Devon Kell walked on at Oregon State, but the Beavers are giving him a memorable ride home today.

Five years and 51 pounds after he set out from Hilo devoid of any major college football scholarship offers, Kell returns today a compensated mainstay of the defensive line and poster player for the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl-bound Beavers.

"His is a great story," said OSU coach Mike Riley, who freely punctuates its telling with exclamation points. "I think a lot of this guy, he is just a special, special guy. who worked like crazy to become what he is."

But little of that was recognized or imagined when Kell graduated from Hilo High in 2009, a quarterback/defensive lineman and outfielder whose future seemed more headed toward the diamond. If he wanted to play football, schools told him, it would probably have to be at the Division II or III level, where he could dabble in both.

"That sounded like a good idea," Kell acknowledged before ultimately choosing to turn his back on the odds and follow his heart to an uncertain Division I future.  Even if it meant walking on all the way to Oregon State, one of the few schools that would even allow him the opportunity.

But if Kell barely knew where his playing days were headed he was dead solid sure of the route he would take to get there. He would treat every practice, every weightlifting session and film study opportunity as if his career depended on it. And it did. He devoted himself to adding muscle and retaining his quickness. He launched himself at being a smarter player and took pride in going the extra yard in drills and preparation.

But as he battled for and gained playing time, he also found himself competing against dwindling resources. It took about $32,000 a year to finance his dream of playing college football and pursuit of a degree in public health administration. That made for a mounting drain on a family with two younger sons heading into college even as he piled up student loans.

After his redshirt sophomore season, Kell said he resigned himself to going in and telling Riley he was just about tapped out.

"But he ended up telling me, ‘You don’t have to worry about that, we’re going to offer you a scholarship," Kell said. "I was so surprised that I waited until I signed the papers before I told my family."

But maybe the 6-foot-4, 246-pounder shouldn’t have been shocked. "You can see he had developed into a good football player and is a fine example of what we want in this program as far as character and talent," Riley said.

Kell got a chance to show some of that in a 33-14 victory over UH in Corvallis in September that included a sack of Taylor Graham. When his father, David, told him he’d heard the Beavers would play Boise State in the Hawaii Bowl, Devon said he barely believed him.

"I was like, ‘I don’t think so. Do you know what you’re talking about?’ " Kell said. "I mean, I’m a senior and this is my last game and where would I want to be but home? I had no clue it would end this way. It couldn’t be any better."

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.