Nick Devereaux is a natural fit for one of Eastern Michigan's most sacred jerseys
Devereaux will don No. 2 for Eastern Michigan, known within the program as 'The Deuce.'
Ypsilinati — It’s hard to imagine a more fitting player for Eastern Michigan to bestow the meaningful No. 2 jersey, known in the program as ‘The Deuce,’ than Nick Devereaux.
The jersey, put back into circulation at EMU in 2017 to honor the late Demarius Reed, a receiver for the Eagles from 2011-13 who died in October 2013, shot as a victim of a robbery. The program did so with the blessing of Reed’s family and his teammates, and it’s not taken lightly who gets to wear it.
And this year it’s Devereaux’s honor.
“The reaction, even though guys probably knew that he was gonna get The Deuce,” head coach Chris Creighton said of the team meeting where the honor got announced, “everybody just went crazy.”
Devereaux is the 10th player to earn the honors of donning the No. 2 jersey for Eastern Michigan since it became this sacred piece of the program, and his journey during his time at EMU is certainly deserving of recognition. His breakout play in 2025 is a big reason Devereaux is one of the top wideouts for EMU entering 2026. But his journey from walk on to breaking out last year, earning a scholarship in the process, and the years of toil and hard work it took — with no guarantee it’d ever pan out this way — is at the heart of why Devereaux gets to don The Deuce in 2026.
“I didn't want to get my hopes up on nothing,” Devereaux said. “But it was a great moment. I definitely got emotional a little bit. It was a little hard to talk.”
And Devereaux was the relatively evident choice to earn the honors of wearing the No. 2, both for his status on the team as a top senior receiver, and because of the path he took to attain his role for Eastern Michigan.
But even if the writing might’ve been on the wall, Devereaux was still overtaken by emotion when, in front of the team last week, he got awarded the number. Joining the group over Zoom were some of the players who have donned the No. 2 since 2017, several of whom were teammates of Devereaux’s.
That group of former No. 2s spoke to the team prior to the announcement that Devereaux would wear the number, sharing the searing meaning behind.
And one of them, Mathew Sexton, once made a play that Creighton cited as a perfect embodiment of the spirit of The Deuce: the game-winning punt block touchdown against Central Connecticut State in 2019.
“And every time he talks about it,” Creighton said, “he's just like, ‘It was The Deuce,’”
As much as The Deuce is something one has to earn to be awarded, it’s an honor the player then has to live up to.
And based on his track record to get to the point, Devereaux can be counted on to live up to the quiet standard of dedication to team and hard work that define his new jersey number.
“It's really just to play with everything I got,” Devereaux said. “It doesn't really come down to numbers or nothing like that with me. Like, I'm gonna leave it all on the field every single time I step out here. And I know that's how I'm gonna honor D Reed and D Reed's family. And that's kind of what the No. 2 is all about, is somebody that's just gonna give their all.”
Andrew Graham
Andrew Graham
Devereaux finished with 34 catches for 510 yards and seven touchdowns in 2025, emerging as one of the top receiving options for Eastern Michigan. His ability to challenge downfield and win at the catch point were notable strong suits, and his breakout earned him a scholarship after Week 9.
And it was a far cry from the athlete who played fewer than 10 games of Covid-altered high school football his senior year at Brother Rice that rolled up to an EMU walk-on try out in 2022.
He made the team and had to learn football on the fly. During his first few practices, coaches would tell him to run a certain route and Devereaux would ask them to explain what it was. He had a long way to go before he’d be a football player and not just an athlete running around in pads.
“I was like, ‘I have no idea — I have no idea what that is. I just know run fast.’ So it was definitely a long road learning from all the coaches. Went slower than what I wanted it to,” Devereaux said.
But each year, Devereaux poured into his craft, and credited his various receiver coaches over the years for the bits and bobs they taught him along the way. One year it might’ve been how to win off the line of scrimmage, another it was refining the top of his routes, or another year where he maximized his running mechanics to maintain his speed during routes.
These improvements all happened behind the scenes, as Devereaux didn’t appear in a game until 2024, when he recorded his first career catch — and the only one he’d have that year as he mostly played special teams. But when he got asked to run routes and catch passes during Cole Snyder’s pro day after the 2024 campaign, Devereaux felt like he’d finally turned a corner.
“It wasn't something that just, was just bound to happen,” quarterback Noah Kim said. “Like, it was something that he earned. It's super deserving, and he earned every bit of it. There's no better representation of what the deuce is than Nick Devereaux this year.”
And while Eastern Michigan is expecting plenty of production and positive play out of Devereaux on the field this fall, who he’s been to get to this point is why he earned that number in the first place — and why it’s a good bet he’ll live up to it.
“It may not be the best receiver in the whole country,” Devereaux said of the person wearing The Deuce in a given year. “It may not be whoever has the most yards in the whole country. It's just, it's somebody who's out there playing for something much bigger than himself.”
