The Cardinal Countdown: 9 days until kickoff

#9 DeVante Parker

Class: Senior

Ht/Wt: 6-3/211

Position: Wide Receiver

Hometown: Louisville, KY (Product of Ballard High School)

Twitter: @TalentedYoung9

Thoughts:

UPDATE: I wrote this recap before news broke late last night that DeVante suffered a foot injury during practice yesterday. At this time I have no idea the seriousness of the injury nor have I seen anyone report additional details or speculations about the length of time he may be out. I thought about rewriting this post due to the change in situation but I’ll continue to hold out hope that Parker is suiting up again for the Cards at some point this year. My thoughts are with DeVante and his family, praying for a quick recovery.

If Petrino’s mantra of ‘feed the studs’ holds true this season, be prepared to hear "Touchdown DeVante Parker" quite a few times from Sean Moth. Parker came into the program as a local kid who many thought would be successful, but I doubt even his biggest fans could have predicted him heading into his senior year getting mentions for the All-ACC squad and making the watch list for the Maxwell Award and Biletnikoff Award. Parker's rise has been pretty astounding, and it’s crazy to think that he could potentially end his career with his name plastered all over the record books as one of the best to ever play for the Cards. Let’s a take a quick peek at the Top 10 for career receiving categories…

1. Career receptions

1^st: Arnold Jackson; 299

10^th: Lavell Boyd; 135

Parker, 113 (One would assume he would catch at least 23 passes to crack the Top 10)

2. Career Receiving Yards

1st: Arnold Jackson; 3,670

10^th: Devante Parker; 1,920

(If Parker were to replicate last year, 885yds, that would put him at #4 all-time)

3. Career Receiving Touchdowns

1^st: Ibn Green; 33 TDs

3^rd: Devante Parker; 28 TDs

(My guess is Parker smashes this record. Even with spreading the ball around, we should score more TDs this season in general and I can’t imagine him not pulling in at least six TDs.)

4. Career Yards Per Reception

1^st: Mike Dennis; 21.2 YPR

5^th: DeVante Parker; 16.9 YPR

Already Top 5, probably not catching Mike D. (Mike D. never known to let the ball…ummm, drop) Hopefully someone gets that joke.

5. 100 yard games, Career

1^st: Arnold Jackson; 15

9^th: DeVante Parker; 5

Not catching Arnold, but four would put him tied for 6^th, five would put him tied for 3^rd

So out of all five career receiving categories DeVante is Top 10 in four of them already, and if he catches 23 passes this year he’s locked down in all five. I could probably write a few paragraphs about how important DeVante has been in the development of this program, the development of Teddy as a QB, the development of the young wideouts he’s got coming up behind him, etc but I’ll save you the read on a Saturday morning. Bottom line is over the last 20 years we've had some stars at wideout (Jackson, Douglas, Branch, Russell, Urrutia) and my personal opinion is that from a talent perspective Parker is one of the best I've ever seen.

With Burgess, De La Cruz, Gardner, Dom Brown and now Parker all on back-to-back days I feel like I’m been going slightly overboard with my praise the last week or so. While I always try and provide some positive insight into each player I don’t just throw out superlatives on a whim and I really do believe this group of four/five players is special and will be remembered for years to come.

Sweet Tweet:

Be Productive Today!!!

— Devante Parker (@TalentedYoung9) May 19, 2014

Let’s get serious for a second. While sitting at your house  all day because its 108 degrees outside seems like a good idea now, you better check that to-do list and get some stuff knocked out this weekend. Why? Because next Saturday is the first weekend of college football and you are not getting ANYTHING accomplished.

"Well, the next weekend I can.." NOPE. More football on Saturday and NFL starts Sunday.

"Maybe the next weekend I’ll get a chance to…" NOPE. Cards play at 12:30 and there are some good games all afternoon.

"Surely the next weekend things slow down some, I mean…" Cards at FIU, Clemson at Florida St., Florida at Alabama, should I continue…?

[grabs to-do list]