Deven Bollinger had an idea of how he saw his career playing out.

The expectations were modest, at least initially.

“Coming into my freshman year – in the springtime I believe, I was still in eighth grade – I came up here to lift and do some things to get ready for the season, and he had individual meetings with all the quarterbacks, asking what we expected from the season and things like that,” Bollinger recalled of a meeting with Northwestern head coach Josh Snyder. “I went in and he asked me what I wanted, and I said I wanted to start at JV quarterback, and work my way up the ranks.”

A reasonable outlook for a player who wasn’t too far removed from his Pop Warner days.

But Snyder had bigger plans.

“He told me then and there, ‘I want you to start at the varsity level this year,’” Bollinger said of Snyder.

It was a conversation that changed Bollinger’s perspective and helped shape his record-setting career.

“That was one of the things that stuck with me. He had the confidence in me to be able to do that,” said Bollinger, who owns every Northwestern passing record. “Obviously, there were other guys ahead of me. Phil Dangello was there. He was a great athlete, and a great kid. I competed for the spot and earned it. So that was one of the biggest things, just his confidence in me, and it’s grown over the years ... where we’re on the same page with everything offensively. We both knew how he wanted to direct practice, how he wanted the games to be; at the end of the season, everything was clicking with us. So it was kind of cool to experience that transition.”

It was a process that concluded this past fall when Bollinger completed 131 of 221 pass attempts for 2,105 yards and 35 touchdowns, while also carrying the ball 181 times for 1,005 yards and eight scores – the first area player ever to top 2,000 yards passing and rush for over 1,000.

And one that helped him earn Times News/Lehigh Valley Health Network Football Player of the Year honors for the second straight season.

“Being in the community, living in the community, you hear about this long, skinny kid that’s a pretty good athlete coming up through the youth program,” said Snyder. “Then in middle school, we had the opportunity to see him in person a couple times, and he was someone that caught your eye. You watch a game and think, ‘Wow, this kid might be something special.’

“We don’t bring every ninth grader up, but obviously he was someone that we (knew) we were going to bring up. I think he was in eighth grade and we had a quarterback meeting with a rising senior, a rising sophomore and him. And I said the position is up to you guys. It’s up for battle. It’s up for whoever can grasp the offense, run it best and put our team in the best position to be successful and win football games.

“We went through individual goals for each of them, and he said he hoped to start on the JV team. I told him that’s a pretty good goal, but I’m going to throw another goal out there. I think your goal should be to start for the varsity team. And he was sort of taken aback, because he was only in eighth grade. He just came off running the middle school and the junior high program. I think that particular meeting sort of set in his mind, ‘Wow, maybe there’s something here.”

With Bollinger at the helm, the Tigers averaged 37.5 points per game in 2018 and 38.6 ppg. this past season, when they finished 10-2. On defense, Bollinger had three interceptions, and made 35 total tackles.

Bollinger’s production was evident from the outset. He threw for 1,890 yards and 20 touchdowns during a 5-6 season in 2016. After passing for 1,304 yards and 12 scores in a 4-7 campaign in 2017, Bollinger broke out during his junior year, which saw him pass for 1,998 yards and 30 TDs, and rush for 881 yards and 16 scores as Northwestern finished 9-3.

This past season, the quarterback ranked second among area players in passing yardage and third in rushing.

The ability was always there. Snyder knew it – and he wanted to make sure Bollinger did, too.

“I was a little surprised. You walk in as an eighth-grader still thinking, ‘Wow, the varsity football coach that I looked up to has told me that he believes in me that I can start playing quarterback,’” said Bollinger. “It was kind of cool. It was a cool feeling walking out of there. I remember walking out, and my mom still had to drive me home, and coach Snyder just told me that I have a chance to start this year. So that was a big thing for me.”

Bollinger, who will continue his career at the University of Delaware next fall, never looked back.

“I think that offseason was big for him. And once he got that position, he wasn’t going to give it up,” said Snyder. “He started 45 games for us in his career, and that’s another record. He was very durable, and took every single snap at practice.”