Published: October 02, 2008 01:23 pm      

Fuqua making an impact

RICHMOND — Stephon Fuqua was much more interested in furthering his education then he was continuing his college football career.

But, he found an opportunity to do both.

After graduating with a degree from the University of Akron last spring, the Cleveland native wanted to pursue a masters degree in sports management — a program the school didn’t have.

So, Fuqua explored his options.

“I had gotten introduced to Eastern Kentucky University through an old coach of mine,” Fuqua said. “He is an alumni and he told me about the atmosphere here and immediately, I was interested.”

EKU offered the degree Fuqua was interested in and with a year of eligibility left, he could play immediately for the FCS (Division I-AA) Colonels

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound fifth-year senior joined the team this fall and has started to emerge as one of the Colonels’ better receivers and a solid performer on special teams. He had six catches for a career-high 104 yards during last week’s win over Austin Peay and has nine catches in his past two games.

“We needed someone like him,” first-year EKU coach Dean Hood said. “We felt like we had a great bunch of young receivers, but we needed an older guy to come in and help us. He was an answered prayer.”

Fuqua was a track standout in high school and played only one year of football.

Still, he was offered a scholarship by Akron and was redshirted his first season at the school. Even though he appeared in a total of 12 games, Fuqua did not have a reception during his freshman (2005) or sophomore (2006) seasons with the Zips.

Last year, he started six games and had 20 catches for 155 yards.

Fuqua started training camp as a somewhat unkn-own commodity. However he has earned more and more playing time in recent weeks.

He had only two catches through the first three games (both against Western Kentucky), but has led the Colonels in receiving yards in each of the past two weeks.

“I just want to work hard,” Fuqua said. “For me, this is my last year and I just wanted to enjoy it — whether it was playing or giving the defense a good look on the scout team or playing on special teams. I just wanted to go out and have some fun and go out with a bang.”

Fuqua has impressed the coaching staff his teammates with his speed and pass-catching abilities, but another quality has also earned him a lot of respect.

“He took a shot at Tennessee State that should have knocked him out,” Hood said. “He held on to the ball, came back and played. That’s (the toughness) you like to see.”