Sun Devil’s Size Is No Big Deal

The last of Scott Von der Ahe’s four-syllable last name was not yet out and already the NFL scout was talking about the Arizona State inside linebacker.

“Oh yeah, we know about him,” said Billy Devaney, the Chargers’ director of player personnel. “His size, really that’s about the only question there is about him. Because of his size [6 feet, 250 pounds], everybody’s going to be comparing him to Zach Thomas, the linebacker last year from Texas Tech. Production-wise, he’s on par with Thomas.”

Thomas, the Miami Dolphins’ middle linebacker who was the sleeper of this year’s NFL draft, was voted to the Pro Bowl and appears headed for AFC defensive rookie of the year honors.

Von der Ahe and his Arizona State teammates are headed for a Rose Bowl showdown with Ohio State on Jan. 1 in Pasadena.

“Thomas didn’t test well and Scott probably won’t either,” Devaney said, “but Thomas’ instincts make him play so much faster than everybody else. Von der Ahe is like that too. You watch the films and Von der Ahe just keeps showing up and making plays. Everybody’s seen him and everybody is aware of him.”

Everybody except Pacific 10 coaches, who left the leading tackler on the conference’s top-ranked defense off the all-conference team. They voted Von der Ahe honorable mention All-Pac 10.

Von der Ahe didn’t take the news well.

“That’s a bunch of [crap],” he said. “We led the conference in almost every statistical category and we only had one player [Derrick Rogers] make first team? I know I shouldn’t care so much, but that’s a slap in the face by the coaches of the Pac-10. I don’t even think the coaches know who the players are.”

Said Arizona State defensive coordinator Phil Snow: “That was ridiculous. You watch Scott play and then you watch the other middle linebackers in this [conference] and he’s the best one there is. I guess we’re pretty good coaches because we must not have any good players.”

Arizona State Coach Bruce Snyder was equally outraged.

“What a crime. It’s really a crime. Of the eight major offensive and defensive categories, we were first in every one but passing offense. And we get one player on first team defense.

“Von der Ahe and Derek Smith are two of the best players in the United States. It’s staggering that neither one of them made all-conference. I don’t know why that happened.”

For Von der Ahe, the snub by Pac-10 coaches brought back painful memories. After his senior season at Mission Viejo High, Von der Ahe was not picked by the coaches for the Orange County All-Star Game. College coaches didn’t think much of him either.

“I got one letter, from South Dakota State, and I ripped it up,” he said. “I wasn’t going to play football anymore until Don Butcher called me.”

Butcher, the linebackers coach at Saddleback College, wouldn’t have seen him play had Von der Ahe not been a last-minute replacement for an injured player on the South all-star team.

“Scott had only practiced for one day and he finally got in the game in the fourth quarter,” Butcher said. “There was a swing pass to one side of the field and Scotty ran this guy down like a wolf going after a rabbit. I said, ‘If he can run that fast, I want him.’ ”

But getting Von der Ahe on the field wasn’t quite that simple.

“I had to hound him to death to get him up here,” Butcher said.

Von der Ahe said he wasn’t exactly hounded.

“I didn’t think I was good enough,” Von der Ahe said. “I didn’t care that much. But I was probably not that serious about not playing again. I mean, this kind of gets in your blood. [Butcher] talked me into it pretty easily.”

Von der Ahe was an immediate hit. His freshman year, he helped lead Saddleback to an undefeated season and the J.C. Grid-Wire junior college national championship.

“In the championship game, we hooked Scotty up with their tailback in man-coverage the whole game,” Butcher said. “He proved right there he could play.”

As a sophomore, Von der Ahe was named Mission Conference defensive player of the year. This time, college coaches took note. He was recruited by Pac-10 and Big Ten teams before he decided on Iowa. But the corn fields didn’t agree with Von der Ahe. Within six months, he was gone.

“It was nothing against the coaches,” Von der Ahe said. “It was real far away from home and I just wasn’t comfortable.”

When Von der Ahe started looking around for a Pac-10 team, Arizona State was ready with an offer.

“I liked everything about ASU--great weather, great facilities,” said Von der Ahe, who also considered Oregon, Arizona and San Diego State. “I even liked stupid little things, like their colors. They had the same maroon and gold colors that I had in high school and college. I guess it was some kind of fate. I look like a genius now.”

Then, Von der Ahe admits, he looked like a fool.

“I thought it was the worst decision I ever made,” he said. “I was on the scout team. I got hurt and had surgery on my shoulder. It wasn’t any fun. It was horrible.”

It was Coach Bruce Snyder’s third season in Tempe. Von der Ahe was a redshirt because he had transferred and the Sun Devils went 3-8.

Suddenly, the corn fields didn’t look so bad.

“I had regrets about leaving Iowa for quite a while,” he said. “I remember that first day I tried to get on the bus and go back to Iowa. I felt like I had let the Iowa coaches down.”

Finally, Von der Ahe let himself off the hook.

“I figured a lot of people go through worse things than me,” he said. “And even when I wasn’t doing well, the players always made me feel at home.”

Comfortable and equipped with a healthy right shoulder for the first time in two years, Von der Ahe won a starting linebacker job on the third day of fall practice. He’s never given it back.

As a junior, Von der Ahe had 92 tackles, three sacks and two interceptions as the Sun Devils went 6-5 and missed out on a bowl berth by blowing a fourth-quarter lead to Arizona. This season, the Sun Devils have blown away teams with their wide-open offense and attacking defense, which has been led by Von der Ahe’s 106 tackles.

“Last year was a learning experience for Scott,” Snow said. “He played well, but it was my first year as defensive coordinator and he was learning. This year, he’s been more comfortable. This defense is designed for that guy to make a lot of plays, and he has. He makes two or three plays a game just on his speed.”

In Arizona State’s 19-0 upset of Nebraska, Von der Ahe had eight tackles before leaving in the third quarter because of leg cramps. Von der Ahe said the tone for the season was set the night before the Nebraska game.

“All the players met and talked about how no one believed we could win,” he said. “The guys started getting emotional and went crazy. It about turned into a riot. That night, we knew we could become a great football team. We basically said, ‘Screw everybody else. Let’s go out and play.’ ”

Von der Ahe said he and his teammates will take that same attitude into Pasadena with them. The oddsmakers list undefeated Arizona State as a two-point underdog to once-beaten Ohio State. Those same oddsmakers also listed Arizona State as a 23 1/2-point underdog to Nebraska.

Von der Ahe said oddsmakers and Pac-10 coaches who left him and his teammates off the all-conference team are doing the Sun Devils a favor.

“That’s what this team thrives on, people doubting us,” said Von der Ahe, whose voice rose a few octaves with every word. “We just love it. It makes me angry. I’m excited to play this game. I’m re-motivated.

“If we can beat Ohio State and get some help from Florida, we can be national champions. That’s pretty good for a team people still don’t think is that good. But we’re no fluke, that’s for sure.”

Snow said Von der Ahe is no fluke either. No matter how short he is.

“These scouts have measurements at each position,” Snow said. “They like their linebackers to be a certain size and speed. He won’t fit their 6-2 requirement for height. People get so enamored with size and speed, the bottom line is, can he play football?”

Devaney sounds convinced. But Von der Ahe said USC Coach John Robinson might need some more convincing.

“I had 15 tackles against USC and dominated their tight end the whole game,” Von der Ahe said. “And John Robinson didn’t even know what number I was.”

For Robinson and the other eight Pac-10 coaches’ benefit, Von der Ahe’s number is 50.