Meet the undrafted Viking coaches say will make a preseason splash

The University of Akron traveled to Miami of Ohio back on Nov. 21, 2019. The Zips had a left tackle named Xavior Gray. He stood 6-9 and 330 pounds as he looked down — way down — to line up against a true freshman from Miami named Ivan Pace Jr.

Today, Pace is a 5-10, 231-pound undrafted rookie inside linebacker who's turning heads quickly at Vikings camp with a vertically challenged body that coaches are lauding for its balance, power, quickness and what defensive coordinator Brian Flores calls "built-in leverage."

Back on Nov. 21, 2019, Pace was just an atypically constructed situational pass rusher who had yet to start a college game, who had yet to win Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Year or transfer to the University of Cincinnati or win American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year or become UC's first unanimous All-America selection or the Senior Bowl's defensive player of the week.

"I think we listed Ivan at 5-10, but truthfully, I always thought he was 5-9 … ish," said Spence Nowinsky, then-linebackers coach at Miami and now defensive coordinator at Ohio University.

"Didn't matter. Ivan's not the guy at Penn State who's 6-4. And he's not the guy at USC that's 6-5. But he's the guy who everyone at USC and Penn State wants their guys to play like. And hit like. And finish like. And you know what? Ivan knows that and has always worn that as the chip on his shoulder."

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That chip gained considerable size and momentum back on Nov. 21, 2019. Just ask Kato Nelson, the Akron quarterback who was sacked 12 times that afternoon, six of them by Pace in a performance that tied the NCAA single-game record set by former NFL star Elvis Dumervil at Louisville and former Western Michigan linebacker Ameer Ismail.

"I looked at it like this," said Pace, referring to the game plan for him against Akron. "You don't get a lot of chances in life. You take what you can."

Pace said four or five of his sacks came off the edge and one on a blitz up the middle. His favorite sack that day: An actual swim move past a left tackle who stood a foot taller but had lost his balance — and thus his size advantage.

"This whole game is leverage," said Vikings inside linebackers coach Mike Siravo. "If I can get under your pads, I win every time. Period. Ivan can get under your pads."

Pace came to the Vikings as a preferred undrafted signing with a $236,000 guarantee. Pro Football Focus ranked him as college football's top inside linebacker in 2022 and the top player to go undrafted after a senior season in which he posted 136 tackles and nine sacks while leading all inside linebackers with 20 ½ tackles for loss for Cincinnati.

"Call him too short if you want, but then watch him play," said Wilson Huber, former Bearcats teammate and now fellow undrafted Vikings linebacker.

"I knew he was good before he transferred from Miami. His brother [Deshawn] was at Miami, too, so we had watched him from afar. He was kind of quiet until the Arkansas game Week 1. Then he goes out and has 12 tackles, a sack and 3 ½ tackles for loss, and we're like, 'Who is this dude?!'"

Huber is 6-4 and admires how his friend often uses a perceived weakness to his advantage. The shorter Bearcat is the one running with the second-team defense, pushing veterans Troy Dye and Troy Reeder for that fourth inside linebacker position and a prime spot on all special teams.

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"He did something on a special teams drill that we watched on tape in front of the whole team," Siravo said. "Ivan got kind of tripped up and knocked around. It looked like anyone would have fallen over, but he showed incredible balance and determination.

"Football makes sense to him. He plays football at a fundamentally high level. It's as good as you can get. At some point, you have to go play the actual game at this level. I'll know more about him after the third preseason game, but the more I watch, the more I want to watch more of him."

Pace thought he'd be drafted somewhere in the middle rounds, but he quickly got excited when the draft ended and he could pick one of his two favorite childhood teams — Vikings and Cowboys.

"If I was 6-2, first, I'd have been at Alabama or Georgia," Pace said. "Then a first-rounder or second-rounder. But that doesn't matter. I'm self-motivated. I don't care if you doubt me or are on my side. I have that dawg in me that motivates me to do what I do."

There's also a bounding love of the game that Nowinskysaw in Pace before and after each practice.

"There's about a four-foot brick wall that surrounds the field of the stadium," he said. "There's a gate connected to this wall that you go through before and after practice. Ivan never took the gate. He'd jump over the wall. It was like watching a deer jumping over a fence. And he's landing on cement with cleats on. I'd say, 'Oh, no. He's going to slide and get hurt.' But he landed like a ballerina every time."

Nowinsky predicts Pace will become the talk of Vikings Nation at some point this preseason.

"A time-tested skill of football that's never, ever, ever going to change is the ability to tackle," Nowinsky said. "I'm 51 years old and I watch pro football today, and there are many times when I want to vomit. Nobody wants to tackle anymore. Nobody wants to be physical anymore. Ivan Pace is going to do all of that. He's going to hit you with a crowbar in the face for 60 minutes.

"You just wait. Preseason is going to start and Ivan Pace is going to whack somebody. And everybody up there is going to be talking about Ivan Pace."