By Pete Chiodo
As arguably the best running back to come out of the French Creek Valley Conference, former Lakeview star Deke Ison is better known for running himself ragged on the football field.
However, with his academic career at Youngstown State University winding down, Ison can now be found running himself ragged for a different reason.
“I’m just trying to graduate,” said a harried Ison by phone, who was in between study sessions at the library and crisscrossing the YSU campus searching for a misplaced flash drive that contained a term paper.
“I only have three classes, but they made them tough.”
Ison is aiming for a Criminal Justice degree with a focus on corrections and minor in pre-law, which has him thinking about moving on to law school or the police academy after graduation.
But there is also the possibility of a professional football career for the former Penguins fullback. And this could leave Ison with a tough decision to make in the coming weeks — whether to get a job in his field or stick it out on the football field.
The NFL draft begins today. However, Ison is realistic about his chances there.
“Getting drafted is going to be tough,” he said, “especially from the fullback point of view. The NFL takes so few. And even though I was happy to be a team player here (at YSU), I can’t help but think that that hurt my chances.”
During his four years with the Penguins, Ison didn’t make much of a splash on the stat books. A big change from his high school days, in which he destroyed just about every rushing record in the French Creek Valley Conference; including career yards (4,008), career touchdowns (42), yards in a season (2,277) as well as yards in a game (349).
For YSU, Ison carried the ball only 78 times for 280 yards and four touchdowns — stats he could have compiled in one or two games as a Sailor. He also had 66 career receptions for 592 yards and six touchdowns.
Yet, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a valued member of the Penguins offense. The 6-foot, 230-pound bulldozer was quite good at what he did. In fact, Ison was picked for the All-Gateway Football Conference’s first team twice in his career. He became the first Penguin offensive player to make the team as a sophomore. Then he earned back-to-back honors in his junior season.
“He was the best fullback in our conference,” said YSU assistant head coach and running backs coach Sam Eddy. “He was the best blocking fullback we’ve had in the 14 years that I’ve been here. Tremendous hands. He had as good a pair of hands as anyone on the team.
“Going into the spring, you look at your personnel, and you try to put your best 11 guys on the field. Deke was a guy that we couldn’t take off the field. We would even teach him to play some tight end, teach him some things where we couldn’t take him off the field.
Injuries and a little off-the-field silliness limited Ison’s playing time as a senior. This will also hinder his chances at being drafted.
Besides that, the top fullbacks in the nation won’t even get picked until the fifth or sixth rounds. And Ison is coming from a Division I-AA school with a lot of intangibles to his credit.
However, signing on as a free agent is still a possibility. He’s spoken informally with some NFL organizations — the Jacksonville Jaguars, the New York Giants, the Indianapolis Colts — who have seen him do his stuff at different workouts around the country.
And even if free-agent signing doesn’t pan out, there is still Canadian football or Arena football to consider. But here is where Ison gets hesitant.
“I’ve talked to every arena team,” he said. “Most of the teams I’ve talked to have been arena teams. My agent wants me to look at some teams in Canada. But that’s a tough thing for me personally.
“I’ve been going to school for five years. And if I don’t get drafted, then comes the issue: Do I want to play or use my degree, where I could possibly start out making $50,000 or $60,000 a year.”
“You never want to be that guy that had a great career in high school and college, but doesn’t know when to quit, who just hangs in there playing for bad teams, making no money, just because you don’t want to give it up.”
Pete Chiodo can be reached at 724-6370 ext. 275 or by e-mail at pchiodo@meadvilletribune.com.
