Clyde grad Devin Lee commits to Youngstown State

Devin Lee didn't want to let his second chance go to waste. So when he arrived at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas, he attacked everything with more vigor — the books, the practice field, the weight room. It all paid off on Thursday, when Lee announced his commitment to play Division I football at the FCS level at Youngstown State. "I was really just blessed," Lee said. "My main goal was to just not let my second opportunity slip away." Lee, a 2019 Clyde graduate, was a third-team All-Ohio selection as an offensive lineman as a senior following the 2018 football season. He played parts of three seasons at Coffeyville as a defensive tackle, first in fall 2019, then spring 2021 and fall 2021. "I'm very proud of how hard he has worked to get himself to this point," Clyde coach Ryan Carter said via text. At 6-foot-3, 285 pounds, Lee totaled 32 tackles, including five sacks, in Coffeyville's most recent season. The Red Ravens went 6-3, their best record of Lee's tenure, and won the Jayhawk Conference title this fall. Lee chose YSU over offers from two other FCS programs, Eastern Illinois and Stony Brook. He will have two years of eligibility with the Penguins. "I just couldn't say no to the facilities," Lee said. "They've got a lot of great facilities, especially for that level." At Clyde, Lee played center in front of Ryan Lozier, who quarterbacked Clyde to a state championship the year after Lee graduated. Defensively, Lee paired with Andy Adams in the defensive interior. "He's just huge," Lozier said. "He was strong. You always had to know where he was on the field at all times... I compare (Lee and Adams) a lot to (current Clyde seniors) Blue Norman and Walker Britt. Those are two absolute dudes in the middle of that defense." Back then, Lozier said, Lee talked about making it to the Division I level. But he wasn't getting the looks he hoped for, and so he went off the beaten path. "Give him a lot of props, because the juco way is not the fun way," Lozier said. "It's not the easy way. It takes a lot out of you... He left everything he had here to chase his D-I dream." For Lee to play beyond Clyde, he needed some good fortune. A member of the Akron football staff, Oscar Rodriguez, stopped by Clyde when Lee was still in high school and noticed his potential. Lee wasn't eligible academically through the NCAA clearinghouse at that point, but Rodriguez had a connection to Coffeyville. "He's really the reason why I got a chance at Coffeyville," Lee said. Lee said he didn't want to take a Division II or III opportunity out of high school because his hope had always been to go D-I, and so he made what Google Maps says is a 13-hour drive across the Midwest to keep that dream alive. "I didn't want to sell myself short of my dream," Lee said. COVID-19 meant that Lee and his team didn't play at all in 2020 after he'd started in 2019 as a freshman. Then the Red Ravens took part in an unusual 2021 spring season before things were somewhat back to normal this fall. "I really took my schooling more seriously when I got to my juco," Lee said. "My work ethic changed, got a lot more intense. I started taking things a lot more seriously." Youngstown State noticed Lee after he released his mid-season highlights, he said. "That was when everything started to pick up, they touched base with me," Lee said. The Penguins, who went 3-7 this fall, compete in the Missouri Valley Conference, the top league at the FCS level (formerly Division I-AA). Jim Tressel got his head coaching start there and is currently YSU's president. The Penguins are now coached by Doug Phillips, and Lee will work closely with defensive line coach Kenny McClendon, who played at Central Michigan. "The folks around there are great," Lee said. "It's hard to find a program with those kind of people. They've got a lot of people bought in out there." Lee will also get the chance to play for the only Division I school known as the Penguins, and his mother is already ordering gear. "My D-I dreams are coming alive now," Lee said. "I'm blessed, for sure."