PISCATAWAY — A gentle giant from Trenton guides Rutgers’ offensive line into battle each week, a man with NFL-sized aspirations and a work ethic to match. The Scarlet Knights own the ninth-ranked rushing offense in college football and have yielded just 17 sacks in their past 16 games since the start of 2023. The way Hollin Pierce dominates at left tackle is one massive reason why, though the redshirt senior is quick to credit the rest of the unit. “There’s a lot of preparation that involves in all that,” Pierce told the Trentonian. “We’re a tight-knit group, we do everything together on and off the field, and I think that all leads into on the field as well. We all trust each other, and yeah, we work very, very hard.” At 6-foot-8, 344 pounds, Pierce stands out among his peers, even on a hefty Big Ten line. Yet he was even larger than that when his journey to this moment began – a journey that included a tragic loss, a parking lot appointment and a thorough weight-cutting plan. As Greg Schiano puts it, “There may be no greater story in college football.” Trenton roots Pierce’s path in life could have directed him toward a basketball career rather than football — his height advantage was obvious, and his uncle is Hollis Copeland, a Rutgers Hall of Famer who played in the NBA. His parents, Michael and Tara Pierce, got him enrolled in the K-12 Cambridge School in Pennington and made sure he stayed active in basketball and other athletic pursuits. “Growing up was definitely tough in the Trenton area,” Pierce said. “Luckily, my mom and dad, when I was very young, kept me off the streets and always kept me in sports and stuff like that. My mom helped fight to get me into private school. So … I was very blessed to have parents like that to always have a shadow over me and just make sure I’m doing the right thing.” Tragically, Tara Pierce passed away in the summer of 2012. She was 49; her son was 11. “Transitioning from middle school to high school, my mom passed away, that was hard,” Pierce said. “I would say really when that happened, I gained so much weight. I was 455, so having all that weight on me was definitely hard. I couldn’t do the things I really wanted to do. It was a health hazard, too. That was really scary for me.” A few years passed before Pierce got involved in football and basketball at Trenton Central High School, with the help of Eleanor Kubacki, a family friend who became a key mentor of his. Kubacki reached out to Greg Hyslop, who in 2017 was entering his first year as the head coach at Trenton. It was already August, so they visited Hyslop at preseason camp. “He got out of the car, and oh, man,” Hyslop said. “I was like, ‘This guy ain’t going anywhere. I’m keeping him around.’” In Pierce’s junior year, his first year of organized football, he became a starter on Trenton’s defensive line by midseason. As a senior, he started on the O-line. For as raw as Pierce was, Hyslop said he came in with the desire to absorb everything, criticism and all. Pierce spent a postgrad year at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia as he prepared for college ball, but his only Division I scholarship offer was from FCS-level Morgan State, and he was still prohibitively heavy. That’s when 2020 arrived. Rutgers offensive tackle Hollin Pierce in action against Ohio State. Pierce has transformed himself into an NFL prospect during his time in Piscataway. (Rutgers Athletics Photo) The parking lot Schiano can point to the exact spot he met Pierce in the Hale Center parking lot, right near the stairs leading down from the practice field. This wasn’t an ambush. With in-person scouting on hold early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Pierce had begun sending his workout tape to Rutgers, his dream school, plus other D1 programs. His pitch, in essence, was this: If I can move like this while I’m around 400 pounds, imagine what I could do if you help me drop some weight. Pierce was elated when the Rutgers staff called him back in September 2020. A post-practice meeting was arranged. “My chief of staff came up to me and said, ‘We have a guy who would like to walk on,’” Schiano recalled. “… (Pierce) got out of the car and he was gigantic, but he was very heavy. He said, ‘Coach, I really would like to walk on. I’m admitted already, I’m already a student.’ I said, ‘Sure. Go through my office and we’ll work it out.’ “Then when he came on the team we talked to him about what he’d have to do nutrition-wise and training, and he did it to the letter of the law. Just an unbelievable commitment.” Playing time was still a ways away; first, Pierce attacked his diet and strength training plans, cutting out sugar and late-night snacking, with a target weight of 330 pounds. Rutgers’ end-of-season roster listed Pierce at 354, an impressive drop for a span of a few short months. The COVID season started in late October with a road game at Michigan State, and Schiano looked at Pierce on the tarmac before the team’s flight and could see some immediate results. “I’ll never forget, he had on a blue blazer and charcoal slacks, and he looked so handsome and so comfortable,” Schiano said. “I said, ‘Hey, when’s the last time your clothes felt this good on you?’ And he started laughing and said, ‘No kidding, Coach, this is great!’” Pierce was also working on the fundamentals of offensive line play. Being 6-foot-8 sounds great, but football is a game of leverage. “He had to learn to bend in the ankles, knees and hips and get that huge body down lower,” Schiano said. And Schiano discovered what Hyslop saw at Trenton: Pierce was “starving for knowledge.” He and the offensive line staff coached Pierce hard. “Just very, very hard on me in a good way,” Pierce said. “Just always making sure I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, when I’m supposed to do it, and just always wanting the best for me, always seeking more for me.” San Francisco 49ers safety Ji’Ayir Brown teamed up with the Education Outweighs Them All Foundation to bring a youth football clinic for grades 4-12 to Trenton Central High School this summer. Rutgers offensive lineman Hollin Pierce gives instructions here. (Kyle Franko/ Trentonian Photo) ‘He has a switch’ Pierce took over the starting right tackle job during his redshirt freshman season of 2021, gaining Academic All-Big Ten recognition along the way. Following his sophomore season, one of Rutgers’ most accomplished veteran linemen made the natural transition to left tackle, the all-important blindside protector. Pierce recognized how much he was progressing under offensive line coach Pat Flaherty. Declaring for the NFL draft after 2023 was an option, but Pierce knew he had even more to work on before attempting to make that jump, so he stayed at Rutgers. Now? Not only is he contributing to a 3-0 Rutgers team dreaming of a historic Big Ten season, he entered the week graded as the No. 2 offensive tackle in college football by Pro Football Focus. (As it happens, RU right tackle Tyler Needham is No. 3.) “He’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever come across, but when he goes on the field he has a switch,” Schiano said. “He plays violently. I love those kind of guys, because they’re great citizens, they’re great people, but when they hit the field it’s all about winning and playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played.” Hyslop said Pierce joins his onetime Trenton teammate, San Francisco 49ers safety Ji’Ayir Brown, in returning home to assist at the youth football clinics held by Trenton athletic trainer David “Poppy” Sanderson. “You can look at TV all you want, you can look at the guys in the NFL and have role models all you want,” Hyslop said, “but to have someone who literally came from where you came from, in the same position you were in, to see what’s possible is great.” For now, Pierce insists his goal is to better himself every single day. And the NFL may indeed be around the corner, but he knows he has to keep investing in that goal just as his parents, coaches and mentors have invested in him. “I can’t be more blessed just to have that surrounding group around me all the time, always checking on me all over the place,” Pierce said. “Everybody just making sure I’m good. And that support system really helped boost my confidence to get here, so I’m blessed.”