Intercepting a pass isn’t just about being at the right place at the right time.
Devin Grant, a safety on the University at Buffalo football team, puts together the pieces that go into making such a play.
It’s about reading the pass rush.
It’s about what the defensive line does to force a quarterback to make a decision: Does he throw the ball, scramble or get swarmed by defenders?
“If the quarterback is back there all day, I wouldn’t have time to dissect or even see him or read him and be in the right spot,” Grant said. “But it definitely starts with the pass rush. The pass rush goes big, into my interceptions.”
And, it’s about evaluating an offensive play and how it unfolds. Not just reacting to it, but making a split-second decision as a defensive back that puts you in a position to make that pivotal play, of catching a pass intended for an opposing receiver.
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“The challenge of it is going up there, and making a play,” Grant said. “Making that play, and executing.”
Grant, a sophomore from Elmont, is familiar with the process. He’s one of seven players who lead the nation with four interceptions, including his three interceptions last weekend in UB’s 37-13 win against Central Michigan.
The Bulls (2-4, 2-0 Mid-American Conference) host Bowling Green (2-4, 2-0) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at UB Stadium, and Grant has emerged as one of the top playmakers in the secondary. He’s done it with diligence, and with some help from a family member who’s an eight-year NFL player.
Los Angeles Chargers safety Dean Marlowe is Grant’s uncle, and played for the Buffalo Bills from 2018-20 and again last season. Marlowe is 12 years older than Grant, and in a way, considers Grant more like a son or a younger brother than as a nephew.
He watched Grant’s second and third interceptions last weekend against the Chippewas, after returning from an outing with his wife and children in Southern California.
“I saw the second interception, and said, ‘Two picks? It’s the second quarter!’ ” Marlowe said in a phone interview. “The third one? I stopped and said, ‘Dude is playing at a premium level right now.’ I can’t be more excited for him. It’s crazy just to watch him do this. I remember when he was playing Pop Warner football and I was playing high school football, and now he’s playing college football, and doing this? It’s crazy.”
Then, Marlowe laughed.
“Three interceptions? Now, I have to step my game up!”
Following his uncle’s path
Grant’s mother, Stephanie Blake, is Marlowe’s sister, and she went to all of Marlowe’s games at Holy Cross High School with Grant in tow.
Holy Cross coach Tim Smith remembers how Grant scampered through the stands as a toddler, and then started playing youth football when he was 6 years old.
Smith saw the investment Grant made into football. He watched film once a week, and struck up conversations with coaches about their upcoming opponents, and what their strengths and weaknesses were – conversations Smith didn’t necessarily have with other high school football players.
In a game against Mount St. Michael Academy, Grant lined up against a slot receiver that he’d quizzed others about. Smith said Grant noticed the same tendency each time his opponent, wide receiver Jabril Carter, lined up in the slot.
“Devin would say, ‘Jabril’s in the game! Jet sweep!’ ” Smith said of Carter, who is now a freshman on the Fordham football team.
“He comes from an athletic family, but what makes him a Division I athlete is his competitiveness. He’s very, very competitive. He doesn’t want to be second-best.”
Rated as the No. 2 recruit in New York by 247Sports for 2022, Grant held scholarship offers from Army, Fordham, Stony Brook and James Madison.
Marlowe graduated from Holy Cross in 2010 – Smith was his high school defensive coordinator – and played at James Madison from 2010 to 2014. One of his coaches was Maurice Linguist, who is now in his third season as UB’s head coach and was a defensive backs and special teams coach for the Dukes in 2009-11.
Only a few weeks after taking over as UB’s head coach, Linguist scouted Grant at a Rutgers football camp in the summer of 2021. The fact that Grant was Marlowe’s nephew was a coincidence, both said. Grant committed to join the Bulls in July 2021 … and Marlowe announced Grant’s commitment on social media.
Can’t be more proud lil bro! Love you 🤟🏽❤️@DevinGrant2022
— Dean Marlowe (@machine_marlowe) July 2, 2021
It’s just the beginning .. ⏳@CoachMo15 pic.twitter.com/L5gLNg68q4
“It was a phenomenal recruiting win, for us,” Linguist said of Grant. “Right now, everyone else is recognizing the things that we have been talking about, about his caliber of play. Everybody’s going to talk about his interceptions, but he’s the first one in and last one out here. He’s watching film. And he’s developing practice habits in a really healthy way. He’s scratching the surface.”
Preparing for a breakout year
Grant had nine tackles in eight games in 2022 as a freshman, including a start in the Camellia Bowl in December.
UB’s spring break began March 20, in the middle of spring practices. Rather than heading to Florida or returning to Long Island for a few days of homecooked meals, Grant headed to California, to train with Marlowe. Grant brought his football helmet, and worked with Marlowe and his personal trainers on mobility drills, injury prevention steps and weight training.
Marlowe asked him about UB’s 4-2-5 defense, and dispensed some advice to his nephew. Use your height – Grant is listed at 6-foot-4, 190 pounds – to your advantage. The best availability is your availability. Keep your body right.
“It was like a spring break where he didn’t need to go to the beach,” Marlowe said. “He knew this was his chance to earn a starting role and prosper.
“To see him at 19, to make that decision to train, over a lot of different situations, that wasn’t surprising because he knows what it takes. I tell him, ‘If you want to be different, you have got to do different things to go to the next level.’ He takes that to heart.”
Grant has started at safety in four of UB’s first six games, and he’s picked up where Marcus Fuqua – UB’s second starting safety – left off last season. Fuqua, a fifth-year senior, was one of two players who led the nation with seven interceptions in 2022.
“Me and Marcus are close, and he’s the older guy, so I look up to him, in certain aspects,” Grant said. “He’s told me, watch film, work on technique, and he showed me how to read a quarterback at the college level.”
Marlowe has continued to dispense advice to Grant, including one morsel that’s been especially relevant: Don’t think about what happened the previous week.
UB is one of three teams tied for first in the MAC East Division; the Bulls, Miami (Ohio) and Ohio are each 2-0 in conference games. When UB was 0-4 after a 45-38 loss Sept. 23 at Louisiana, Marlowe texted his nephew some advice:
“Don’t give up,” Marlowe said, recalling the text message he sent to Grant. “If you have to be the leader of the team to get everyone going, think about it: Why shouldn’t it be you?”
Honors for week of Oct. 9
- Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week
- Walter Camp Football Foundation FBS National Defensive Player of the Week
- Paycom Jim Thorpe Award National Defensive Back of the Week
- Mid-American Conference East Division Defensive Player of the Week