Southeast Missouri State football signee: Ryan Truvillion

Ryan Truvillion

The Basics

Name: Ryan Truvillion

High School: Park Hill High School (Kansas City, Mo.)

Position: Defensive lineman

Measurables: 6-foot-6, 265 pounds

Statistics:

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Profile

When Park Hill football coach Josh Hood arrived at the Kansas City, Missouri, school two years ago, Ryan Truvillion wasn't quite the 6-foot-6, 265-pound defensive lineman that signed to play football at Southeast Missouri State on Wednesday.

"He was a taller, lankier, rangy kid when we got here, but we bulked him up and got him up to about 245, 250 to play," Hood said. "Once we did that he became an unblockable kid out there and all of a sudden shot up the boards and was a first-team unanimous selection all-conference, all-district, all everything. I've got some great assistant coaches here and we put in a great defensive scheme that was very aggressive and allowed him to attack the quarterback and play in the backfield a lot. He wasn't just standing and posting up players. He became an aggressive player his senior year, and I think that got him to the next level, too."

Hood said he and his staff call Truvillion "Clay" because of how he was able to be molded so easily. After not receiving playing time as a junior, he recorded 85 tackles along with five sacks and 25 quarterback hurries during his senior campaign when the Trojans finished the season 12-1.

"He has all the physical gifts as far as that goes," Hood said, noting his wingspan is more than 7 feet. "He's a late bloomer, and he's still kind of molding himself as a player. It took him awhile to figure out the speed of the game, but once he did he was very flexible, a more explosive player for a guy his size. ... He understands the game pretty well and once he got the speed of it, his size is one thing that really intrigues all the coaches."

Truvillion, a student with a 4.0 GPA, was looked at more recently by multiple Ivy League Schools and received offers from Western Illinois, Missouri State, Northern Iowa and Illinois State, according to Hood.

He believes the biggest advantage the Redhawks' coaching staff had to snag Truvillion was that he came to a camp in Kansas City hosted by Southeast the summer before his senior year.

"So SEMO had a chance to see him early and [assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Eric] Burrow really saw him and the coaches liked him," Hood said. "They really liked his obvious size and the things he did well at their camp, but they were calling me and got a chance to visit with him early on, and I think that kind of made it to where Ryan felt very comfortable with them because that was the only program he had known for longer than the last [few] months. That was a program that got in early on him and they treated him and his family well, and that was on the first visit. I think he was able to take an opportunity to go to [Southeast] and they offered him all the money that they can. I really think the relationship with Coach Burrow had with him from the get-go, I think that made him feel comfortable throughout that whole process."