Darrius Heyward-Bey and Josh Portis may be moving in opposite directions, but each player’s respective decision to leave the Terrapin football team makes sense for him.
Heyward-Bey is clearly an NFL-caliber talent, and if he received positive information regarding where he might be drafted in April, the only logical move for him to make was to get out of town while he still can.
The typical buzz among people who claim to know about such things is that Heyward-Bey will be selected somewhere in the first two rounds, and I really don’t see Heyward-Bey improving his draft status by sticking around for another year with the Terps.
We all saw Heyward-Bey’s size, speed, hands and big-play ability, but we also saw him practically disappear for games at a time. His numbers (42 catches for 609 yards and 5 touchdowns) were good but not outstanding, and if the Terps couldn’t consistently get him the ball, why should he stay?
From the Terps’ perspective, it is definitely going to hurt losing their best weapon in the passing game, especially when they will also lose the production from Danny Oquendo, Dan Gronkowski and theoretically Isaiah Williams.
Torrey Smith and Ronnie Tyler are really going to have to step up next season to help fill the void.
As for the Portis situation, it’s a shame it had to end with him transferring again, but it clearly was not working out for him with the Terps.
Early in the season, it looked like his occasional scramble might add an extra dimension to the Terp offense, but when he’d come in several times in a row and hardly ever attempt a pass, defenses started to know what was up and could defend against him more easily.
Word persisted that Portis had trouble grasping the intricacies of the playbook, and the Terps moved away from using him at all, as he only ended up appearing in eight games and throwing only three passes.
And because Chris Turner doesn’t have quite the same NFL prospects as Darrius Heyward-Bey, Portis probably wouldn’t have played much next year either.
It must be a bruise to the ego for Portis to go from Florida to Maryland to most likely Division II California (Pa.)–a descent comparable to a highly-touted intellectual genius starting out at Harvard then transferring to Maryland and then to community college–but if he is finally going to get some playing time and retain two years of eligibility, I agree with Portis that it’s worth it.
With Turner back under center, the Terps won’t really miss Portis next season–unless, of course, Turner gets hurt–but it’s unfortunate they couldn’t find a better way to get Portis involved somehow. He is a tremendous athlete, and if it wasn’t working out for him as a quarterback, it might have been interesting to see if he could play somewhere else, most realistically at wide receiver.
So, the Terps will move on without arguably their two most athletic players, one who most people expected to leave and one who wasn’t going to be a starter next year anyway, and Heyward-Bey and Portis will move on to different opportunities.
Each move was logical, and each was bound to happen.
Two things you forgot to mention:
1) NFL rookie salary cap in 2010
2) Kenny Tate
And please don’t compare the University of Florida to Harvard.
Portis, game has not kept him off the field its the polictics surrounding the game. He has a nice touch on the ball and is one of the fastest quarterbacks in college football. Good for him to move on with his education. I have no doubt he will make it to the next level with the talent he has. God speed to you Josh Portis. Once a Gator always a Gator.