As a child, Doy Fieri (formerly Vance Slattery) had one plan for his life - to become a chef and restaurateur like his father. Even though he grew in in Minneapolis, MN, a city with teams in every major American sport, Doy didn't ever care about sports. He never watched them on TV, nor did he ever go see them live. He spent most of his free time reading cook books and watching the Food Network, and when he was old enough, helping his parents by working behind the counter at Slatt's Soul Food.
When he eventually grew into a 6'1, 230 pound high school freshman (14 years old), it wasn't long before people noticed. One of the regulars at his dad's restaurant was the high school football coach for the high school he would attend, Roosevelt High, and one day he noticed the gargantuan child cooking his chicken friend steak. Doy had never even held a football and didn't know any of the rules before that fated day when his coach begged him and his father to let Doy play for the Teddies.
He may have been uncoordinated and not uneducated about the sport, but as the saying goes: you can't teach size.
Eventually, Doy learned to love the game of football, and it turned out that he was actually pretty dang good at it, eventually being named All-State his senior year of high school. That's when the schools started to call. He was approached by many low-tier Division I schools with scholarship offers, notably Rutgers (I did say low tier, didn't I?), but moving to the east coast meant moving away from his family and the future he had planned for himself. Then, as fate would have it, he received a call from a scout with the hometown Minnesota Golden Gophers. Doy accepted the scholarship offer on the spot.
Fieri was expected to get sparse playing time as the Gophers had six other older defensive linemen on the roster, but, due to just plain bad luck, the Gophers had three of their top defensive linemen lose time due to injury throughout the season, so Doy got a lot more playing time than expected. He performed admirably for a redshirt freshman, totaling 9 tackles, 4 TFL, and 1 sack in a very limited role.
Heading into his sophomore year, the Gophers had two starters on the line graduate, and Fieri was named starting defensive tackle. The rest, as they say, is history.
When he eventually grew into a 6'1, 230 pound high school freshman (14 years old), it wasn't long before people noticed. One of the regulars at his dad's restaurant was the high school football coach for the high school he would attend, Roosevelt High, and one day he noticed the gargantuan child cooking his chicken friend steak. Doy had never even held a football and didn't know any of the rules before that fated day when his coach begged him and his father to let Doy play for the Teddies.
He may have been uncoordinated and not uneducated about the sport, but as the saying goes: you can't teach size.
Eventually, Doy learned to love the game of football, and it turned out that he was actually pretty dang good at it, eventually being named All-State his senior year of high school. That's when the schools started to call. He was approached by many low-tier Division I schools with scholarship offers, notably Rutgers (I did say low tier, didn't I?), but moving to the east coast meant moving away from his family and the future he had planned for himself. Then, as fate would have it, he received a call from a scout with the hometown Minnesota Golden Gophers. Doy accepted the scholarship offer on the spot.
Fieri was expected to get sparse playing time as the Gophers had six other older defensive linemen on the roster, but, due to just plain bad luck, the Gophers had three of their top defensive linemen lose time due to injury throughout the season, so Doy got a lot more playing time than expected. He performed admirably for a redshirt freshman, totaling 9 tackles, 4 TFL, and 1 sack in a very limited role.
Heading into his sophomore year, the Gophers had two starters on the line graduate, and Fieri was named starting defensive tackle. The rest, as they say, is history.