge anytime he was supposed to eat – and even when he wasn’t.

‘The coaches used to have me in the back room after practices and after film sessions just feeding me ice cream sandwiches,’ Selvie said. ‘They just kept stuffing me with food.’

Selvie faced a new obstacle after his 2007 campaign. Teams knew about him now. So they double and triple-teamed him constantly, to the point where he was double-teamed on 51 percent of plays.

And even when he was double-teamed, teams ran away from his direction on 80 percent of plays. Simply put, teams were hinging their offensive game plans on taking him out of the game.

‘It was really frustrating at first,’ Selvie said. ‘But I made some adjustments, and I know that I was helping my team by taking up two, three blockers at a time.’

And in a life full of beating the odds, Selvie has one more thing he wants to accomplish before leaving the Bulls: winning a Big East championship.

With a redshirt freshman quarterback in B.J. Daniels and games left against talented opponents Cincinnati, West Virginia and Miami, he knows there will be doubters aplenty. But Selvie knows he has something on his side.

Said Selvie: ‘They’ve been wrong before.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on October 1, 2009 at 12:00 pm