Devon Wylie found out something important: that he has severe hip-flexor isolation, and frankly I have no idea what that means. His hip flexor is lonely, perhaps.
Apparently, his condition is not as serious as it sounds.
"The way I run isn't that efficient," the Fresno State wide receiver says, "because I'm bowlegged."
You see, there is an unmistakable urge when you are 5-foot-9 and barely a sack of potatoes, and that is to bulk-up. It's a whole different world in Division I football, that's what everybody tells you. Little guys get swallowed up and run over.
"I was always just trying to get my upper body bigger, to be stronger," Wylie says. "And then I realized, it's really just speed and technique that's going to make you play better."
Devon Wylie, left, Fresno State's smallest receiver, is not just the fastest current Bulldog, he is now the fastest Bulldog in the history of the Fresno State program.
Fresno State's smallest receiver figured out that since he runs like Will Rogers after a long day's work, his hip flexors were doing a larger percentage of the work than most people's. It doesn't much matter whether that is actually true, (again, no clue here) because it inspired him to shift his focus from looking like a Greek statue to working on leg-enhancing lifts.
There was some "isolating the hamstring," some "hip-flexor abduction," some other stuff that would bore you.
What will not bore you is what became of it, which was Wylie coming back for his junior season significantly faster, and he was not exactly lugging pianos before.
He is not just the fastest current Bulldog, he is now the fastest Bulldog in the history of the Fresno State program. He set the 40-yard dash record this offseason at an absurd 4.25 seconds, and then backed it up with a 4.27. (The old record was 4.31, held for almost 20 years by J.D. Williams, who played in four Super Bowls and is now a Utah assistant.)
It is one thing to have numerical evidence that you have improved, but another to actually see its benefit on the field. The only difficulty seeing it Saturday was if your eyes couldn't focus fast enough to follow Wylie. He made two tackles, caused a fumble, recovered a fumble, blocked a punt and had punt returns of 14 and 28 yards.
The fumble recovery was eventually negated by a booth review, but it was still quite a game considering none of that is Wylie's full-time job. He is a wide receiver, you might remember, and had a reception in which he managed to spin about 24 times in 24 yards.
It's like trying to tackle a Superball in a shower stall.
Wylie had been sort of the unspoken backup punt returner behind Chastin West, but after West let a ball bounce off his leg in the second quarter, Wylie was sent in and looked good enough that coach Pat Hill admitted this week that it could be Wylie's job.
Of course, the one team in America that will not be caught off guard by this -- Wylie's increased role and productivity -- is Wisconsin. Coincidentally, the Bulldogs' opponent Saturday in Madison. Wylie scored his first college touchdown in last year's Wisconsin game, a 47-yard blur down the middle. He later got hurt, the Bulldogs' offense imploded and they lost the game.
"Oh, they're going to be aware of me," Wylie says. "There's nothing I can do about that."
We might have seen the last days of Wylie going unnoticed, or at least underappreciated, and there have been many since he played at Granite Bay High. He went to a USC camp and he and Joe McKnight were the fastest players there. (Yes, the McKnight who now plays for USC.)
Wylie went to a Cal camp and was the fastest there. Same thing in San Diego. And again in Fresno. Everyone liked him until it was time to put a paper and pen in front of him, and then truly interested were suddenly New Hampshire and Montana and Wyoming.
"Nobody really wants the 5-9, white wide receiver," he says, chuckling.
The Bulldogs did want him, though, and are now being rewarded.
"You haven't even seen him get the ball more than three times a game," says Wylie's brother-in-law, Wes Ogles, whom Wylie and his brother lived with after their parents split up. "Wait until you start getting him 10 to 15 touches a game. He's that special."
It appears that wait is finished. The bowlegged speedster is ready to launch, flexors fully functioning.
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