Utah running back Devontae Booker grew up playing football with two brothers, one six years and the other 12 years his elder. So his introduction to the sport came through the lens of the smallest and youngest player on the field, and it was brutal. When Booker was about 12, he took frequent shots from 18- and 19-year olds in tackle-football games at the local park.
“He had no choice but to be tough,” Ronnie Booker, his father, said. “They’d tackle him hard, too. But he couldn't cry; he had to keep playing.”
The absorption of all that early physical punishment planted a seed in Booker. Now he's the one who inflicts the pain: Booker leads all Power 5 players with 1,235 yards after contact over the past two seasons.
"He fights for yardage," Stanford coach David Shaw said last year. "He drags guys."
Booker weighs 212 pounds, so he’s not considered gigantic for his position, but his 222-yard effort in Saturday's 30-24 win over California showcased a running style that’s simultaneously brutal and effortless, one that dishes out hurt at the same rate that it thrills with sizzling speed.
“Some guys are fun to tackle,” linebacker Jared Norris, Booker’s teammate, says. “But he’s not fun to tackle. And I can’t really explain why.”
Maybe it's because Devontae’s brothers rarely let up when he was young. Even if there weren’t enough players for a full game, Ahmad -- who is 12 years older -- would continually rifle a football at a young Booker from 15-20 feet away, challenging him to catch it one-handed. The game was called Bullet.
“He threw it really hard, and he made him catch it,” Ronnie remembers. “Devontae would pout. But hey, he can catch it like a wide receiver now. That’s very rare for a running back.”
It's clear Booker's formative years planted the seed for his development into one of college football's most versatile talents. But the journey from his roots to his present situation -- he has dreams of winning the Heisman Trophy and becoming a high selection in the 2016 NFL draft -- took anything but a linear path. Booker has traversed a prolonged, circuitous and often frustrating trail to college football stardom. But it's a journey that has transformed him as a father, a student and a player -- all while earning the full-fledged respect of his teammates.
Del Paso Heights, the northeastern Sacramento neighborhood where Devontae Booker grew up, is one of the city's most crime-ridden areas. Gun violence was a fixture in the running back's early life, and the scepter of trouble remains whenever he returns home to visit.
"Seeing people getting shot and killed, seeing my close friends getting killed right in front of me at a party -- for me, that was it," Booker says. "I decided that I just had to stay inside and out of the way. And whenever I'm back home, I talk to my friends during the day. But as soon as nighttime comes, I know it's time to go home."
Booker credits his parents, Ronnie and Francis, for helping keep him on the right path amidst all the trouble in his neighborhood.
"They are my role models," he says.
Booker starred at Sacramento's Grant High School, where he led the Pacers to a California state championship in 2008. But despite a senior season in which he racked up 2,884 rushing yards and 45 touchdowns, Booker wasn't heavily recruited coming out of high school.
"I really don't know why," he says.
It would ultimately take almost five years for Booker to actually suit up in a Division I football uniform.
He originally signed with Washington State, but a low SAT score prevented him from enrolling. Booker then studied hard for the ACT instead, and he delivered a strong composite score of 28 on that test. Booker was under the impression that he’d qualify to attend Fresno State if he delivered on the ACT, so he packed his bags for the move. But just one day before he was set to make the three-hour drive down California'a Highway 99 to college, Booker endured a gut punch: For reasons that were never made fully clear to him, he was told his application had missed an NCAA Clearinghouse deadline.
Booker's bags remained packed, but they stayed at his home in Sacramento.
"He was so frustrated with the Fresno State situation that he was ready to give up," his father says.
Booker took a year off from football in 2010 as he tried to gather himself. He then enrolled briefly at the College of San Mateo only to quickly transfer to American River College, located in his hometown of Sacramento. That's where Utah noticed Booker's dominant 2012 season in which he rushed for 1,472 yards and 15 touchdowns.
American River coach Jon Osterhout, then the Beavers' offensive coordinator, thinks Booker is the most complete back he has ever seen at the junior college level.
Booker finally enrolled at Utah in 2014. But the start of his time in Salt Lake City was anything but easy.
"I was getting a cold shoulder," he says. "I was the new kid on the block."
Ronnie Booker remembers his son calling home three times a day during that time. Devontae was frustrated by his initial role as a backup and his inability to immediately integrate with his new teammates, and he wanted to quit.
"I told him, 'Devontae, you have it,'" Ronnie says. "'Trust me on this. You've come too far. This is where you wanted to be. You made it. You're not coming home now. If you want to start, you have to fight for playing time.'"
Booker heeded his dad's advice. As the season progressed, the phone back in Sacramento rang with lessening frequency. By Week 4, Booker was Utah's featured running back, racking up 178 yards on 7.4 yards per carry in the team's Pac-12 opener.
Now, about a year later, Booker remains in a good place. Coach Kyle Whittingham calls him Utah's undisputed offensive "centerpiece." There's a humble, soft-spoken, all-credit-goes-to-my-teammates style to him, but a star's bravado also occasionally shines through.
"I'm planning on rushing for 2,000 yards and winning the Heisman," Booker said before the season.
Glimmers of that confidence seem necessary to fuel Booker's explosive yet rugged running style, which leaves a puncher's imprint on the game with every single touch.
Booker lives in Salt Lake City with his girlfriend, Destiny, and his two year-old son, Deashon.
"He's my inspiration to go out there each day, work hard and be successful," Booker says. "Just seeing the things he does, they're the same thing[s] I used to do as a kid."
As for dad, well, he's still riding the football skills he built when he was a kid. Booker unleashed his first 200-yard performance of the season this weekend. If the Utes hold onto their current position atop the Pac-12 South and play in the conference title game, he's on pace to rush for nearly 1,900 yards, so those Heisman dreams remain intact.
But perhaps most impressively, Booker has fully corralled the academic issues that plagued him for so many years. He has a strong relationship with Utah running backs coach Dennis Erickson, and Booker heeded his advice to skip last year's NFL draft and return to finish his degree this year.
Booker isn't just barely skating by in the classroom, either: He qualified for the All-Pac-12 Academic team last year, and he's on track to finish his sociology degree this December.
"I'm loving school, man," Booker says. "I have all the resources I need here that I didn't have before. I have the support to help get me through hard assignments."
He's especially grateful to Utah's Burbidge Family Athletics Academic Center, which, on top of providing him with encouragement and support to tackle schoolwork, has also inspired him to give back to his Sacramento community and deliver a support system that he thought was lacking in his neighborhood growing up.
"My goal is to build a Boys and Girls Club in Del Paso Heights," Booker says. "As kids, we didn't really have anywhere to go. Everyone was out in the streets. My sociology degree is important to me. After football, I want to counsel kids in the neighborhood."
Booker sees his NFL dreams as an opportunity to pave the way for those long-term goals, so football comes first now. And that's more than fine with undefeated Utah, a team that's aiming for a championship this year on Booker's back.
Booker's path has earned him his teammates' greatest respect. Just this past weekend, defensive back Boobie Hobbs used Booker as the reason to justify why Utah should be ranked the No. 1 team in the country.
"We have to tackle Devontae Booker in practice," Hobbs said. "So we're not afraid of anyone."
Some laughter circled around the room, but Hobbs wasn't joking. His thought echoed the dynamic in Booker's childhood, when the young running back wasn't afraid to smash into his bigger brothers at the park.
His growth has led to a full-circle role reversal: After an arduous journey, Booker himself is now the powerful presence, strengthening those around him.