Heard chomping at the bit to return to the gridiron

Clay Chandler
DM Staff Writer

Are you ready for some football?

Grant Heard certainly is.

The Ole Miss wide receiver from Lake Jackson, Texas, returns for a second senior season in 2000. Heard missed the majority of the 1999 campaign because of an injury he suffered to his right knee during practice for the Rebels' 1998 Independence Bowl date with Texas Tech. He appeared in the Vanderbilt game and had two catches for 11 yards. The NCAA granted Heard a medical redshirt at the end of 1999, giving him an extra year of eligibility.

Heard said being left behind by the guys he had played with his first three years, including his brother Ronnie, a safety, was hard to take at first.

"Everybody I came in with graduated last year," Heard said. "The beginning was hard to cope with. Toward the end I learned that maybe there's bigger and better things."

Heard's knee had recovered well enough that he could have participated in two-a-day practices last August. But he re-injured the knee the first day and had to have a second surgery, the point, Heard said, when he was at his lowest.

"I had worked so hard all summer to get back and then the very first day that happened, so that was the most discouraging part."

The surgically repaired knee is at full strength and doesn't swell or become sore after any kind of physical activity, Heard said.

After he learned he wouldn't play in 1999, Heard didn't attend, or even watch, most of the games, saying it was too painful to be a spectator rather than a participant.

"I went to the Georgia game and then the (Mississippi) State game. I didn't watch the games but when I heard the scores I didn't ever think, 'I could have a made a difference'. We had guys who could make plays, but we just didn't get the job done apparently," Heard said.

Heard is the only wide receiver returning with any significant game experience. With Cory Peterson graduating and Maurice Flournoy being kicked off the team for unspecified rules violations, Heard will be expected to fill Peterson's role as the primary playmaker in a young receiving corps that will have to be effective to keep defenses from loading up the line of scrimmage to stop all-purpose player Deuce McAllister, who led the SEC in all-purpose yards last year, and running back Joe Gunn, the conference's second leading rusher in 1999.

Heard expects to catch between 60 and 70 passes, but said he doesn't worry about touchdowns that much.

"I don't even worry about touchdowns. I figure if I jut get it close enough, Deuce and Joe will get it in for us. If I score, I score; if I don't, I don't worry about it."

The first extended game action Heard saw after his injuries was the Grove Bowl last April. In that game, playing for the Blue Team, Heard led the squad with four catches for 73 yards and one touchdown.

"It just felt good knowing that I can still play," Heard said of his Grove Bowl performance. "It made me want it that much more now. It's going to be fun. I'm ready to go."