Idaho Defensive End Almost Swore Off Sax For Career In Football

Barry Mitchell never missed a football game growing up. He was always at the stadium early, warming up, putting on his game face.

You gotta be prepared to play saxophone in the pep band.

His late introduction to football came in his senior year of high school in Colorado. He set down the sax and made the second team, becoming a starter when a teammate was injured in the first game.

“My coach threw me in and said, ‘Get the quarterback,”’ Mitchell recalled. He would set a conference record with 20 sacks, launching a career that landed him at Idaho.

Now a junior, Mitchell has sprouted into an agile 6-foot-3, 250-pound defensive end whose priority on Saturday at 3:05 in the Kibbie Dome will be chasing down Montana quarterback Dave Dickenson, the leading candidate for the Payton Award.

Mitchell, meanwhile, is UI’s leading candidate to become a Renaissance Man. He fits the mold of a stereotypical football player about as well as Reggie White’s foot would fit in Cinderella’s slipper.

Mitchell likes to read autobiographies and laps up Vietnam documentaries because his father served in the Army during that time. His mother is Korean, his father black. “A lot of people think I’m Samoan,” he said.

Mitchell is on course to graduate this spring in political science and he plans on joining the Marines as an officer’s candidate next year - after his senior season - with the ultimate goal of becoming a U.S. marshal.

He befriends all of his teammates because, he said, “I don’t like to keep with the same clique day in and day out.”

He plays football not with crazed, rabid abandon, but a controlled passion. On the field, he smiles, laughs and cracks jokes with roommate/defensive tackle Dan Zeamer. “We make up a bunch of fake calls and the guys across from us are going, ‘What are they doing?’, ” Mitchell said. “Then we’ll do our regular thing.”

Last week, during the Eastern Washington game, Mitchell got into an exchange with an official. “I asked him, ‘Why do you always have to yell at us? We’re just trying to do our job just like you’re trying to do your job.’ He just smiled.”

Do not get the mistaken impression that Mitchell is a goof-off, or lacks talent. He came to UI at about 210 pounds, but has steadily added mass, in part by swilling a couple of teaspoons daily of a weight-gaining supplement, without losing his speed. He bench presses 400 pounds.

“He’s an amazing individual,” line coach Jim Senter said. “He’s got a diverse background and he’s into a lot of things.”

That’s all good and fine, but coaches ask much of their pupils, such as commitment, desire and, well, being a football player.

“Barry would probably be the first to admit he wasn’t real tough (when he arrived in Moscow),” Senter said. “He was a skinny, gangly guy and obviously, when you’re playing defensive line, that leans toward a lot of injuries. He’s had his challenges with that stuff.

“But he’s done a great job going in the weight room and working. He can be as good as he wants to be.”

Senter points out Mitchell could carry 270-280 pounds and still have mobility. On the other side of the defensive line from Mitchell is Ryan Phillips, an AllAmerican candidate with deluxe physical attributes.

“Barry may be overshadowed a bit because of Ryan, but Barry has just as much talent, maybe even more natural talent,” Senter said. “I can remember when I was looking at him on film (in high school) and I saw him running downfield on a kickoff. I said, ‘God, look at that guy run.’ Then I found out he was a defensive lineman.”

A defensive lineman, with a free spirit curious to the world around him.

“I do enjoy (football), but it took me a while to enjoy it. This year we may not be as successful as last year, but when I’m out there, it’s fun and games,” said Mitchell, who was second on the team with 8.5 sacks last year and shares this year’s lead with 3.5.

“I look at football in a different way. A lot of guys go out there angry and mean. That’s not my style. I go out there with a smile. A lot of people get angry with me, but that the way I do it.”

And yes, he still plays the sax.

, DataTimes