Devaroe Lawrence

Lawrence was born and grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and attended Carolina Academy. His biological father was absent from his life and his mother abandoned him at the age of 12 after giving him to another couple in an unofficial adoption. He dealt drugs starting in eight grade and was served a two week jail sentence while in high school, with two more stints in jail shortly after his graduation. Lawrence was later taken in by Sam Kelly, one of the assistant coaches at Carolina Academy, who employed him at his software company.^[1]

Having had no offers to play college football out of high school due to poor academic performance and his legal issues, Lawrence initially took courses at Greenville Technical College. Participated in an open tryout Georgia Military College's football team and was offered a spot on the team as a walk-on, despite having been overweight and not having played the sport in over two years. He redshirted his freshman year in order to get into shape. He committed to Auburn over offers from Southern Miss and West Virginia going into his redshirt freshman season.^[2] He tallied 20 tackles and 4.5 sacks in his only season of play for the Bulldogs.^[3]

Lawrence then played three seasons for the Tigers. He appeared in four games with one tackle, which was for a loss, in his first season with the team before entering the regular defensive line rotation as a redshirt junior.^[4] Lawrence played in all 13 of Auburn's games as a redshirt junior, making 31 tackles, two for a loss, and half of a sack.^[5] In his final season, Lawrence played in 11 games, recording 13 tackles, three for a loss, and one sack.^[6] He tore his ACL in his final career game.^[7] Lawrence finished his Auburn career with 45 total tackles with six tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks in 28 games played.^[8]