Now, he’s in position to deliver on his promise.
Cast away from the University of Iowa football team because of academic failings 15 months ago, Spievey, a sophomore cornerback from Middletown, Conn., is set to start the Hawkeyes’ season opener Saturday against Maine.
“That doesn’t shock me a bit,” Kevin Twait, Spievey’s coach at Iowa Central Community College last season, said with a laugh. “He was a first-team All-American for us. They only pick 24 of those in the whole nation from all the fine junior college football players. He was an All-American for a reason.”
Spievey (pronounced Spuh-vay) always has had a knack for making plays on the football field. He was the Connecticut state player of the year in 2006 after rushing for 1,642 yards and 26 touchdowns and picking off seven passes while leading Xavier High to a state championship as a senior. He came to Iowa as a defensive back and redshirted his first season on campus.
Things didn’t go well.
He got home sick, physically ill and nearly went home. His performance in the classroom suffered, and in June of ’07, coach Kirk Ferentz announced Spievey was leaving the team.
He had a choice to make. He wanted to play, so he could either go back East and get his grades in order and try to return to Iowa that way or he could stay in the Midwest and find a junior college where he could grow his game and fix his grades.
Getting back to Iowa always was the end goal. Spievey’s girlfriend from back home followed him out here and is in pharmacy school at the U of I, and his mother, Romonda, had really bought in to Ferentz’s program during the recruiting process.
So, just as former Hawkeye Clinton Solomon did a few years back, Spievey landed at Iowa Central, a community college with a good football tradition located three hours northwest of Iowa City in Fort Dodge.
“I wanted to stay away from all the distractions (of going home), because I might not have come back all the way across the country,” said Spievey, the first in his family to go to college. “I wanted to make sure my mind stayed on football and school at Iowa.”
Spievey thrived in his one season with the Tritons, dominating his Midwest Football Conference foes. Yeah, it wasn’t the Big Ten, but his numbers were ridiculous.
He intercepted seven passes, returning one for a score and racking up 242 return yards. On special teams, he was even better, blocking five punts and averaging 39 yards per kickoff return, taking two back for touchdowns.
In a game against North Iowa Area Community College, Spievey was thrown at five times. He intercepted three of them. In a game against Rock Valley, he had a 94-yard interception return and a 96-yard kickoff return — on consecutive plays, one to end the first half, the other to start the third quarter.
He helped lead Iowa Central to a 9-2 record, a No. 7 national ranking and a win in the Graphic Edge Bowl. All through it, Twait said, Spievey stayed humble, not big-timing anyone at the lower level.
And the most important stat: He earned 3.0 grade-point average and an associate’s degree that punched his ticket back to Iowa.
“He knew, in order to get back there, he had to be successful in three arenas here,” Twait said. “Coach Ferentz made if awfully clear that socially, academically and athletically things had to go well. Not just in one or two of those areas, but in all three of them.”
Spievey didn’t practice with the Hawkeyes in the spring. He had to wait until he got his second semester grades back to be admitted. But he joined the team in summer workouts and went to camp in early August.
He wasn’t even listed in the two-deeps then. But when the depth chart for Saturday’s opener was released Tuesday, Spievey’s name was at the top of the list at right corner, ahead of sophomore Jordan Bernstine, who showed a lot of potential as a true freshman last season.
“He’s been good,” Ferentz said of Spievey. “He’s been getting better every day. He’s done a lot of good things. He’s got a lot of work to do, but he’s doing well.”
“He’s improved so much from the beginning of camp until right now,” receiver Colin Sandeman added. “He was a little rusty at the beginning of camp, but by the end of camp, he was one of our top corners.
“You could tell at the start of camp he was just trying to get his feet wet. Having been here before, he knew what was going on, but it was just getting back in the rhythm. By the end of camp, he’d taken big strides.”
For now, Spievey is content to be back at Iowa, eager to prove he belongs, to show last year’s numbers weren’t simply a result of playing against inferior competition.
But he has grander visions beyond Saturday’s opener, this season and his college career. He wants to make it to the NFL, sign a contract and take care of his mother.
Twait says he has the mentality — and ability — to do it.
“He’s one of those corners. He likes that, being out on the island where it’s mano y mano,” Twait said. “I wouldn’t bet against him, either. He’s pretty outstanding. I’m not saying Amari’s going to go to the NFL, but he has that kind of potential if he keeps getting better.”
Eric Page can be contacted at (563) 383-2277 or epage@qctimes.com.
Amaris big sister wrote on Nov 23, 2008 10:16 AM: