Minium: Running Back Devin Roche Is the Comeback Story of the Year for ODU Football

By Harry Minium

ORLANDO, Fla. – Old Dominion’s football season has been something of a comeback story. After being blown out in successive weeks at archrivals Marshall and James Madison, the Monarchs won their last five regular-season games to clinch their first winning season since 2016.

But the individual comeback story of the year for ODU is a diminutive running back named Devin Roche.

In August, he suffered a severe injury that threatened to end his season. Then, in mid-August, Devin’s mother passed away.

The junior from Baltimore returned home to bury his mom, and that isn’t just a figure of speech. He literally had to arrange the funeral, including doing the eulogy, and settle her estate.

He was gone from ODU for nearly a month.

When he returned, not much was expected of Devin. He was injured, a little out of shape and still grieving his mother.

But the 5-foot-7, 166-pound redshirt freshman has made a miraculous comeback. He returned to the field in ODU’s 45-26 victory at Virginia Tech and has delivered in a big way for the Monarchs, who take on South Florida Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the StaffDNA Cure Bowl.

Devin’s season debut at Tech on Sept. 13 almost went awry as he fumbled early on. “He was trying to do too much,” said Tony Lucas, ODU’s assistant head coach and running backs coach.

But he returned late in the game and scored on a 15-yard run that gave the Monarchs a 45-7 lead. He got flagged for excessive celebration, but who could blame him after all he’d been through?

As he has worked himself back into shape, Roche has become one of ODU’s key offensive threats. In ODU’s five consecutive victories he rushed 69 times for 422 yards and three touchdowns and twice ran for more than 100 yards.

In ODU’s regular-season finale against Georgia State, in the annual Oyster Bowl game, he won the Melvin T. Blassingham Award as the game’s most valuable player. He rushed 21 times for 137 yards and two touchdowns and set up the go-ahead field goal in ODU’s comeback victory with a 47-yard punt return.

“I’m so proud of Devin,” Lucas said. “He’s become the kind of running back we thought he had the potential to become.

“The injury alone would have been difficult enough for him to come back from. But for him to come back from everything he went through, losing his mother, is kind of miraculous.”

Devin grew up in the Westport neighborhood of Baltimore, one of the city’s most challenged neighborhoods because of high poverty and crime rates. Many of Devin’s childhood friends are in prison.

Devin said he managed to get out of Westport without a criminal record and with good grades largely because of his mother, his family support system and the game of football.

“I started playing football when I was five years old,” he said. “My Mom wanted me to play football to keep me busy. It kept me out of trouble.”

His mother, Kaya Lewis, raised him as a single mom. And as a nursing assistant, she at times struggled to make ends meet.

She also struggled with kidney disease, and it was kidney failure that took her life.

CLICK HERE to see a tribute to Kaya Lewis.

“It was so sudden,” Devin said. “One day I’m talking with her on the phone." And then, a few days later, she went to the hospital and within a short time, she was gone.

“My Mom, she was one of a kind, man. She was a very warm-hearted person. She would give you the clothes off of her back. Every time she saw you, she would give you advice.

“She was a sponge. She soaked in knowledge and all the knowledge she gained, she spread it out amongst others. That was just the kind of person she was.”

Lucas said he had faith that Devin would recover from all of the adversity.

“He’s always wanted to be great, to be successful,” Lucas said. “His Mom, she was a fighter. Like a lot of moms, all she wanted was what was best for her son.

“He has an amazing ability to focus. He went home and was able to make sure his Mom had a proper sendoff, and then got right back into school and into practice.

"He's always had a strong religious faith and it has grown deeper since he lost his Mom. That has helped him cope with things."

Devin said Lucas has been a huge influence on him, and that may be in part because of the pain Lucas suffered 11 years ago when his wife, who was pregnant with his unborn daughter, died suddenly from a rare disease. 

"He listens to me because he knows I went through something very similar," Lucas said. 

Speaking at his Mom’s funeral, Devin said, was the hardest thing he’s ever had to do.

“There were a lot of eyes on me, a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a long time,” he said. “And my emotions were all built up. I had to hold those back to try to honor her in the way I know she would have wanted and the way she deserved to be honored.”

Devin credits his grandparents, Gay Lewis and Alton Smith, with helping to raise him.

“They are who I do this for,” he said. “For them and for my Mom.

“When I was younger, I stayed with them, so we have an amazing relationship. They’re very strong people. They continue to fight through (their grief) and I love them for that.”

His time back in Baltimore in August and September was full of not just grief, but stress. He searched for life insurance policies “and I couldn’t get my hands on them.” So, he raised money among family and friends to help pay for her funeral.

“God willing, we made it happen and said goodbye to her in the most beautiful way,” he said.

He said he never had any thought of not returning to ODU, even though doing so meant burning the midnight oil to catch up academically and extra time training and in the film room to catch up athletically.

“Getting back around the guys, the coaches, all of the support I have here at ODU, it was just awesome,” he said. “It felt second nature to be back here.

“I’ve always felt at home at ODU. That’s why I came here in the first place. The coaches, the players, they felt like family from the start.

He said the Oyster Bowl was the highlight of his season so far.

“That was the night that things came full circle for me,” he said. “I truly didn’t know what the Oyster Bowl was. But I will never forget that game.

“That night, I just reflected back on where I started my season mentally. Fast forwarding to the Oyster Bowl, I couldn’t begin to express my gratitude to everyone who helped me along the way.

“I couldn’t explain how grateful I was. I could not find the words.”

The trophy sits in his living room and “I’ll always keep it with me.”

The Monarchs are three-point underdogs to South Florida, an American Conference team that will have a ton of fans in the stands. Both teams are 9-3 and desperately want to get that tenth victory.

“We all want that ring, we want to stand on the field at the end of the game and raise the Cure Bowl trophy over our heads,” he said.

“We’ve been through a lot this season. We’ve shown we’re a gritty team.

“Winning this game means everything to me, everything to my teammates and to our coaches.”

And what an ending that would make to what is already an amazing comeback story.

ODU Bowl Season is presented by Miller’s Home Comfort. For over 40 years, Miller’s has remained a powerful presence in the Hampton Roads community. From our initial start as a simple oil company to our growth as one of the area’s leading heating, cooling, IAQ and plumbing businesses, we've thrived because our customers trust our knowledge, honesty, reliability and professionalism.

Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram

To see past stories from Minium, CLICK HERE