When Alex Victor arrived at Allegheny for training camp his freshman year he searched for his name on the initial depth chart. He found it — all the way at the bottom.

But it took two plays for the Gators to figure out they needed to get him the ball, Allegheny head coach B.J. Hammer said. Two days later he was at the very top.

“You do get some guys (that) discourage you, they’ll underestimate you and you just got to go out there and prove it,” Victor said. “And that’s what I love to do: Prove them wrong, play to the best of my ability.”

To Victor, having to prove himself is nothing new. The wide receiver is listed at 5-foot-8. As a senior in high school, he was only 5-foot-6. His height, which many people from the outside assumed to be a barrier, didn’t stop him from leading G. Holmes Braddock (Florida) High School in both rushing and receiving yards. In more than two years at Allegheny, he’s earned first team All-NCAC honors and holds the school records for receiving yards (1,037) and touchdowns (15) in a season, topping the career touchdown leaderboard with 26.

Courtesy of Allegheny Athletics

Heading into the 2016 season, Allegheny — which had a winning tradition through the late 1980s and 1990s (including the 1990 Division III football championship) — was struggling. It had gone 1-29 from 2013-2015. Hammer, who took over in 2016, looked for players to help flip the script. Victor was undervalued because of his size and “not a lot of people were looking at him,” Hammer said, since he played for a small high school. The thought of playing for a rebuilding program equally intrigued Victor.

“I’m pretty sure if he was just like at least 4 inches taller than what he was, or two inches taller maybe, he would probably be somewhere in SEC play,” his teammate Dwaine Barber said.

The key to his success has been speed. Victor’s 40-yard dash time is at worst 4.3 seconds, Barber said. Only 15 NFL players have ever run a sub 4.3 time in the NFL Combine.

He’s more than just speed, though. Pound per pound, Victor is one of the strongest players Hammer said he’s ever coached. He has a reserved personality, but Victor has become a leader on the team. As a junior he was voted captain by his teammates.

“Everyone looks up to him,” Barber said.

Playing both running back and wide receiver in high school, the team likes to use Victor similar to how the Kansas City Chiefs use Tyreek Hill — a 5-foot-10 speedster nicknamed “cheetah” who started his career at Garden City Community College.

This involves getting him the ball as much as possible whether it be jet sweep handoffs, bubble screens or normal routes. With a prototypical wide receiver, defensive coordinators can resort to double coverage or shadowing. When teams try to stack against him, Barber said it doesn’t really work. By the time they hear “hike” Victor is already 20 yards down field beating the safeties.

“Speed kills, man,” Hammer said.

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There isn’t much a defensive coordinator can do if you move an offensive player all over the field, Hammer said. Even if a player is designated to follow him around all game, the defense is then sacrificing in another area and allows Allegheny’s other WR’s to get open.

Hammer said he understands why teams might have passed on Victor. Unless a player is “out-of-this-world incredible” it’s hard for recruiters to bring a guy 5-foot-8 or shorter to the table, he said.

“Not that Alex isn’t,” Hammer said. “But that’s hard to do if you’re taking a kid at Miami or Syracuse or one of those bigger schools … so they got some guys like that who are 6’4. But Alex plays big for us. That’s what matters.”

Victor knew entering college that it’s not a given his high school success would translate. His height didn’t help — but his speed is an intangible that can make the difference. Victor knows to focus on what he does have, not what he doesn’t.

“That’s just something that I keep in mind each time that maybe some people don’t even have the same opportunities that I do,” Victor said. “And me being small just adds more passion for the game that I play.”

Published on September 24, 2018 at 9:57 pm

Contact Eric: estorms@syr.edu