RENTON, Wash. - B.J. Irvin couldn't stay out of trouble as a youth. So when he arrived at Mt. San Antonio College in 2009, B.J. became Bruce.

And while Bruce Irvin hasn't been completely clear of off-field problems, his freakish athleticism landed him a spot in the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday night.

The Seattle Seahawks pulled off a major first-round stunner when they selected Irvin, a pass rushing specialist, out of West Virginia with the 15th overall pick.

Once again, Pete Carroll went unconventional.

The surprise wasn't that Irvin was drafted. At 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds with explosive speed off the edge, Irvin was considered a likely second-day pick, especially with more known names like Quinton Coples, Melvin Ingram and Chandler Jones still available when the Seahawks pick arrived.

But that didn't stop the Seahawks from taking the player they feel can bring the most impact at a spot where Seattle needed help. Chris Clemons had 11 sacks last season, but no one else for Seattle had more than four.

"This is the kind of guy that puts fear in offensive tackles," said Carroll, who first met Irvin when he was coach at USC, trying to recruit him from Mt. San Antonio College in California.

Irvin played two seasons at West Virginia and had 14 sacks as a junior and another 8? sacks his final season. He's categorized by the Seahawks as a LEO, a specialized spot in Seattle's defense that calls for the ability to pressure the quarterback, but also drop off into pass coverage when needed.

"I love eating quarterbacks," Irvin joked during a conference call where his confidence and swagger was never in question.

The Seahawks' selection was made after Seattle traded with Philadelphia, moving down from No. 12 to No. 15 and acquiring two picks in the later rounds of the draft.

Irvin's backstory is long and filled with mistakes. Growing up in Atlanta, Irvin was academically ineligible to play high school football and did a stint in juvenile jail for burglary. Irvin said it would have been easy to stay down the road of trouble, but he took a divergent path.

That's where B.J. departed and Bruce showed up.

"I went through a lot of stuff in my life. I've seen a lot of stuff and the average person who went through what I went through would not be on this phone with you right now," Irvin said. "I could have went the other way. I could have gone right but I chose to go left. When I chose to go left I told God I wasn't going back to what was trying to suck me in and I surrounded myself with a lot of positive people."