Skinner Puts Devotion In Motion Vandals’ Self-Made Menace Conditions Himself For Success

Ryan Skinner can’t remember the last time he missed a weightlifting session, a conditioning run or his flexibility exercises.

Maybe because he hasn’t.

He does remember missing one practice as a freshman at the University of Idaho. He had injured his shoulder in a collision with running back Joel Thomas.

That’s it?

“If I don’t work out or go for a run, somebody out there is getting better than me and that drives me crazy,” Skinner said.

That sounds like a load of malarkey until one considers the source. It seems inadequate to describe him as just a football player because his commitment to the game borders on obsession.

He enjoys all aspects - from the physical preparation to the psychological warfare on the field. He likes practice, of all things. He misses the first 30 minutes of Wednesday practices because of class and this irritates the senior linebacker from Lewiston.

“Everyone else is already warmed up and I have to go into team drills cold,” he says.

Men who have coached Skinner say he is the most focused player they have come across.

“He plays the way the game was meant to be played,” UI coach Chris Tormey said. “He’s so full of … joy, I guess is the right word, because he looks like he’s having the best time of his life on every play.”

“One in a million,” says former defensive coordinator Nick Holt.

“Nobody matches his desire to win, bar none, of anybody I’ve ever coached,” Lewiston High’s Nick Menegas said.

Even coaches who haven’t coached Skinner offer similar testimonials.

“He’s always around the ball and he has an enthusiasm for the game,” San Jose State’s David Baldwin said. “Great players have that aura about them. I love watching players like him.”

Baldwin said that before Skinner made 14 tackles and recovered a fumble in Idaho’s 17-12 upset of the Spartans last week.

“It’s a game like no other,” Skinner says. “I dreamt of being a football player all my life. That’s all I ever remember wanting to be.

“It takes absolutely everything you’ve got to play. For three hours on Saturdays, I’m having a ball, and it’s the only thing in the world that’s ever given me that feeling.”

Easy, Ryan, only a couple of more days until the Washington State game.

The Cougars game Saturday will be special for Skinner because he grew up in the shadows of UI and WSU. His former Lewiston teammate, Rob Rainville, starts on WSU’s offensive line.

“He was the one that was always doing all the talking on the field,” Rainville said. “He always had something to say and the play to back it up.”

Skinner’s devotion to conditioning is critical because, frankly, he wasn’t at the front of the line when linebacking genes were issued.

Idaho showed virtually no interest in Skinner, but Menegas wouldn’t let the school say no. He begged coach John L. Smith, the coach at the time, to take Skinner, and only then was Skinner given a partial scholarship.

Skinner played behind Jason Shelt for two years, but he didn’t spend that time idly. He reworked his body into that of a college linebacker with weights, running and most importantly, flexibility exercises that improved his foot speed.

“When I first came to Idaho, the trainer (Barrie Steele) called me ‘2-by-4’ because that’s how flexible I was,” Skinner said. “So they assigned me a student trainer who stretched me out two or three times a day and it’s helped loosen me up.

“I can take a tape of my freshman year and a tape from last year or this year and it’s a totally different person.”

Skinner made 132 tackles last year and was named to the second-team All-Big West Conference team. He already has a team-high 23 tackles in two games this season.

He occasionally goes overboard on the emotion scale. He was flagged for two personal fouls against San Jose State.

“For two years, every single game within the first 30 seconds, I had an official coming over and saying, ‘One more word from 44 (Skinner’s number) and he’s gone,”’ said Menegas, self-appointed president of the Skinner fan club. “And then I’d go to Ryan and he’d say, ‘Yes sir, I will not say a word,’ and he’s got that look in his eye like Eddie Haskell.

“But the officials liked him. He’s like one of those kids in a classroom that’s got so much spunk, but he’s kind of a pain.”

To be sure, Skinner often straddled the line between right and wrong - in football and in life - but he usually made the right decisions.

“He was a pleasurable handful,” Menegas said.

Skinner is trying to prevent future spillover of his competitive juices, but it’s not easy. He sheepishly admits to practice brawls with teammates that he wishes had never happened.

“I don’t want to be considered a trash talker or a dirty player,” he said. “Sometimes it doesn’t even register with me, and then I look at it the next day on film and I can’t believe I did that.”

He is the type coaches love on their team, but hate playing against.

“All those things about how big, how fast, how strong, they don’t mean a thing,” Holt said. “What means something is making plays. That’s how you evaluate a player. He makes plays.”

Because he’s made himself into a player.