Senior Devon Sutton Reflects On His Time At ECU

Bittersweet was the emotion that trickled out of the black metal gates of the Cliff Moore Practice Complex Wednesday morning. Smiles stretched across the face of each senior as they rounded out their media interviews. The same question repeated in each conversation. "How is Saturday's game going to feel to you?"

The senior Pirates will play their final home game in the "Fick," as they call it, against the UConn Huskies. Some of them have spent four or five years in the program, some only a couple, but, the feelings are the same.

One senior, Devon Sutton, said, "It's going to be humbling. I'm definitely grateful for the opportunity to play one last game in the Fick." Like many of the seniors' reactions, Sutton said he is going to enjoy the moment and try to take it in one step at a time.

Despite the emotions senior day brings, Sutton, a 2015 walk-on, said, "It's exciting, but you know… you still have to be locked in and you still have to do your job."

After years of balancing a difficult schedule with his major and being a student-athlete, Sutton can finally put all of his focus towards his senior football season. A May graduate, Sutton received his degree in design with a concentration in architectural design.

Design came into Sutton's life after a love for drawing led him to take his first drafting class in high school. "We had a huge competition in the drafting class where we competed building a skyscraper," Sutton said. From that moment on, Sutton said he was "all in" and found out ECU had a design program.

Prior to this season, balancing his two passions of football and design led to Sutton missing out on vital practice days and not being able to spend as much extra time on football as he had liked. "You're definitely going to have some late nights and early mornings and squeezing in time throughout the day between meetings and class where you can try to do homework," Sutton said.

Despite less time on the practice field, Sutton makes up for it on game days. Last season, Sutton, who plays the unique position of nickel back, finished third in tackles and is among the top two on the team in 2018.

Like drawing, Sutton has had a passion for football from a young age. When he was seven, his mother tried to get him to play a little bit of everything, but all he wanted to do was play football. Today, he says his parents are beyond proud of his football career.

"They've supported me the whole way," Sutton added, "I know this one is going to be very special for them."

Earlier in 2018, Sutton was put on scholarship after three seasons with the team, one as a redshirt. "It was a lot of hard work for that and I'm just extremely thankful for my teammates and their support of me the whole way," said Sutton.

The Pirates go into this weekend's game with a 2-7 record. "It's been a good one, you know," Sutton said of his final season. Laughing, he continued, "the season didn't go the way we would have wanted it of course, but, it's just about enjoying every moment and enjoying the brotherhood that we have here." Including this season, Sutton said his time here has definitely been tough but worthwhile. Working his way up on the depth chart from a walk-on to a starter, he had one takeaway from the last four and a half years: "Weather the storm. You have to fight through adversity."

As far as what the future holds for Sutton, he said he definitely wants to go onto the next level and will continue training in the spring. With an impressive major in his back pocket, Sutton has also spent this fall looking into different graduate schools to get his master's in architecture.

"I really like UNC Charlotte's program, they have a really good one," Sutton added, UNCC being back home for him and close to his parents.

For now, Sutton has one message going into his final home game with his fellow seniors and teammates, "Go Pirates!"

- Danyel Beaver

Players Mentioned

Devon Sutton

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