Tyler Boyd has never lacked confidence.

Once, when he was in elementary school, he brought his report card home to his mom. After looking over his grades, and seeing solid marks, she excitedly called her sister-in-law to share the good news.

Hearing his mother beam over his good grades, Boyd was taken aback.

“What else would I get?” he retorted.

Those high expectations that Boyd has for himself have followed him throughout his life.

“My confidence level is very high,” Boyd said. “I know what I am doing. I come very prepared to practice. Then when game day comes I am very focused and ready.”

Currently in his freshman season at Pittsburgh, Boyd is the second-leading receiver for the Panthers, averaging 14.2 yards per catch, en route to catching six touchdowns.

He has been one of the leaders for Pittsburgh, but he’s had some help getting to where he is today. Growing up without his father, Brian Boyd, he relied on his stepfather and uncle to instill the belief within himself that he now exudes readily as a Panther.

Even after Brian Boyd left and started a new family, his brother Samuel, and his wife Laurice treated Tyler and his brother like sons.

“It wasn’t hard for us, because his mother has always allowed us to be in his life,” Laurice Boyd said. “There was no problem, she never stopped us from being in either of those kids’ lives.”

Samuel Boyd, who is a security officer at Pittsburgh, supported Tyler when he played sports. He would go to games, help them buy equipment, make sure they were registered for leagues. He was always there for him when he needed to be.

Jason Jarrett married Boyd’s mother after she divorced Brian. Jarrett was a coach of Boyd in youth football league and taught him some of the ins and outs of being a running back when he was a kid. But when Boyd went home, Jarrett took on the father role of making sure he got his schoolwork done.

“He’s not my real father,” Boyd said. “But he was a man about stepping in place, and he wanted to be with my mother, he knew the consequences of that. He manned up about it. He stepped up to the plate. He took care of us.”

It was their confidence and loyalty that helped him believe in himself. And he took that same self-assured attitude that he had in elementary school out to the football field in high school. There, he set a league record with 117 touchdowns playing running back, quarterback, receiver, defensive back, and punt returner. After football was done, he’d lace up his sneakers and hit the gym for basketball season. When that was over, he’d head out to the diamond for baseball.

He currently plays with four other athletes from Clairton (Pa.) High School, where he became a prolific athlete. Wide receiver Kevin Weatherspoon was a senior when Boyd was just starting out, and said it didn’t take long for his coaches and teammates to take notice of Boyd’s ability.

“He was always a hard worker. He was never the type to settle for less,” Weatherspoon said. “As the years went on, around his junior and senior year, we knew that he was going to do big things.”

Before Weatherspoon graduated, he told his teammates to make sure they stuck together when it was time to go to college. When Boyd and three of his teammates were offered scholarships to Pittsburgh, the choice was easy.

As he enters the final two weeks of the season, with the Panthers just one win away from a bowl game, Boyd’s confidence hasn’t wavered.

“Back home there was a whole bunch of youth players and youth kids looking up to me, screaming my name, going crazy,” Boyd said. “Now it’s older people, they’re not screaming my name, but they’re recognizing me, giving me high-fives, telling me, ‘Great game.’

“It feels really good knowing I’m helping the program change.”

 

Published on November 23, 2013 at 10:56 am

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