Boyce guts it out as Big Sky leader

Most college football coaches take great pride in being cerebral, but Paul Wulff admits there is something to be said for gut feelings.

“My mind might not always be right,” said Eastern Washington University’s eighth-year head coach, “but my gut usually is.”

That certainly proved true in the case of Aaron Boyce, a lightly recruited wide receiver out of Kentwood (Wash.) High School, who has suddenly emerged as the No. 1 pass-catching threat in the Big Sky Conference.

Boyce, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound sophomore with great hands and deceptive speed, leads the conference in receptions (69), yards per catch (16.3) and yards per game (125.2). His total of 1,127 receiving yards is 272 more than the Big Sky’s next most prolific receiver, Portland State’s Tremayne Kirkland, who has 855.

Boyce’s 17 catches in Eastern’s 24-23 loss at Montana set a school record, and his 232 receiving yards against the Grizzlies ranks No. 2 in the school’s history.

“Aaron is amazing,” said Matt Nichols, the Eagles’ sophomore quarterback and main beneficiary of Boyce’s considerable talents. “At any time, I can really just throw the ball up and Aaron can make a play. Not every quarterback has that luxury.

“If I get in trouble, I’m going to No. 9, and he gets open. Teams know where he is on the field and double-team him, but he still gets open.”

All of this is from a young man who came to Eastern in fall 2005 on a partial scholarship.

Wulff recalls his first face-to-face meeting with Boyce, a raw talent who played only one year of high school football.

“We had been recruiting him, because we thought he had some potential,” Wulff said. “My plan was to offer him a partial scholarship, period, and see where it went.”

It seemed like the cerebral thing to do at the time.

But during Boyce’s recruiting trip, Wulff met him, face to face, for the first time.

Because of the way Boyce conducted himself during their sit-down chat, something in Wulff’s gut told him to up the ante.

Wulff had no more full rides available at the time, but that didn’t prevent him from making a full-ride promise.

“After I met him in person, in about five or six minutes I realized we had to make sure we got this guy,” Wulff said. “He was just so mature and such a great person. So, I said, ‘I’ll tell you what. You got a partial scholarship this first year, but I’ll guarantee you a full scholarship your second.’

“After seeing his personality, I was sold. I went with my gut feeling, and it paid off.”

For all parties involved, it would seem.

“I know the coaches here thought I was kind of a risk,” said Boyce, whose only other football offers came from Central Washington and Linfield. “But at least they put some trust in me, and I thank them for giving me this great opportunity.

“Hopefully, it’ll continue working out for all of us.”

Boyce, who started 10 games as a redshirt freshman last fall, will line up again as Eastern’s slot receiver on Saturday, when the Eagles (6-3 overall, 4-2 in the Big Sky) travel to Flagstaff, Ariz., to face Northern Arizona (6-4, 5-2) in a game that could have major postseason playoff consequences.

Even with fellow sophomore wideout Tony Davis expected to play a much bigger role after returning from a shoulder injury in last weekend’s 17-7 win over Northern Colorado, Boyce expects Nichols to continue looking in his direction.

“At least I hope he does,” Boyce said of his quarterback and close friend, who has also put up some eye-popping numbers. “You can’t have a good receiver without a great quarterback.

“Matt does a lot of the hard work for me. I’ve just got to run around and catch the ball. He’s the one who has to sit back there in the pocket, stay calm, read coverages and pick opponents apart.”

Boyce and Nichols became extremely close during their rookie season at Eastern when they both redshirted.

“We’re both really competitive guys,” Boyce said, “and we’ve felt all along like we were going to be a big part of this team. Our redshirt year, we were out running routes in the snow during the winter, and now it’s starting to pay off.”

As a freshman last fall, Boyce caught just 35 passes for 471 yards and three touchdowns. The improvement he has made since then has been remarkable.

“I think a lot of is has to do with last year and playing, probably, more than I should have,” Boyce said. “Obviously, you’re going to get stronger and faster over the year, but with me, it’s more a matter of seeing things better. Last year, I didn’t really pick up on a lot of the little tricks on how to run routes and get open.

“This year, I’ve become a better student of the game, picking up on the little things that help you out during a game.”

Wulff said the keys to Boyce’s quick development are rooted in his personality.

“He’s very mature, he’s a great person and he’s got a passion for trying to become really good,” Wulff said. “All of those things – along with his natural ability – have allowed him to flourish.”

Still, by his own admission, Boyce was a better basketball player than football player in high school, where he was a teammate of Rodney Stuckey, the former Eagles star who left school last spring following his sophomore year and became a first-round NBA draft choice of the Detroit Pistons.

The two former teammates, according to Boyce, still call and text message each other on regular basis, even though Stuckey is inactive because of a broken hand.

When asked which one is the better football player of the two, Boyce called his own number, noting that Stuckey never played in high school.

“But he’s actually a pretty good quarterback,” Boyce said. “We’d go through some routes, with him throwing, each summer. He probably could have played some football if he had wanted.”

Basketball is a different matter.

“He’s probably got me there,” said Boyce, a former McDonald’s All-American nominee, who averaged 16.8 points and nearly eight rebounds per game during his senior year at Kentwood. “But when he was still here in college, I’d say I could ‘D’ him up better than most people.”

Despite all of the early success he has experienced on the football field, Boyce still misses basketball.

With the Eagles basketball team so short-handed under first-year coach Kirk Earlywine, he can’t help but occasionally wonder if he might be able to help once the football season is over.

“I’ve actually joked about it a couple of times,” Boyce said, “but Coach Wulff didn’t look too happy the first time I brought it up.”

Just another gut feeling, perhaps?