How Michael Jordan helped usher receiver Josh Downs to UNC
North Carolina receiver Josh Downs crouched at his locker at halftime of his first collegiate start, confused and frustrated as the rest of his teammates to be trailing 14-0 at Virginia Tech.
After hearing from his coaches of what he and his team needed to do in the second half, Downs needed to hear from one more source that he trusted.
He called his dad.
“We were struggling a little bit and I was like, ‘Do you see anything that I can do better?’ because I’m on the field of course, but I don’t trust anybody’s eyes better than my dad,” Downs told the News & Observer. “He was just telling me just keep finishing your routes, just wait on your opportunity to come. It’s gonna come. He’s like, just be patient.”
Sure enough, Downs caught six passes for 97 yards and a touchdown in the second half of what was then a career-best performance against the Hokies. And his opportunities have kept coming.
The 5-foot-10, 180-pound sophomore from Suwanee, Ga., has answered the question of who would step forward to replace Dazz Newsome and Dyami Brown for the Heels at receiver. Downs leads UNC with 32 receptions for 432 yards and five touchdowns this season. He’s second in the ACC in each of those categories, and so is his 113 receiving yards per game average.
That’s why he always listens to what his dad is saying.
“Since I was young, I’ve always been like a small dude so I feel like I’ve got to get ahead, some way, somehow,” Josh Downs said. “My dad always told me, ‘You got to be different since your size is not in your favor.’ And I just want to be the best player I can be.”
Downs is on pace through Carolina’s first four games to have the best season in program history. At his current rate, he would tie Ryan Switzer’s record of 96 receptions set in 2016. He’d surpass Hakeem Nicks’ record of 1,222 receiving yards set in 2008. And he’d smash Nicks, Dwight Jones and Dyami Brown, who tied with a record of 12 touchdowns in a season.
Bittersweet viewing for dad
And that’s why seeing Downs dressed in Carolina blue on Saturdays is still somewhat painful for his dad.
Gary Downs isn’t just any football dad. He played running back for six years in the NFL after being a third-round pick in the 1994 draft. He’s also the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at East Tennessee State.
But he played his college ball in Raleigh from 1990-93, leading N.C. State in rushing as a senior and totaling 1,036 yards from scrimmage.
Gary Downs met his wife, Tanya, at N.C. State and he did his best to indoctrinate his sons to Wolfpack football. He took them to games, including men’s basketball, so that they were used to cheering for the Pack. He was in contact with N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren and his staff informing them of Josh. Took him to summer football camps, too.
When Gary Downs and his brother-in-law Dre Bly would get to trash talking about whose school was better, Josh Downs never sided with his uncle. Gary Downs did everything a parent could do to get his child to follow in his footsteps, without being heavy-handed and forcing him.
But Josh Downs attended a camp at UNC under former coach Larry Fedora. He got an offer at the end of the camp, too, but told his dad he wasn’t interested.
Gary Downs could almost post his mission accomplished banner.
But he could not deny Michael Jordan.
The Michael Jordan dream
Gary Downs is a man of faith. He is prayerful and believes that things happen for a reason. That’s the only way to explain why, during his son’s recruitment by the likes of the Pack, Oregon and Ohio State, Jordan made a cameo appearance in one of his dreams.
The conversation was a short one. Jordan simply asked Gary Downs if there was anything he could do for him. Downs didn’t know how to take it. He definitely wasn’t going to tell his family he dreamed about Michael Jordan.
“The night after the dream, I went on a recruiting visit and what’s the first thing I see when I walk into the football facility?” Gary Downs said. “There’s a big shot of Michael Jordan, with his arms spread out wide. It was one of those weird premonitions.”
Gary Downs said it was God’s way of preparing him for what was about to take place.
A perfect storm of events began when UNC hired Mack Brown to replace Larry Fedora. Brown hired Bly, who told Josh Downs he was going to recruit him. Then Brown hired Phil Longo, who had been trying to recruit Downs to Mississippi while on staff there. Then quarterback Sam Howell flipped his commitment from Florida State, and Downs always crossed paths with Howell in football camps and had built a friendship of familiarity with him.
“When they got Sam, it really set it off, and I was like, ‘OK they’re doing something special in Chapel Hill,’ ” Josh Downs said. “But I mean now when I was a kid I never, I never was really imagining myself playing for the blue.”
He did imagine himself playing slot receiver. And when Downs saw how Carolina used Newsome at the same position, and he listened to how Longo planned on using him, he was convinced it was the right fit.
His dad reluctantly knew it was, too.
“It was painful, but I definitely understood it,” said Gary Downs, who added that he shed tears when Josh committed. “I trusted God on it that this was the best thing for Josh and I’m going to do what’s best for my kids.”
Josh Downs explosive in UNC’s offense
Josh Downs’ stats this season reinforced his intuition, but it wasn’t until his 75-yard touchdown catch and run against Texas A&M in the Orange Bowl that he shed doubts from a freshman year where he didn’t have many opportunities to play behind Newsome.
Longo said Downs is “almost uncoverable” in single coverage. He added that of all the slot receivers he’s coached through the years, including Elijah Moore, who led the NCAA in receptions per game last season at Ole Miss, Downs may be the best at change of direction.
“We’re gonna do everything and anything we can to get Josh touches,” Longo said. “He is one of those explosive players that we have in the system this year.”
As for Howell, he said it didn’t take long for him and Downs to get their timing in sync. Those camps they played in as prep stars may have helped once they arrived at UNC.
“Every single time I saw him, I always knew I wanted to play with him one day, I didn’t think we’d get the chance to get him,” Howell said. “I’m just super glad he’s here. He’s a phenomenal player for us and he’s only gonna get better. He worked so hard and I can’t say enough about him.”