Breaking Through

The rotund coach with the intense eyes and the bushy gray mustache would not be denied. Munching on an apple and stopping every last member of his video staff while ambling through the Kenan Football Center, North Carolina coach John Bunting was looking for tape of his star defensive lineman. In particular Bunting wanted film from the Tar Heels' game last Sept. 8 against Texas. But it wasn't Julius Peppers, Carolina's All-America defensive end, whom Bunting was looking to show off. Rather, it was tackle Ryan Sims. "That [ Texas game] was the day when the light really clicked on for Ryan, when he played more physical than ever," recalls defensive-tackles coach Rod Broadway.

It also will be remembered as the day that Sims began to emerge from Peppers's shadow. Now Sims is climbing to the upper reaches of draft boards. Considered a middle-round selection before last season, he is likely to be a Top 10 pick in this weekend's draft. Coaches, front-office executives and scouts marvel at his quickness, intelligence and passion for the game. Peppers, a pass-rushing specialist, could go as high as second, but Bunting, who spent 19 years in the NFL as a player or coach, says, "People ask me all the time who I would draft if I could pick between Julius and Ryan. I tell them that plays leading to negative yardage are big, and a pass rusher like Julius can create a lot of them. But at this moment, there's no question that Ryan is a more complete player than Julius."

Sims, who has been living and training in Atlanta since leaving school in January, is not at all surprised by his meteoric rise to prominence. "I don't think people realized what I could do," he says. "I heard before my senior year that I would be a third-or fourth-round pick. I figured, that's fine, Julius will draw the scouts, and sooner or later they'll see me, too."

Sims is hard to miss, and that's not just because he goes 6'4" and 313 pounds. There aren't too many fundamentally sound, blue-collar defensive tackles like him: a durable wide-body who can excel in any defensive scheme, collapse the pocket, control the gaps and exploit one-on-one blocking. His charisma and character make him even more attractive to teams looking for fan-friendly, solid citizens. The nine teams that asked Sims to visit during an 11-day tour earlier this month—Arizona, Buffalo, Carolina, Dallas, the New York Jets, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Tennessee and Atlanta—had to like what they saw in his skills and vibrant personality. " Sims has great measurables for the position," says Dallas Cowboys director of scouting Larry Lacewell. "He's a good person, he plays hard, and you can plug him in right away and win."

Sims helped himself most in January at the Senior Bowl, which he'd considered skipping. He thought he'd already proved himself: An All-ACC senior campaign was followed by Defensive MVP honors in the Tar Heels' 16-10 Peach Bowl win over Auburn. Common sense, however, told him he needed to see how he stacked up against the top prospects. Smart move. According to scouts, only Fresno State quarterback David Carr, whom the expansion Houston Texans have said they will select with the first pick in the draft was as impressive as Sims. After watching him use an assortment of power and speed rushes during a drill one day Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Steve Sidwell a member of the North coaching staff told Sims to fake inside then club and rip, a move Sims had never attempted but was able to execute successfully. "The NFL is about performance," Sims says, "and if a guy is paying you $10 million to fake inside, club and rip, you do it. It's all about learning on the fly."

"He was very animated in the first one-on-one drill I saw, and I think he really wanted to prove something to himself," says Kansas City Chiefs president Carl Peterson. "He didn't back away from any offensive linemen, and there were good ones. He was relentless from the first drill to the last."

Sims can thank his parents, Ronnie and Sarah, for instilling in him the drive to excel. They raised him to dream big and gave him the space to grow. Ryan's candor? It came out of a weekly exercise in which Ronnie and Sarah sat with Ryan and his sister, Jessica, now 17, in the living room of the family's Spartanburg, S.C., home and encouraged the children to air their gripes for one uncensored hour. Ryan's good manners? Ronnie wanted his son to be a gentleman so he made him open doors for Jessica whenever the family went out. Ryan's leadership skills? When Ronnie coached Ryan's youth-league football teams he repeatedly told his son to give 110% because the other kids were watching him.

Ronnie, who spent three years pitching at the Class A level in the Boston Red Sox organization, blew out his right arm in 1975, so he often reminded Ryan that dreams can die quickly but that education never stops opening doors. "I never had a father figure when I played, so I learned through trial and error," says Ronnie, a distribution service technician for Duke Power. "I always told Ryan to use the game and never let it use him."

It helped that Ryan was bright. His habit of finishing school-work early helped land him in a gifted program in the third grade, where he excelled in problem-solving games and relished field trips to museums. That active mind—he loves the strategic aspect of football—and his ambition, more than anything, have shaped his career.

There also is no question that Ryan is his own man. As a ninth-grader at Dorman High, Ryan told Ronnie he was giving up baseball so he could concentrate on football. Ronnie swallowed hard, hid his disappointment and supported his son's decision. When Ryan grew from 5'7" to 6'4" between his sophomore and junior seasons, he switched from quarterback to defense, because his coach said the move would increase the number of scholarships he'd be offered.