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TAMPA — Perhaps the only thing bigger than the stories you hear about Jason Pierre-Paul is, well, Jason Pierre-Paul.
Yes, USF's 6-foot-6, 265-pound junior defensive end can do a standing backflip — in a helmet and pads — and land on his feet. And yes, there was that time in junior college when he left the field on a stretcher, went by ambulance to the hospital, then got a note from the doctor, came back and got some more sacks.
Offensive coordinator Mike Canales says he has "the longest arms in the world," and from one gigantic hand to the other, his wingspan measures 81 inches — that's 6-9, long enough to force a key fourth-quarter fumble to help clinch Saturday's 17-7 victory at Florida State.
"His arms are about as long as they come," said right tackle Jake Sims, who regularly lines up against Pierre-Paul in practice. "It's a huge thing. You can tell that every day, he's getting more confidence in how he plays, about learning the system. When he's 100 percent sure about the system and has his confidence, he's going to be scary. Real scary."
He was plenty scary Saturday, getting three tackles for losses, enough to be Big East defensive player of the week in his second career start. FSU quarterback Christian Ponder said both of USF's ends are going to play in the NFL, putting Pierre-Paul in the same breath as two-time All-American George Selvie, who might face fewer double teams if Pierre-Paul continues to improve on the opposite end.
"Jason Pierre-Paul, boy, did he show up," coach Jim Leavitt said after the game. "I told everybody he won't come into his own until about the fifth game. It still might be true. He showed things today that were pretty good."
For all the talk about a new Big Four in the state with USF staking a claim among traditional powers Florida, FSU and Miami, the real Big Four on Saturday were USF's defensive line. They put on relentless pressure, piled up five sacks of Ponder and held FSU to 19 total rushing yards.
"For me, now, I did this, so now I have to play even better than I've played before," Pierre-Paul said Tuesday. "For the defense, we have to keep stepping our game up, to show we're a dominant defensive line and nobody can stop us."
Pierre-Paul is hard to stop even when injured. His defensive coordinator at Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College, Russ Pickett, remembers Pierre-Paul's second game last year, when he hurt his neck on a play. He was immobilized, his helmet was cut off to avoid further neck trauma, and he went by ambulance to the hospital.
"People at the hospital said he jumped out of his bed and said, 'I've got to get back in the game,' " Pickett said. "He came back, got somebody else's helmet and got a couple of sacks."
Pierre-Paul explained that only 12 out-of-state kids get to suit up each game for Fort Scott, so he was worried if he didn't get back, he might not "make the 12" the next week. He said doctors ran tests and cleared him.
"I was going to walk back to the stadium. It wasn't that far," he said. "But somebody came and got me."
Fort Scott's trainers, understandably, didn't want to put him back in the game, but he showed them his paperwork, and they checked him out and let him back. More sacks ensued, and his pressure forced an interception that Fort Scott returned for the clinching score.
Pierre-Paul's path to USF wasn't traditional. The son of Haitian immigrants, he didn't take up football until his junior year of high school. He signed with UCF out of Deerfield Beach High, but didn't qualify academically and played at two junior colleges.
Pierre-Paul said he had offers from Florida, FSU, LSU, Arkansas and Georgia, but those schools needed him to spend another semester at Fort Scott and join them in January. USF told him if he worked hard and finished a heavy courseload in summer, he could join in August. It took all summer — he missed the first two weeks of preseason practice — but four games into the season, he's entrenched as a starter.
"They stuck by me from Day 1," Pierre-Paul said.
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