As a high school senior, current LSU junior wide receiver Demetrius Byrd had a tough time getting scholarship offers. Even with his 6-foot-2-inch frame and impressive athletic ability, many schools felt he was too raw after just one year of high school football at Miami Central. Byrd ended up signing with Florida International University before learning that he was academically ineligible to play for the Golden Panthers. This led Byrd to make what he feels was his best decision ever in attending Pearl River Community College in Mississippi. “I was mad at first because I did not want to go to junior college,” Byrd said. “I didn’t know anything about it, and I had never heard of it. But it made me have to step up in school and make good grades.” At Pearl River, he also met coach Tim Hatten. Hatten, who is now in his sixth season at the helm, has seen many of his players go on to receive Division I scholarships. A select few have gone straight to the NFL, but of the bunch, he said Byrd is as talented a player as he has ever coached. “Once he gets comfortable in what he’s doing, Demetrius [Byrd] is a guy whose confidence level goes up,” Hatten said. This was proven early in Byrd’s collegiate career to the Pearl River coach. In his first game with the Wildcats, Byrd did not record a catch despite several opportunities. “A couple of my coaches said ‘I can’t believe we signed that sorry joker,'” Hatten said. “I told them he’d be all right, but in the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘Oh Lord, we just signed a kid that can’t play.'” Byrd quickly dispelled those notions. In his second game with the Wildcats he caught nine passes for 212 yards and three touchdowns. He would go on to catch 87 balls for 1,433 yards and 12 touchdowns throughout his short junior college career, earning him first-team junior college All-American honors. He even caught the 36-yard game winning touchdown in the Mississippi State Junior college championship. “At Pearl River I learned how to be a go-to guy, somebody who whenever your number is called you step up,” Byrd said. “Coach Hatten called my number, and I stepped up for him and was there to make plays.” His play-making ability for coach Hatten and the Wildcats earned him a considerable amount of scholarship offers the second time around in the recruiting process, including LSU, Louisville and Florida State to name a few. During his official recruiting trip to LSU, he said senior wide receiver Early Doucet helped sway his decision to join the Tigers. “Early [Doucet] told me, ‘You better come here because if you go somewhere else you’re going to be wishing you went to LSU,'” Byrd said. He also received a friendly threat from his hometown friend and current Tiger sophomore defensive end Ricky Jean-Francois to attend school at LSU. “Ricky Jean was telling me I better come here or he’d beat me up,” Byrd joked. When he landed at LSU, it took some time for the receiver to catch on. Just as he had done at Pearl River, Byrd recorded no catches in his first game with the Tigers against Mississippi State and was also blanked in the game against South Carolina. “There was never a question about Demetrius Byrd’s talent; it was just a matter of time before he started understanding the system and the position that he played,” senior quarterback Matt Flynn said. “Once he got more comfortable, everyone started getting more comfortable around him and more confident in him.” Once the comfort level set in, Byrd began playing up to his talent level, scoring touchdowns against Middle Tennessee and Florida. His emergence culminated in his past two Southeastern Conference performances, which included a final second, game-winning touchdown against Auburn and a six-catch, 144-yard, one-touchdown game against Alabama. His play of late has caught the eye of LSU coach Les Miles. “Demetrius Byrd continues to improve and does have strong natural talent,” Miles said. “That combination has allowed him to step forward and make big plays. I don’t know of many guys that make plays when the game is on the line that don’t approach it the exact same way he does.” Along with his comfort zone being reached, teammates have noticed a step up in his on-field and off-field swagger. Senior cornerback Chevis Jackson faces Byrd during one-on-one drills every day at practice and said he can notice his growth as the season has progressed. “You can tell he’s starting to get more confident,” Jackson said. “At first he wasn’t talking as much because he was uncomfortable. Now he’s starting to step his game up and do a little more trash talking in the process.” If the Tigers reach the National Championship game Jan. 8, Byrd will be able to do a little more trash talking. At 9-1 and ranked No. 1 in the BCS standings, the Tigers are on course to play in that championship game in New Orleans. This would be normal to a player like Byrd, who has played in two consecutive title games at Pearl River. “My mother tells me all the time that it seems like every team I go to, we wind up winning.” Byrd said. If everything goes as planned for the junior, he will continue his winning ways in the NFL. He will also continue his newly adopted Byrd signal touchdown celebration that he picked up from the Tiger Stadium student section. “There’s a whole group in the student section who call my name,” Byrd said. “They yell ‘Byrd Man’ and do the Byrd signal. So now I keep that going for them. You can look forward to seeing that all through my career in football.”
—Contact Jeff Martin at [email protected]