Sept. 2, 2003
By Todd Wallace * Host Communications
Instinct. Everyone has it, but just uses it for different reasons. To the average person instinct is pulling your hand away from boiling water or swerving away from an oncoming car on the road. To the average person instinct is staying away from danger whenever possible.
While Derek Abney shares many of the same instincts as the average person, it is his other instincts that separate him from the rest of society.
For instance, picture in your mind 11 angry men racing full speed toward you – the goal in their minds being they want to unload a knock-out blow on you – the kick returner, whose body is exposed as he patiently awaits a football to drop from the sky and land in his arms.
Instinct No. 1 for the average person: Don’t put yourself in that situation to begin with, but if you do catch that ball, then duck and run.
Instinct No. 1 for Abney: Repeat to himself, “I’ve got to be confident,” all the while understanding that he has to take this ball to the end zone.
Instinct No. 2 for the average person: If you did catch the ball, chances were you fell into a fetal position as the swarming opposition engulfed you.
Instinct No. 2 for Abney: Concentrate on the catch.
By instinct No. 3, the average person is no longer in the picture, but this is when Abney is just getting started.
Instinct No. 3 for Abney, after he has snared the ball, is analyzing the field. There have to be gaps and holes somewhere for him to find, so he is looking not only where the opposition is, but where his teammates are as he sets up blocks, looks for the hole and then hits it.
At that point Abney says, “It is just instinct.”
More often than any other player in NCAA history, it was that instinct which led Abney to the end zone last season.
And for Kentucky fans it was one of the most exciting seasons ever put forth by a player wearing the Blue and White. Abney set or tied five NCAA records, nine SEC records and 10 Kentucky records in 2002.
Fans were so spoiled by his success returning kicks that it didn’t feel like a complete Kentucky game without Abney taking one to the house.
According to Abney, this type of success is what every special teams player prepares for and expects.
“That’s the plan as a special teams guy,” he said. “We have to say to ourselves that this can happen any time during the game and at any moment. That is what is going to get you good returns – that you have the confidence that it is going to happen.”
It is no surprise that entering the 2003 season, the special teams unit will be loaded with confidence. However, the biggest problem may be transforming that confidence into action on the field. As one of the most prolific return men in NCAA history, Abney expects to be avoided at all costs this season.
While he admits it could be frustrating, Abney sees the limited returns as a push to make the most of his opportunities.
“I always want the ball in my hands, so if they kick around us that’s unfortunate,” he said. “But hopefully they will give us a couple chances at least and we can take it back to the house on them.”
Helping his All-American’s cause hopes to be special teams coach Steve Ortmayer, who is installing special rush packages so that the opposition is forced to kick the ball in Abney’s direction.
Another hurdle Abney may face is the removal of the “halo” rule, which forced defenders to give the returner a two-yard cushion as he catches the ball. While some believe this may affect his ability to make plays, Abney is much less concerned.
“They still can’t hit me before I catch it or things like that,” he said. “Most of the time when I caught it they hit me anyway, so it is still just catching the ball and running.”
“Just catching the ball and running,” Abney makes it sound so simple and then makes it look simple on the field.
Case in point, think back to last season. Kentucky was getting beaten soundly by Florida in the dreaded Swamp.
Down 19-0, the team needed a boost and they needed it quickly. Instinctively, Abney knew he was the guy that needed to provide the lift and did he ever. With 11:05 left in the third quarter quarterback Jared Lorenzen found Abney on a fade pattern in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown. After Florida answered with a touchdown, Abney answered with a dramatic statement of his own, taking the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for a score.
The touchdown was the fuel that lit Kentucky’s fire. The Cats eventually took the lead, lost it and then got it back within five points when Abney remarkably returned a punt for a touchdown with five minutes left in the game. After he crossed the goal line, the usually reserved player slammed the ball on the ground in the end zone, signifying his team wasn’t going anywhere.
“It was great,” Abney said. “I always tell people the most motivated I have ever been was in the Florida game. All the situations were right. It was in the Swamp, it was on TV and we were playing horrible, so we needed a momentum swing and I had been just so motivated to turn our team around and everyone else was also on the special teams, so it just worked out.
“That’s definitely been my favorite moment at Kentucky.”
After his career at Kentucky, the Mosinee, Wis., native is eyeing a career in the NFL. Because he lacks the prototypical size of today’s NFL receivers, it is a good shot that Abney will have to earn his keep as a specialist until he can prove his worth at wide receiver. The “too small” label has been something Abney has been battling his entire life, so if he also has that challenge at the next level it does not worry him.
“It has been motivation my whole life, it is going to be no different,” Abney said about those people who believed he could not excel at football. “I am going to do things that I know I can do and just do it right and let things happen as they may. I can’t change my size or anything like that.
“But I can take control of my own effort and my own preparation, so that is what I do. So if I am too small and I am playing the best I can, so be it.”
While Abney always states that he is a receiver first and a specialist, second, he admits that as long as he is in the NFL, he will be satisfied, no matter how he helps his team.
“I want to contribute,” he said of a potential career in the NFL. “If I am in the NFL, they are not going to keep you unless you contribute. And if contributing means working as hard as you can as a returner, then that is what is going to happen.
“I would like to catch some balls if that is what I was called upon … but the bottom line is they don’t keep players that don’t contribute.”
As the most proven weapon of the Kentucky offense, contributing at UK is not something Abney has to worry about his senior season. Both Coach Rich Brooks and offensive coordinator Ron Hudson have said it is a priority to get Abney the ball more this season. Whether it is through screens, reverses or big plays down field, the coaching staff knows getting their biggest playmaker the ball is if of the highest priority.
“Oh yeah,” Abney said, when asked about the possibility of getting more touches on offense. “Coach Brooks wants more yards per catch and I do, too. The more times I get the ball and the more deep plays we get, then it’s kind of a win-win for us.”
Aside from putting up big offensive numbers, Abney also wants to improve on the fundamentals of his game – namely run blocking. He said that Joker Phillips has been working hard with the receivers on this and the senior has been happy to oblige.
After all, Abney admits, while he was very fond of the previous two staffs, this staff has something the others didn’t – experience.
“The overall quality of this staff (is the biggest difference from the others),” he said. They’re veterans, they have been through everything and nothing is new to them, so that helps us out a lot.”
Abney has been so impressed with the staff that he feels it is not a stretch to think this Wildcat team can do some special things in his final season in Lexington.
The number one goal for the team is to make a bowl game. On top of that – as the Cats are in the middle of an always talented, but wide-open SEC East – who knows what can happen.
“We know that there is a possibility to make something special happen this year. You know traditionally in a first year (of a new coaching staff), things don’t go too well. But with the returning guys we have, I definitely feel we can make a run for it. Tony, Jared and me, its our last chance, so we are definitely going to give it our all,” he said.
After all, if Abney’s instincts about how the season will go are anything like his instincts on the football field, the Wildcats could be in for an exciting season.
