September 2, 2009

Steve Megargee
Rivals.com College Football Staff Writer

OXFORD, Miss. - One look at the recruiting class of 2005 reveals its feast-or-famine nature.

Eight of the top 25 players from that class already have been selected in the first two rounds of the NFL draft. But two of the top 25 never played a full season of Division I football - with one now serving an eight-year prison sentence - and two more left their respective teams after one year.

Somewhere in between those extremes lies Ole Miss defensive tackle Jerrell Powe.

While many of his former peers already have begun their NFL careers, Powe is entering his junior season at Ole Miss. Rated as the No. 24 prospect in the nation when he signed with Ole Miss out of Waynesboro (Miss.) Wayne County High, Powe has made eight tackles in his career. He is known more for his perceived academic problems than his athletic prowess. But his ability to overcome all those trials eventually could allow him to join former peers such as Mark Sanchez and Darren McFadden in the NFL.

"Every now and then, I pat myself on the back," Powe says. "It was a long road, a lot of heartbreak."

And a lot of litigation.

Powe signed with Ole Miss in February 2005, then waited 3 1/2 years before the NCAA finally allowed him to play for the Rebels.

He spent the 2005 season at Chatham (Va.) Hargrave Military Academy. He then was out of football entirely for two years after the NCAA ruled he had too much help in completing his coursework. Powe was allowed to enroll at Ole Miss in the fall of 2007, but he wasn't allowed to play until he had spent a year in college and had proved he could handle the coursework.

"There was stuff going on behind the scenes - emotionally and otherwise - that was unbelievable," says Joe Barnett, a Waynesboro appraiser who serves as Powe's unofficial adviser. "We were having to fight the NCAA. We were having to fight the media."

As that quote circulated across the nation, Powe became something of a punch line. But Shirley Powe argues that she never made the comment at all.

"I don't even know where they got that from," she says. "I was very disturbed about that. I'm still disturbed when I think about it now. I would never say that about my son."

Barnett indicates that Shirley Powe may have been misinterpreted rather than misquoted. Barnett compares her comment to a conversation that might take place between Tiger Woods and a recreational golfer.

"If Tiger Woods said, 'Let's go hit some tomorrow afternoon,' you'd say, 'I can't play,' " says Barnett, whose son played on the Wayne County High team that included Powe. "You don't mean literally that you can't swing a club, address a ball or putt. You just mean you can't do it as well as someone else can do it. That's exactly what his mom was meaning."

The reported quote garnered so much attention that Barnett eventually invited reporters from the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion Ledger to meet Powe. Barnett asked the reporter to pick out a Web site. Powe then read a story from that site as a video camera rolled, just to prove that he wasn't illiterate.

Barnett says Powe had a 2.33 grade-point average at the end of the 2008 football season.

"As far as [critics] talking about me, it really doesn't bother me," Powe says. "I'm not going to give up. I went too far, and I'm not going to give up now. I've just got to prove them wrong by being successful."

Powe needs that kind of patience whenever Ole Miss goes on the road. Each time the Rebels went to an opposing SEC venue last season, he would see a sign or banner mocking his academic troubles.

Hey, Powe? What's four plus two?

Hey, Powe? What does my shirt say?

" Florida probably gave it to me the worst," Powe says. "At Alabama, they said some things."

He certainly received more attention than the typical second-string player. Then again, Powe never really had much of a chance to prove what he could do last season.

The NCAA didn't grant Powe his eligibility last season until the final week of July, just as the Rebels were beginning preseason practices. Powe said he weighed as much as 384 pounds while waiting for the NCAA's decision. By the time the season started, he still weighed 354, which severely limited his speed and endurance.

"I probably only gave them about 70 percent of what I was capable of doing - 70 or 80 percent," Powe says.

Powe is ready to start making amends. Since he didn't have to worry throughout the offseason about whether he'd be able to play in 2009, he was free to spend the year getting his weight down to a more manageable level.

He ran more often and made major changes to his diet. He gave up his frequent trips to Abner's - a popular off-campus hangout for chicken fingers - and cut fried foods from his diet. Powe instead ate fruit in the morning and had one big meal each day at around 3 p.m. Powe said a typical meal during the offseason included baked chicken, a sweet potato and vegetables.

His new eating habits helped him get his weight down to the 320s, and the change already is paying off on the practice field. Coaches have seen more stamina and explosiveness from Powe.

The Rebels ranked fourth in the nation against the rush last season, and they're counting on Powe to help make them equally tough this season.

"What he's best at is stuffing the run, being physical against the run, being an anchor there, attacking gaps and being a physical presence against the run," Ole Miss defensive line coach Terry Price says. "We want him to be really good at that and think he can be. That's what he's really good at right now.

"We're working on making him a better pass rusher, and with the weight loss he's getting better. But what he does best is stopping the run."

Although Powe probably won't win a spot in the starting lineup, the Rebels rotate their tackles enough that he still should earn plenty of playing time. The Rebels would love to see Powe deliver a breakthrough season as they attempt to replace All-America defensive tackle Peria Jerry.

"I expect a lot from Jerrell," Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt says. "He's changed his body. He's changed his work ethic, his eating habits, those things. But he's doing it for a reason. And the reason is he really looked up to Peria Jerry. He knows it's his time to play, to contribute."

Jerry's example shows what's at stake for Powe. After leading the SEC with 18 tackles for loss last season, Jerry went to the Atlanta Falcons with the 24th overall pick in the NFL draft. Powe's stock has fallen quite a bit since his heady days as a five-star prospect, but a big season could put him right back on the NFL radar.

He still has plenty of time to change his fortunes. While his history of academic problems might target Powe as a likely candidate to leave school early, he has indicated he could stay at Ole Miss until he has used up all his eligibility. Powe's friends and family members would love to see him earn a college degree.

"In my mind, he needs that education more than he needs to play football at Ole Miss and to play football in the pros," Barnett says. "He's obviously going to do the latter two, and probably will do those really well. If he comes out at age 35 from the professional ranks - hopefully having played 12 years - he still has 35-40 years ahead of him that need to be fruitful, beneficial and productive. That can best be served by his having a college education that will provide him with a well-rounded opportunity to do well in society and contribute.

"He wants to contribute to society. He wants to give back. He wants to help other kids. He doesn't mind being a poster child for a lot of things that aren't right and for how people can fall through the cracks at the high school level. In our collective opinion, a lot of things need to be corrected to prevent misfortunes like this from happening in the future."

Powe said only one thing could keep him from coming back to school for the 2010 season.

"I'm not leaving until I can get a first-round grade," he says.

The prospect of that happening after this season seems unlikely. Rob Rang, a senior analyst for nfldraftscout.com, currently projects Powe as an undrafted free agent if he turns pro after this season. Rang noted that the forecast could change if Powe has a big season. The size and athleticism Powe displayed in high school also give him plenty of upside as a pro prospect.

"The best possible scenario is he plays two more years at Ole Miss and develops into a legitimate down-to-down playmaker on the defensive line," Rang says. "You see stories like this all the time. Even Peria Jerry had flashes of skill before, but it wasn't until last year that he had a true breakout campaign and emerged as a first-round pick."

Conventional wisdom suggested Powe already would have been taken in the first round by this point in his life. Powe's teammates at the 2005 Army All-American Bowl included eventual first-round picks Sanchez and Jonathan Stewart plus second-round picks Martellus Bennett, DeSean Jackson and Rey Maualuga. The opposing team that day included eventual first-round picks Eugene Monroe, Michael Oher (a former Ole Miss teammate), Kenny Phillips and Rashard Mendenhall.

Bennett, Jackson, Phillips and Mendenhall are beginning their second seasons in the NFL as Powe gears up for his second season at Ole Miss. If the change in their respective fortunes bothers Powe, he isn't letting it show.

Powe admits feeling a bit nostalgic when he saw his former peers get drafted last spring, but he didn't feel envious. He's proud for all he has overcome. He's grateful he finally was granted the opportunity to play football again. He simply has no room for jealousy.

"It's really crazy," Powe says. "I played with a lot of those guys, thinking hopefully one day we'd all be in New York. They left me. It was really weird, seeing all those guys [get drafted], but I'm happy for them.

"Everybody always takes a different route to get where they need to be."

Steve Megargee is a national writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at smegargee@rivals.com.