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Pepper looking up, moving on
DT's life has settled down after a year of injury and his brother’s imprisonment
USC defensive tackle Nathan Pepper returns an interception for a touchdown against S.C. State last year. Pepper injured his knee on the play.
File photo by Gerry Melendez/gmelendez@thestate.com
CommentsAs South Carolina’s Marque Hall spoke to reporters this week about what fellow defensive tackle Nathan Pepper can expect in his return from knee surgery, Pepper walked up to the group, listened in and responded by flashing a thumbs-up.
It was an appropriate message: After a trying five-month period in which he sustained a season-ending injury and saw his brother sent away for murder, things are starting to look up for Pepper.
Pepper said his family is coping the best it can following the imprisonment of his 25-year-old brother, Demetrius Pepper, sentenced to life without parole in February after admitting he shot a Prosperity woman during a daylong crime spree in 2007 that ended with his arrest at Williams-Brice Stadium while Nathan Pepper played in a spring scrimmage.
“Everybody’s doing pretty good, considering,” Pepper said. “It’s tough to have to see somebody in your family, somebody you love and who’s been beside you for so long, in that position.”
As for the more mundane football matters, Pepper is pleased with his progress following ACL reconstructive surgery on his left knee last fall. The injury, which occurred at the end of a 19-yard interception return for a touchdown against S.C. State, kept Pepper out of the final nine games and all of spring practice.
Wearing a bulky brace on his knee this summer, Pepper has reclaimed his starting spot and says he is close to 100 percent.
“Right now everything’s feeling pretty good, but it’s real early,” he said. “I’ll probably be able to tell later.”
He already is ahead of the recovery pace of Hall, who was living with Pepper in 2006 when Hall tore his ACL and MCL against Georgia. Though Hall returned to play all 12 games last season, he was not the player he was before his injury.
Nearly two years after his surgery, Hall’s knee still bothers him: The fifth-year senior had fluid drained from his knee this week and missed several days of practice.
But Pepper, a redshirt junior from Greenville, has not experienced the tendinitis that slowed Hall’s recovery.
“For him it’s a whole different story. He’s like light years ahead of me when I first got back,” Hall said. “He’s changing directions well, planting off his leg good. So unless he has a setback later in the season, I think he’ll be fine.”
Hall also was mindful of Pepper’s emotional well-being following the surgery.
“I told him when you get hurt, you’ll probably go through a depression phase — just not being with the team,” Hall said. “When we travel, he had to stay home. I told him what he should do is call his family and try to find somebody to hang with while we’re gone.”
Pepper’s family spent a lot of time crying and praying together following the shocking events of March 31, 2007. According to authorities, Demetrius Pepper shot his boss early that morning while robbing the Greenville convenience store where he worked.
The woman survived. Meanwhile, Pepper stole her car and headed toward Columbia where his father had gone to watch the Gamecocks’ scrimmage. When the stolen car broke down on I-26 near Newberry, Pepper walked to the home of 60-year-old Ellie Halfacre, forced his way in, fatally shot the retired teacher and took her car.
Columbia police arrested Pepper a short time later in the Williams-Brice parking lot after finding him in Halfacre’s Buick Park Avenue with an undisclosed amount of cash from the Greenville Corner Mart.
Pepper expressed remorse during his sentencing hearing for the events he said were not premeditated, according to published reports.
Mary White, Pepper’s mother, said the family has leaned on their Christian faith while coping with the aftermath of her son’s actions.
“We take it one day and just realize that things happen that are out of our control,” White said. “You could easily lose your mind through something like this because we don’t understand why.”
Nathan Pepper visited his brother a couple of times while he was locked up at the Newberry County jail. He has not seen him since he was transferred to McCormick Correctional Institution, a maximum-security state prison, but said his brother will be following the Gamecocks’ games this fall.
“I’m going to go out and play for him because I know he can hear games. He can probably see the games sometimes,” Pepper said. “I don’t know what he’s going through. It’s got to be tough. But I’m definitely something that can make his time easier in there, so I’m going to try to my best for him when I’m out here.”
White, who also has a 27-year-old son and a daughter who goes to Greenville High, said she hopes fans will not judge Nathan Pepper for the sins of his brother.
“I wanted Nathan not to have to hold his head down for what his brother did,” she said. “It was an individual thing.”
USC defensive line coach Brad Lawing is glad to have Pepper back in the fold — not only for his football skills, but also the intelligence and leadership qualities he brings to the meeting room.
“He has tremendous knowledge. And because he’s so smart, I could put him in my meeting, and I could go take a nap and let him run my meeting and it would all get done,” Lawing said. “He understands ball. Playing from the neck up is a part of football. Not all kids do that. He does.”
Pepper said he is anxious for the N.C. State opener, which will be his first game action in nearly a year.
“I’m ready to get back on that field, put the uniform back on and just play.”
Reach Person at (803) 771-8496.
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