FAYETTEVILLE — The third in a series profiling new additions for the Arkansas football team in 2010.
The molding of Maudrecus Humphrey will continue this fall a nine hour’s drive away from the epicenter of the Humphrey legend.
The son of former Alabama star running back Bobby Humphrey felt the best way for him to forge his own name as a gifted receiver was to ease out from the long shadow cast by his father around Birmingham, Ala.
Maudrecus Humphrey did just that by signing with the Arkansas Razorbacks, where he found a vibe that struck the right note, an offense where receivers can flourish and a program that will allow him to roll with his second love, track and field.
“I think coming to Arkansas was better for me because even if I had gone to Alabama, I wouldn’t have been my own player,” Humphrey said. “This offense is tailor made for receivers.”
His famous father, the school’s second all-time leading rusher and two-time 1,000-yard rusher in the NFL, provided reassuring guidance along the recruiting trail.
“He said just to make the right decision for me and not anybody else or anything like that,” the younger Humphrey said.
“That’s how it went all the way,” said Bobby Humphrey, who added that neither henor his wife, Barbara, a track coach and the 400-meter record holder at Alabama-Birmingham, factored into Maudrecus’ decision. “He wanted to dohis own thing. I don’t think he wanted it to be every time he’s mentioned that it’d be as the son of Bobby Humphrey. He’ll get some of that at Arkansas.”
Maudrecus Humphrey was once a running back, like his father, but he got too tall for the position in middle school and by that time was already showing good speed and hands. He broke his leg as a sophomore at powerhouse Hoover High School and dropped away from the recruiting radar.
He bounced back with a solid junior year in which he caught 47 passes for 808 yards and 10 touchdowns and was an all-state honorable mention player in Class 6A.
The Crimson Tide, then coming off a 12-0 2008 regular season, talked to Humphrey, but they were successfully pursuing four- and five-star talent at wide out and did not aggressively recruit Humphrey.
There are some who feel Alabama will regret that decision.
“Of course some people are going to say they let one get away, and others say he wasn’t good enough to play for Alabama anyways,” said Maudrecus Humphrey, 6-2, 185 pounds. “I was more focused on myself and which team I chose to go to.
“It’s not about what other people were saying, and that’s what my dad told me to focus on. I can’t keep chasing after Alabama if they’re not chasing after me.”
Humphrey caught 67 passes for 1,011 yards and 13 touchdowns as a senior, and schools like Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Louisville, Nebraska and West Virginia came calling. But he formed a strong bond with Arkansas assistant coach Reggie Johnson and liked what Fayetteville had to offer.
“I came up here for my official visit and that’s where it hit me: This is where I want to be,” Humphrey said. “The atmosphere when I got here was really warming. I just like it up here.
“It’s really nice and more relaxing than the other SEC schools I went to. It’s a great program, and they have a great business school.”
Humphrey plans to continue his career as a sprinter at Arkansas. He won the Class 6A 100-meter title in 10.48 seconds for Hoover’s state championship track team in the spring while also finishing second in the 200 (21.74) and winning the high jump (6-4).
“Maudrecus can do about anything he wants to athletically,” Hoover track coach Devon Hind told the Birmingham News. “He’s maybe not Bo Jackson as far as an athlete goes, but might be just a step below that level.”
As for the football at Arkansas, Bobby Humphrey used his coaching connections to check out Coach Bobby Petrino and his program.
“I talked to a really good friend of mine who kind of knew Petrino indirectly, and he said, ‘Bobby, if my son was a wide receiver, Petrino is one of the best offensive minds in the business and I’d want him to play there.’”
Bobby Humphrey, who was raised in a housing project, advised his son that he’d have to earn his keep under Petrino.
“Actually, Maudrecus and I went over some of the things about Petrino: Him being tough, him not easing up and being a disciplinarian,” the elder Humphrey said. “All those things I thought would be good for Maudrecus.
“I know he’s a tough nosed coach. I even told him, ‘You’re going to be fussed at and yelled at, and you have to come back out and do the things they want you to do.”
The Humphreys have four other children at home, including a varsity cheerleader and two other football-playing sons, so coordination will be key for them to attend Maudrecus’ games this fall.
But that’s what they intend to do as Maudrecus debuts, far from the Humphrey homeland of central Alabama, but still just a plane ride away.
Sports, Pages 17 on 07/01/2010