Players that walk on at major football schools and make an immediate impact are rare commodities.

ASU’s Pierre Singfield has done just that.

The junior cornerback has started all three games in his first season as a Sun Devil and has nine tackles and one pass breakup for a defense that is giving up just 166 passing yards per game.

“I can’t really explain how exciting it is,” Singfield said. “It’s just amazing. It’s like a dream.”

But the route he traveled to get to Tempe was far from a dream.

Singfield started his career at Pima Community College in Tucson, where a leg injury forced him to sit on the sideline during the majority of his freshman season.

Singfield recovered and played his second season of junior college football in 2007, but then learned he was two credits short of graduating.

When word got out about his academic situation, major schools then started to look in other directions.

“I felt like it was the end of the world,” Singfield said. “That whole experience was so rough.”

After receiving encouragement from his family, Singfield began searching for programs that would take a chance on him and give him the opportunity to try to make their team.

He didn’t have to go far.

After losing Justin Tryon and Chris Baloney due to graduation after last season, ASU needed help at the cornerback position for 2008 and invited Singfield to walk on and practice with the team in the spring.

With Dennis Erickson at the helm of a program located in an area like Tempe, Singfield said it was the perfect fit.

And even though Pima is near the UA campus, Singfield said another major selling point for ASU was he wanted to be on the north side of the rivalry with the Wildcats.

“I hate U of A, so I was like, ‘Oh I’ll go to the [rival school],’” he said. “I came over on this side and it was just excellent.”

Singfield fought jitters during his first weeks of adjusting the higher-paced play at ASU, but he began to settle down just in time to record two tackles, two pass deflections and an interception in the spring game.

“At first I was a little nervous and getting beat, getting torn up,” Singfield said. “The receivers murdered me. Then the coaches said, ‘Calm down, relax, just play your game.’

“I guess they [saw] some potential in me, and [I] just took it from there.”

Even with an impressive spring and his spot on the roster set for the fall, Singfield still had to do extra work off the field to make ends meet financially.

Since he is not on a football scholarship, Singfield had to work a construction job during the summer to help pay for his tuition and other fees that come with being a college student.

“To be honest, it’s tough,” Singfield said. “But life is tough. "

“I was always taught since I was growing up [that] when things get tough, that means something good is coming out of it.”

Singfield brings that positive attitude to the field, a place where he said he really cares about bonding with his new teammates.

“I feel [that], on a team, you need friendship and [the] guys need to be close,” he said. “I’m the kind of person that tries to be close and get to know each and every person in the secondary and on the team.”

Sophomore cornerback Omar Bolden agreed that Singfield brings a new dynamic to the personality of the ASU secondary.

“Pierre’s a different kind of cat,” he said. “He’s a little on the goofy side, but we like that about him. He brings more laughter to the group.”

But in between the lines, that starting cornerback spot still had not been snagged by anyone during preseason training camp, and Singfield and others continued to battle for the position going into the start of the regular season.

The coaching staff then told Singfield midway through the week leading up to the Sun Devils’ season opener against NAU he would be taking the field for the defense’s first snap.

Instead of looking at the opportunity as a reward, Singfield looked at it as a challenge.

“I was focused more than I was excited because it wasn’t for sure [that I would keep the job,]” he said. “I was like, ‘Well, if I want to keep this job, I’ve got to go out there and compete like I’m trying to earn it still.’”

Singfield has not relinquished his starting role throughout the early part of the season, and Bolden said he has noticed improvement in him every week.

“He’s hungry,” Bolden said. “You can see the appetite in his eyes.

“He wants to play, and he’s a walk-on, so he feels that he has something to prove every time he steps out on this field. He’s stepped his game up.”

And as Singfield keeps gaining experience on the field, he is also silencing his critics and accomplishing goal after goal.

He has already won more games at ASU than he did during his entire career at Pima Community College, and his mission to start has been realized.

Next he would like to earn a scholarship, which seems like a given if he continues to perform the way he has so far this season.

“If I don’t have a scholarship now, [I’m] just going to keep working,” he said. “I know I’m going to get the scholarship if I have that work ethic.”

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu.