At the snap of the ball, free safety Darrell Stuckey backpedaled into pass coverage. A split-second later, Stuckey turned his gaze across the line of scrimmage and focused on the eyes of Toledo quarterback Aaron Opelt. He read the quarterback’s intentions perfectly: as the ball left Opelt’s hand, Stuckey broke toward the intended receiver and left his feet to pick the pass from the air.

After snatching the ball away, Stuckey fell to the turf, unable to return the interception for any yardage.

Why the slip-up? Well, he was moving a bit too quickly.

“Sometimes I react too fast and actually get myself out of position so it makes plays more difficult than they should be,” Stuckey said. “On Saturday, it could have been a catch where I could have ran and advanced the ball. But I got myself out of position and instead of backpedaling the whole time I made an awkward catch and ended up falling as I caught it.”

Playing at full speed is taking some getting used to for the sophomore. Stuckey spent much of last season sidelined by an early-season lower leg injury. He never got back to 100 percent in the seven games he did play. The injury limited his flexibility, created a hitch in his gait and slowed him considerably, he said. Finally back at full-speed, Stuckey is one of the reasons Kansas is ranked 10th nationally in passing yards allowed per game.

“The kid was playing his heart out last year, but he didn’t have a full range of motion,” Coach Mark Mangino said. “He was limping all over the place, he couldn’t get to the highest point of the ball, and he got beat a few times over the top when a healthy Darrell Stuckey wouldn’t have let that happen.”

The toughness and leadership Stuckey showed as he struggled through the 2006 season earned him the respect of his teammates, Mangino said. That respect has carried over into this season. Though Stuckey is only a sophomore, teammates and coaches usually include his name when they discuss leadership.

A natural fit

The KU coaching staff did not need to put much work into attracting their team leader to Lawrence — the road map did most of the recruiting.

Stuckey, a Kansas City native, decided to attend the University the summer before his senior year and never had second thoughts. He was so dead-set on becoming a Jayhawk that he had his high school coach at Washington High tell each of the 20 schools that pursued him that he was intent on honoring his commitment to Kansas.

The reason Stuckey declined offers from schools such as Northwestern and Kansas State was simple. The closer he stayed to Kansas City, the easier it would be for his mother to watch him play.

“She’s a single-parent mother, and I can count on my hands the number of games she’s missed in the one-and-a-half decades I’ve been playing sports,” Stuckey said. “Having a single-parent mother who was providing for multiple kids and only missed so many of her son’s games in all those years — it just wouldn’t have felt right.”

A leader

This spring, Stuckey took his leadership role to a higher level when he represented the entire Kansas Athletics Department at the NCAA National Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla. He was one of 325 student-athletes chosen to represent their schools at the five-day conference. The student-athletes attended presentations and traded ideas about how to improve their campuses.

“We went through different leadership evaluations and classes and found out how we can change our campus,” Stuckey said. “I learned that by exemplifying leadership qualities and a positive attitude I’ve been able to see new ideas and be creative about things on campus.”

Despite his eagerness to discuss issues off of the football field, Stuckey said he saw himself as a leader by example on the football field. Stuckey’s goal is to achieve the title of team captain by the time he leaves the University — a goal he said he could achieve by showing a willingness to sacrifice himself for the team.

In addition to his leadership qualities, Stuckey is piling up quite the tangible track record so far in 2007. Through three games he has made 13 tackles, has made an interception and has broken up a pass.

— Edited by Rachael Gray