Glenbard West grad Pierce has become one of NFL’s best deep threats for the Colts
If anyone out there is surprised by Glen Ellyn native Alec Pierce becoming a successful NFL wide receiver with the Indianapolis Colts, imagine how his old coaching staff must feel.
At the end of his freshman season at University of Cincinnati, Pierce was moved to linebacker. While the Bearcats prepared to face Virginia Tech in the Military Bowl, Pierce tested his defensive skills for a potential position change.
“Yeah, they were serious,” Pierce said this week in a phone interview. “I was a really good special teams player. They loved me, the coaches did. They wanted to find a way to get me on the field and I don't think our receiver coach at the time necessarily had too much of a vision for me playing.”
Who knows what would have happened if the move stuck. But it's safe to say Pierce wouldn't be leading the NFL in yards per reception (24.6) today.
“It was a cool experience,” Pierce said of playing linebacker. “I felt like I could do a lot of the stuff. The outside runs, the passes were great, but the inside run where I had to be the unblocked guy trying to slide in there and make the tackle, that was pretty tough. Not really a linebacker body type at that point. I would have had to gain probably 20 pounds.”
The following spring, coaches asked Pierce which position he wanted to play. He countered with whatever gets him on the field is fine, and the coaches' response was, “No, pick one.”
By that time, Cincinnati had a new receivers coach, Mike Brown, who is now at Notre Dame. So Pierce decided to try again at wide receiver. This time, he made 37 catches for 652 yards as a sophomore. In his senior year Pierce and the Bearcats played in the College Football Playoff against Alabama.
“(Brown) was a lot more technical, hands-on, really worked with us building technique, which is what I needed,” Pierce said. “I was really raw. He developed my game a ton.”
Fast forward to Sept. 22. The Colts are hosting Pierce's hometown team at Lucas Oil Stadium. He had one catch that day against the Bears, but it was a big one, 44 yards from Anthony Richardson.
What's interesting about that play was Pierce was defended by the Bears' best defensive back, Jaylon Johnson. According to Pierce, Johnson sniffed out the play and took away what he was trying to do.
“I run a million 'in' routes right there, that's a big third-down play (it was third-and-10),” Pierce said. “You get a smart cornerback like that, you try to get them to take the bait, take the cheese.”
Pierce was expecting to fake an in-route, then go deep. Johnson played tight coverage and didn't give Pierce a chance to even try to pull the inside fake.
“(Johnson) did a good job at the line, he got hands on me and was ready for that inside release, probably watching film,” Pierce said. “Our receivers coach always tell us you've got to have a Plan B. So right there, Plan A didn't work to hit that inside release. So I got his hands off, kind of threw them down. At that point it turned into a race. I like myself over most DBs in a straight-line race.”
Later in that game, Pierce made a play that would likely make his coaches at Glenbard West High School proud. On a 29-yard touchdown run by Jonathan Taylor, Pierce made the final block, against Johnson, that sprung his teammate into the end zone. The linebacker training paid off after all.
Pierce isn't one to say, “No one believed in me.” Though growing up, he admits becoming an NFL wide receiver was not on his radar.
“When I'm sitting there in middle school, I'm thinking about maybe starting on the freshman team,” he said. “We played UCLA at the Rose Bowl my first game (at Cincinnati) and my goal was to make the travel roster. I want to play in the Rose Bowl, because I was a huge Big Ten fan and that was really special to me.”