Ballard in top form
Wide receiver Henry Ballard needed just three games to show why he consistently drew high praise from UAPB Coach Cedric Thomas during preseason camp.
The junior leads the SWAC with 325 yards receiving on just 13 receptions. Before hauling in 5 passes for 147 yards and 2 touchdowns last week against Langston, he had 5 catches for 140 yards and 3 scores on Sept. 7 against Alabama A&M. The five touchdowns are tops in the conference among receivers.
“He’s just a big-time college football player,” Thomas said. “He’s physical, catches the ball at the highest point, blocks when the ball is not coming to him. … He’s just a great perimeter asset, and he’s doing it the right way. Just to have him be a part of us this year has been tremendous.”
Expectations were understandably high for Ballard, who was ranked as the No. 7 player in Missouri by Rivals as a senior in 2016. He committed to the University of Missouri that same year but later enrolled at Jones County (Miss.) Junior College. Ballard signed with UAPB in December 2018 and has made an immediate impact on an already stacked receiving corps.
After then-leading wide receiver Josh Wilkes went down with a seasonending leg injury in the third game of the 2018 season, sophomore receiver Dejuan Miller stepped up to catch 56 passes for 801 yards en route to becoming the SWAC’s Freshman of the Year. The Golden Lions also returned tight end Jeremy Brown and receivers Tyrin Ralph and Kolby McNeal, all of whom combined to catch 110 passes for 1,168 yards last year. Adding Ballard to the mix essentially made a productive unit that much better.
“The biggest thing is that he’s a team player,” Thomas said. “He’s not an I guy because he’s all about the team. That’s what really helps Dejuan, Tyrin Ralph and all those guys inside. Just him coming to work, opening some things up.
“It just so happens that these last couple of weeks, he’s gotten open. That could be because you’ve got an All-American [Miller] on the other side and people may be rolling coverage toward him. But Harry has been able to make some big-time plays.”