HOOVER, Ala. — With the losses of Malachi Dupre and Travin Dural, D.J. Chark is the Tigers’ only established playmaker on the perimeter.
After just touching the ball once in his first two years, a 79 yard touchdown run on a jet sweep against Texas Tech, Chark broke out in his junior season. He finished the 2016 season with 26 catches for 466 yards and three touchdowns, and he rushed the ball 12 times for 122 yards and two touchdowns.
Chark was a part of the three-man crew coach Ed Orgeron assembled for the SEC Media Days. Junior running back Derrius Guice and senior defensive end Christian LaCouture were the other two members.
“I talked to Danny and said ‘Danny how about we let D.J. come?’ He said ‘I would love D.J. to go. It’d be a good experience for him.’”
Chark is now the declared leader in the wide receiver room and is joined by Russell Gage as the only seniors at the position. Chark, however, almost left Gage as the lone senior and came close to declaring for the 2017 NFL draft.
“D.J. was really thinking about going to the NFL,” Orgeron said. “I told him there are bigger and better things. If he came back for his senior year that I would be sure to put him in the best position possible.”
With his senior year now underway, the leadership role that has been bestowed on Chark surprised him at first.
“After the bowl game coach [Demayune] Craig came in for a meeting, and I looked around and didn’t see Travin or Malachi,” Chark said. “He was talking about the next guys stepping up, and I was wondering who was going to be the second receiver.”
Chark said he still views himself as the second or third receiver after looking up to Dural and Dupre for so long.
Now as the top receiver, Chark will be complemented by Gage and sophomores Derrick Dillon, Dee Anderson, Stephen Sullivan and Drake Davis.
The wide receivers also have two new coaches in offensive coordinator Matt Canada and wide receivers coach Mickey Joseph.
“It’s been a lot of repetition,” Chark said. “We are going over everything we learned in the spring, and you have to really study the playbook because some new plays have been thrown in. A lot more things have been put in, but we are still focusing on the basics.”
Chark has been putting in work with quarterback Danny Etling in the past month to help speed up the learning process of the offense. Etling, who is coming off of back surgery, is expected to be the starting quarterback in the fall.
Chark credited Etling’s toughness and said he never knew the extent of the quarterback’s injury until he had surgery.
“It makes you want to sell out for him,” Chark said. “If he has criticism, I’ll be the first to take it on my chest and put it on my back and ride for him.”
Now that Etling is fully healthy, Chark said that the ball is being put on the spot, and he doesn’t have to look for it coming out of his breaks.
The duo will look to improve on last year’s 101st ranked passing attack in an offense that Chark said has unlimited potential.
