Deon Goggins has been here before: underappreciated.

It happened when his father, Deon, left. It happened coming out of high school, sending him to two junior colleges, and again going into his second year of JUCO before he played his way into offers from Syracuse and Baylor. Now, Goggins, whose friends call him “Diesel,” trains for the April 25-27 NFL Draft.

Goggins, a defensive lineman for the Orange the last two years, improved his stock a little with his Pro Day performance, but even his former junior college coach Andrew Alvillar thinks his best shot at the NFL is going as an undrafted free agent.

“That’s nothing I’m not used to as far as working my way up from the bottom,” Goggins said.

But when he wakes up at 5:30 a.m. in his Los Angeles apartment, he’s not at the bottom. He’s not at the bottom when he rises 30 minutes before his fiancee, Kisha, to make breakfast — usually oatmeal or an egg-white omelet. He then makes a bottle of milk for their six-month-old and namesake Diesel. He’s not even tired.

The NFL could change his life. The pursuit of it already has.

Most days, Goggins is out of his apartment by 6:45 a.m. After taking turns getting dressed and holding the baby with Kisha, Goggins drives his champagne Toyota Camry to Agoura High School in Agoura Hills, Calif., on Mondays and Wednesdays. He goes to Proactive Sports Performance in Westlake Village on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Regardless, he meets Clay Matthews, Andre Carter, C.J. Spiller and other NFL standouts for his first workout of the day.

Ryan Capretta trains them all. He’s the founder of Proactive. His former trainees include 2001 Super Bowl winners the Baltimore Ravens and Olympic gold medalists. He still trains NFL players Antonio Cromartie, Larry Fitzgerald, Dwight Freeney and Terrell Suggs, too. Capretta had never heard of Goggins before he came to Westlake Village after the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. But from his detailed questions about the technical side of workouts, to his attention to warm-ups and recovery, Goggins is among Capretta’s best.

“(Deon’s) a guy who wants to make it really bad,” Capretta said. “And I’ve trained a lot of guys over the years. For a young athlete coming into the NFL, he prepares like a vet.”

There, he meets for about 30 minutes of stretching before 60-90 minutes of field work.

On Mondays and Wednesdays after field work, Goggins heads to Westlake Village for a weight room session. When he’s done on Mondays, he joins Matthews for a third session. Then, he’s off to physical therapy for maintenance on his shoulders and hamstrings.

But Wednesdays, he follows his 10 a.m. weights with boxing. Then, he gets back in his Camry to drive home to get his son Diesel – only stopping in Carson, Calif., for a massage. They’re home just long enough for Goggins to pack Diesel’s bag before driving to his old school, Cerritos Community College.

They meet Kisha at Cerritos. She works out, too, often pushing Diesel in his stroller around the track. Their life is hectic. She works full-time. But it’s better now. At least he’s on the West Coast, said Alvillar, Goggins’ mentor and former coach at Los Angeles Harbor College and Cerritos.

“When it comes to having a balance, it’s not like he’s away from his child and his girl for an extended period of time,” Alvillar said. “ … They both understand, ‘Hey, this could put food on our table, this could put money in our pockets, this could set us up for what we want to do. So let’s go get it,’ and that’s where he’s at.”

Tuesdays and Thursdays end the same way: at the track with Kisha and Diesel. Only Goggins does yoga or Pilates at noon beforehand.

Fridays are the worst workouts, though. The NFL stars pick from one of four sites for what they call “Roadtrip Fridays.” The group runs the Santa Monica stairs, Malibu sand dunes, Russell Ranch tire course or the Runyon. The Runyon is the closest to Goggins’ house. For him, though, it’s the worst.

The warm-up is a four-mile jog down a Santa Monica mountain to a clearing. From there, Capretta’s course only leaves them with one way out: up and through the rock-laden mountains. Goggins calls it “deadly” and “the Monster.”

The first day he ran the course, he did it twice. Capretta said he’s never had someone do that.

“I kind of gained a little respect from the vets doing that,” Goggins said.

On April 5, the 274-pound Goggins ran it just once and tied Gilbert Arenas’ time. He’s also worked out with Nick Swisher and Derek Fisher, along with the NFL stars. Some of the NFL-ers vouch for him, telling their teams to draft or sign Goggins in free agency.

Goggins’ workload is vicious, even for someone training to break into the league, Capretta said. He rarely lets college athletes train with his pros — he promoted Goggins after his March 7 Pro Day. But Goggins still feels underrated.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s hard to swallow because I know what type of caliber of player that I am and that I’m capable of, but I mean, everything happens for a reason,” Goggins said. “I was in the same position going into my last year of JUCO before I got all the scholarship offers that I did.

“So, I go in free agency … I’ll just work my way up again. I’ll just show them how I do. That’s nothing I’m not used to.”

Goggins is at peace now, mostly. He said he used to worry about his draft stock — a lot. He’s still slighted, but said he opened eyes in the NFLPA Bowl, and especially at his Pro Day. The slights are like all of the others before — ones he can work through.

His son fulfills a lifelong dream. Goggins always wanted to have a son named after him, “but without having the same name that I had because I have my father’s name,” he said.

The NFL prospect’s great grandmother, Pearl Pearson, called him Diesel for as long as he can remember.

“I just remember, before her passing, she used to always tell me, ‘So the reason I gave you that name (was) because I always knew you were going to be big like a truck,’” Goggins said. “She was funny.”

His friends and family followed Pearson’s lead. Goggins knew his son would be called Little Diesel, regardless of his legal first name, and named him Diesel.

The NFL Draft starts in a week, but Goggins’ name won’t be called until Friday or Saturday, if at all. Fulfilling his NFL dream, though, would change his and family’s life more than it already has. But no matter how high he’s drafted, he’s not getting married for a year or two.

His girlfriend’s not like that, he said. Besides, Diesel can’t walk yet.

“I want him to be my best man in my wedding, so he has to be a little bit walking,” Goggins said.

Because when Goggins finishes sweating through another three-workout, 12-hour day, or gets up in the middle of the night, he’ll look at his son, and he doesn’t get tired.

“He’s a happy kid, so you can’t do nothing but be happy and thankful for everything that I’m going through right now,” Goggins said.

“I wish my father did something this cool.”

Published on April 18, 2013 at 12:44 am

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_