Conway’s Derrick has earned his keep

Some would say Peyton Derrick’s season has been brilliant.

He’s placed himself atop one of Conway’s single-season passing records while standing on the brink of others. More importantly, he’s been the centerpiece of a team that with a victory at Sumter on Friday will win the Region VI-AAAA championship.

Considering how bad things have been for Chuck Jordan’s team lately, even the most faithful of Tiger fans doubted this could be that type of season. Since 2008, when Conway last won a region title, there have been five losing seasons - three more than Conway had in Jordan’s first 26 seasons.

But for as bad as the back-to-back 2-9 finishes were, 2015 has been a refreshing return to winning football. The defense is allowing about two touchdowns per game fewer than a year ago.

What the offense has done, however, is what’s attracting so much attention.

The Tigers are scoring 41 points per game, a figure that’s better than all but three teams in Class AAAA. Folks point to what stud receiver Bryan Edwards did before suffering a season-ending knee injury last week and wonder how the rest of the team will respond.

“We have to stay focused, and we have to step up,” Derrick said.

Mostly, he has to step up. Everyone is curious to see how Derrick will fare without one of the most dynamic playmakers in the state.

Jordan makes sure to point out everything is not on the junior’s shoulders. Moments later, though, he also talks about how quarterback-heavy the current installment of the Tigers’ scheme is.

Derrick understands. After all, he was handed the keys to the offense near the end of his freshman season and was expected to make something special happen. He wasn’t just any kid who arrived with hopes of playing the position. Derrick entered Conway High School with a pedigree.

“I’ve seen Peyton grow up before my eyes,” Jordan said. “I saw him when he was a puppy. We knew from very early on that he was going to be a quarterback. When you have some ability and you work at it, good things happen.”

WORKING BEYOND THE NAME

Peyton Derrick embodies the Conway legacy he was born into.

His grandfather, Julius, coached the Tigers from 1971-1977. His father, Dirk, quarterbacked Conway, as did older brother Dakota. Julius, who died in January, was the inspiration for adding the family name to the football fieldhouse alongside Buddy Sasser’s.

But with the knowledge of what his family had already done for Conway, somehow, privilege gave way to something else.

“He just came in wanting to work, wanting to win,” receiver Darren Stanley said. “He didn’t feel like he was higher up than anybody else. He wasn’t afraid of [hard work]; he wasn’t entitled.”

Jordan admits he’s been harder on Derrick - much like he was with his own sons - so that other players didn’t feel like he was getting special treatment. That was a harder sell with Derrick. He wasn’t just playing the most visible position in the game.

When he was named the starter with one game remaining in the 2013 season, a mini-firestorm followed. A former quarterback’s father, a booster club member, sent a letter to the editor of the Horry County Independent asking for Jordan’s removal. The Tigers were in the middle of their worst stretch since the coach took over in 1983, so others became vocal as well.

Jordan chooses not to talk specifics about that situation, although his generic approach explains that decision and others he’s made.

“We get blamed all the time for playing favorites,” he said. “I’ll be the first one to admit it; I do play favorites. I like guys who can help me win.”

Teammates saw glimpses of what Derrick could be last year, when he threw for 1,981 yards. They also believe he could do more, and they knew their abilities as a team rested largely on the quarterback making the most of his.

They’d joke with him in the weight room when they wanted to see him squat more weight; they’d urge him to keep up on runs against receivers or running backs who were supposed to be faster.

The brotherly competition mimicked his true sibling rivalry. It is Dakota, who graduated in 2008 and went on to play at Furman, who owns most of the school’s passing records. During his senior season, he threw for a school-record 2,471 yards and 27 touchdowns while completing 187 passes.

Through nine games, Peyton Derrick has 2,250 yards, 28 touchdowns and 146 completions.

“We’ve talked about that ever since I came up from eighth grade and I told him ‘I’m coming after your records.’ He laughed,” Peyton Derrick said. “Then, after the first couple games, I thought this might be the year for me to do it. We had the targets. He had Junior Hemingway, and I had Bryan Edwards. I’ve been blessed to have the receivers I’ve had and have the playmakers I’ve had. I can give them the ball and they make me look better than I actually am.”

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

During a practice earlier this week, Derrick was airing out pass after pass. Twenty yards downfield. Then 30. One overshot a receiver; the next one didn’t.

On the sidelines, the big-time receiver recruit noticed how different that was from last season.

“We tried to work the deep ball, but it wasn’t working for us,” Edwards said. “Now, we have the guys for it.”

He wasn’t talking about just himself.

Stanley, Tyrone Bennett, Deandre Huggins, Malachi Miller and Juwan Moody are all burners with the ability to break away from opposing cornerbacks. Their numbers are nothing like Edwards’, but each of those five have at least one reception of 32 yards or longer. They’ve also combined for 16 touchdown receptions.

Derrick said there have been times this season when Edwards was drawing so many defenders that he had no choice but to pick another temporary favorite. With the best of the bunch on the bench for the rest of the year, that diversity will have to expand.

“[The other receivers] are younger, so they don’t get as much recognition,” said senior tailback Jah’Maine Martin, who also has caught 11 receptions for three touchdowns in addition to 15 rushing scores. “We have some talent. It’s just now they’re really going to have to show up and show everybody what they have.”

Said Stanley: “We’re still very dangerous. There are a lot of people on this team that people don’t know. They can make a big impact on the field because they’re not going to be keying on anybody. I think we’re going to have more balance to our offense.”

Like most coaches, Jordan isn’t a fan of discussing statistics. Good or bad, they don’t always tell the story.

One of Derrick’s in particular, however, gives the team and its fans hope moving forward. In 223 pass attempts, the 6-foot-1 signal-caller has thrown just three interceptions. That’s a mere 1.3 percent of his passes.

Some of that is decision-making and the game slowing down around him. Some is arm strength, a product of offseason conditioning. Evidenced by those deep passes, this is no longer a unit that relies on only the short throws.

“I feel like I’m more confident this year in the ability to throw the ball than I was last year based on mechanics,” Derrick said. “But I also feel great about my receivers. I can trust them more than I did last year. They feel more solid, like targets. I feel better about them being where they need to be. And I feel they trust me to put the ball where it has to be on time. It helps me when we have that trust.”

It was going to be tested in games against Sumter with or without Edwards. The Gamecocks are 7-2, and have the second-best defense in the class. The three RegionVI-AAAA teams Sumter has played have scored a combined 10 points.

All that said, coach Mark Barnes’ defense also hasn’t seen an offense quite as productive as Conway’s. And it has yet to see Peyton Derrick at his best.

“What we do offensively, if you don’t have a quarterback, you don’t have a chance. He’s in a system where it is very quarterback-friendly. He has delivered.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 9:20 PM with the headline "Conway’s Derrick has earned his keep."