Alumni Profile: Darrius Heyward-Bey

As a junior in high school, Darrius Heyward-Bey ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds and was the MIAA state champion for the 100- and 200-meter dashes.  (Mitch Stringer/PressBox)

By: Steve Giles

If you can say one thing about the 2008 Maryland Terrapins football team it's that they are unpredictable. It's tough to tell which Terps team is going to show up on a given week.

One week they could be the team that suffered an embarrassing 31-0 loss at Virginia and another week they could be the team that earned a 20-17 grind-it-out win at then 20th-ranked Clemson as a big road underdog.

It is apparent that the Terps have been somewhat inconsistent so far this season. But, one thing the team can count on is when junior wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey gets his hands on the ball, good things happen.

The former McDonogh receiver's numbers aren't eye-popping, which is mostly due to the fact that he simply doesn't get the amount of receptions that a player of his caliber warrants.

Through Maryland's first nine games of the season, Heyward-Bey leads the team with 30 receptions, but he is still 25 catches behind the current ACC leader, Wake Forest's D.J. Boldin, who has 455 grabs on the season. Heyward-Bey has 496 yards receiving, five touchdowns and is averaging 16.5 yards per catch.

He is a threat on the ground as well, rushing for 192 yards and a touchdown on only 10 carries, most of which have come on reverses.

When the Terps use Heyward-Bey's skill to their advantage, he usually has a positive effect on the outcome of the game. On the opposite end of the spectrum, when he's not involved in the game plan his absence is certainly noticed.

Take the Virginia and Wake Forest games for example. In the 31-0 loss to Virginia, he was nowhere to be found and recorded no catches. When they dominated Wake Forest 26-0 at home, he had 11 receptions for 101 yards and a touchdown. He was also thrown to 17 times in the game against the Demon Deacons after only being targeted 30 times in the first six games.

So it's pretty safe to say that if the Terps can somehow get the ball to Heyward-Bey on a consistent basis, good things will happen.

And good things have certainly been happening to the Terps as of late. They are currently 6-3 overall and 3-2 in the Atlantic Division of the ACC. The Terps were ranked at No. 21 on the USA Today poll and No. 23 in the AP poll before the loss to Virginia Tech knocked them out of the Top 25.

The coaches may finally be realizing that if they are able to take advantage of their star wide receiver's strongest quality, his speed, they can climb even farther up the polls.

As a junior in high school, Heyward-Bey was touted as the fastest athlete in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association and possibly the state. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds and was the MIAA state champion for the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

Combine his speed and his knack for catching the football and you get a first-team all-state player who was picked by Rivals.com as the 12th-best wide receiver in the country coming out of high school.

His talent has carried over to the collegiate level and as a junior he is already being recognized by NFL scouts as a first-round talent. His size, athleticism and speed give him the potential to be an effective receiver in the NFL.

The lack of consistent play at the quarterback position hurts Heyward-Bey's numbers as compared to other top receivers in the nation. In order to prove he is the real deal, he must show off his talent at the NFL Combine, if and when he decides to move to the next level, which may be as soon as next spring.

Posted November 11, 2008