Sophomore nose tackle Akheem Mesidor said he first began playing football when he was just eight years old in his native Ottawa, Ontario.
 
"It was just a game to me, something I loved to do," he says. "It was games on the weekend and two practices during the week – nothing big – and I wanted to stop playing football in the 10^th grade because I wasn't receiving the recognition I thought I deserved. 
 
"But I just put my head down and worked and that summer I ended up getting my first scholarship (offer) and I continued to play. After that my recruitment blew up a little bit," he adds.
 
The persistence of defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley eventually led Mesidor to choose West Virginia University. Four or five Lesley visits to where Mesidor was playing high school football at Clearwater Academy in Clearwater, Florida, and a couple of additional trips up to Canada to visit his mother Carole Richard, was enough for Akheem.
 
"It felt special and it felt like they cared so that's what made me choose West Virginia," he says.
 
Akheem said he shares a special relationship with his mother, who frequently makes the drive down to Morgantown to watch him play in person.
 
"My mom always talks about how much she loves me and everywhere I go she's always bragging about me. Sometimes I have to tell her to relax a little bit," he laughs. "I know she loves watching me play and she even tells me watching me play keeps her alive. She says she will do anything for me and I will do anything for her."
 
Mesidor admits he wasn't sure he was ready for Power 5 college football when he first arrived at WVU last year as a freshman.
 
But the first couple of practices quickly changed his mind.
 
"I just thought I was probably going to be a scout player because I didn't know what to expect. When I was in high school going to college, I was looking at all of these big linemen and I was like, 'Wow, I don't know how I'm going to do this.' But as I started practicing and was being coached by coach Lesley, I understood it was more technical than size," he explains. "If you have good technique you can make it through. I started practicing and started beating some of the O-linemen and I realized that I was able to play college football."
 
And play college football he has. Mesidor produced 32 tackles, 6 ½ tackles for loss and five sacks to earn Freshman All-America honors last season as a defensive end.
 
Now playing nose tackle this year, he's generated 17 tackles, 2 ½ tackles for loss and a sack in four games so far this season following last night's heartbreaking, final-second 16-13 loss at fourth-ranked Oklahoma.
 
"I got put into the first game (against Eastern Kentucky) and got a sack in my first game. It felt good and I felt like every game I just got better and better," he says.
 
He adds, "This year I was expecting to play on the edge but since Darius (Stills) left I told coach Lesley, 'Put me wherever you want. I'll play nose if you want me to play there. Whatever you need me to do I'll be there.' In the weight room one day he approached me and said, 'Are you serious about playing nose?' I said, 'Yes coach, I'm there.' He put me there and spring ball it felt a little uncomfortable, but now I feel more comfortable at nose than I do anywhere else on the line regardless of the double teams."
 
Comfortable, indeed.
 
Today's Life as a Mountaineer was produced by Devin Kane and is presented each week during the season by our great friends at Panhandle Cleaning & Restoration.