Marques Roberts: Receiving Attention
10/12/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 12, 2004
By Carroll Fadal, Special to baylorbears.com
Perhaps his teammates could sense the inner coach in Marques Roberts when they elected him a captain before the season. Or maybe it's because he's a vocal guy in practice, making sure his colleagues stay on mission.
Whatever the reason, Roberts, a fifth-year senior wide receiver, relishes his role as a team leader. He likes it so much, in fact, that he wants to coach high school football when he graduates from Baylor.
"I really enjoy the game, and all that I've learned," the fifth-year senior from Luling said. "I went and watched my high school team during our off week, and from the stands, I saw a lot of things they could have done better and differently. Watching that, something just clicked in my head that I might be able to do it."
"Marques is a coach on the field," wide receivers coach Harold Jackson said. "He's a player that every coach would love to have. He's smart; he knows every position on the field and where everybody's supposed to be at any given time. You can tell he's got a coach's attitude, because he's always asking questions, then telling the younger kids what to do."
That Roberts is so interested in and focused on football speaks volumes about his growth during his Baylor career. Blessed with good hands and outstanding leaping ability, Roberts spent long stretches on the bench early in his career, primarily because of a lack of consistency.
"My career here could have been better," he said. "I've had a lot of growing up to do during the years I've been at Baylor. I've needed to be more mature, and I've had to learn to go full speed on every play. A lot of it is mental; I've needed to learn how to play the mental aspects of the game as well as the physical aspects."
Physically, he's played well enough to be on the threshold of Baylor's all-time top career receptions list. Entering his final season, he needed only 21 catches to move into the No. 10 spot. Through BU's first three games, he had already caught eight passes for 117 yards and a team-high two touchdowns. His 14.6-yards-per-catch average was tops on the team.
"He's going to give you 110 percent when he's on the field," Jackson said. "He's very aggressive, and he's a big strong kid, because when the defensive backs bump into him, they bounce right off of him. He's a guy who's got a great vertical leap."
"This is my last year, and I want it to be my best year," Roberts said. "I put in a lot of work during the summer so that I could be as good as I can be this season. I want to go all out every play of every game, because I don't want to leave here with any regrets."
So far, that plan has worked well for him. Before the season began, he was listed as a second-teamer, behind sophomores Dominique Zeigler and Trent Shelton. But Roberts' play has earned him a starting role, one he got comfortable in last year when he started all 12 contests. The 2003 season proved to be a comeback year for the 6-2, 218-pounder, because despite starting the first six games his sophomore year and playing in 11 of 12 contests, he had only six catches for 117 yards.
It's a good bet that Roberts' teammates and coaches noticed his growing maturity in that bounce-back season because it's not often you see a wide receiver named offensive captain. Roberts, for one, didn't expect it.
"It was just a big surprise, and a big award for me and a big joy knowing my teammates wanted me to be a leader," Roberts said. "I take the role seriously, and I try to show it by speaking up in practice when we're down, going full speed all the time and then executing on Saturday.
"I try to lead both by voice and example. I think it's easier to lead by example, because it's easier for people to believe what you're saying when they see you do it. If you just talk and don't do, they're not going to follow you."
One thing Roberts would like his teammates and Baylor fans to see is him lining up at cornerback. A three-year all-district performer playing both ways at Luling, the communications major misses the challenge of playing in the defensive secondary - but not that much.
"I kind of like offense and defense," Roberts said. "Offense is where you get more of the joy, but I liked defense, too. Because I was a receiver, I could make plays on defense; I could sense what the receiver was going to do. It's fun getting interceptions.
"I told (defensive backs) coach (Wesley) McGriff that I would play cornerback for him when the other team is in the red zone," he laughed, "because I don't want to be out there chasing those fast wide receivers all over a long field."
This year, it's been cornerbacks chasing Roberts. Both his touchdowns through the first three games came on deep post patterns. Early in his BU career, the touchdowns he caught mostly came on fade routes, where he could take advantage of his leaping ability, a talent tha t got him scholarship offers in a different sport.
"I was recruited pretty heavily for basketball, and the bigger schools than recruited me for football," Roberts said. "But most of them came too late. My parents said the last basketball offer I got came from Brigham Young, but I'd already made up my mind to play football at Baylor. Despite his high school success, Baylor was the only Big 12 school that sought his football services.
"Most of them were smaller schools around Texas," he said. "I chose Baylor because it was a Big 12 school; but, also because it was a really good school academically. I knew getting a degree here would mean a lot."
Roberts has taken the academic side of college life seriously, being named to the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll last spring with his Communications Specialist major and a minor in business administration. Right now, though, he's concentrating on the gridiron.
"I really believe that if we can maintain momentum week in and week out, we can be playing in (a) December (bowl game)," Roberts said. "But we have to just keep focused and keep working on Saturdays. We have to keep doing the little things so we can keep getting better."
Spoken like a true coach.
