Putting the ‘senior’ in senior wide receiver

The nice way to put it is that Kevonte Martin-Manley is an 'old soul.”

That's where his uncle, Sisco McKinney, goes with the 'Kevonte is old” storyline. McKinney helped raise Martin-Manley. He remembers the fifth-grader who won a trip to Paris after putting down a perfect score on a scholastic achievement test. McKinney certainly appreciates the man Martin-Manley has become.

Whenever the 21-year-old returns to his hometown of Pontiac, Mich., he stops in at the Pontiac Middle School, where McKinney coaches and teaches, and spends time with the kids. He lectures, he coaches, he gets involved.

This is an uncommonly mature fifth-year senior.

'He is an old soul,” McKinney said with a laugh. 'He's been at Iowa five years. He's taken a leadership role. He was always a leader, he's a born leader.”

'Old soul” is the nice way to put it. The Iowa wide receiver room is a brotherhood, of sorts. They certainly love each other, and so they know they can give each other a ration of teasing.

It sounds kind of like a Comedy Central Roast. And when that focus is on Martin-Manley, it goes right at the age, the hairline, the whole 'old guy” meme is thoroughly explored.

'I tell him he's the grandpa of the group,” junior wide receiver Tevaun Smith said. 'He's been here for a while. He's got the respect, but it's always fun making fun of him.”

It's not just the wide receivers, either. Defensive tackle Carl Davis is from Detroit. He and Martin-Manley have made the Iowa City-Detroit trek more than a few times together. They've also been roommates since they stepped foot on the Iowa campus in 2010.

'I don't know if you pay attention, but he's balding on top a little bit,” Davis said. Is he looking for gray hairs? 'No, he's looking for new hairs to grow.”

But then Davis immediately snaps serious to a question about how Martin-Manley, a 6-0, 205-pounder, has made himself into a go-to receiver for the Hawkeyes.

Martin-Manley leads the Hawkeyes this season with 19 catches for 147 yards. He has 141 career receptions and needs just 33 more to break Iowa's career receptions record (Derrell Johnson-Koulianos 173). During Iowa's first two games this season, close victories over Northern Iowa and Ball State, Martin-Manley caught passes to convert five third downs.

There is some skill here. And everyone in the wide receivers room and, really, everyone on the team has seen the work that has gone into that.

That's why Davis snapped so quickly into a serious tone.

'In the offseason, he comes in here,” Davis said as he motions to Iowa's indoor facility, 'and works on his routes on his own. He looks at the yard lines and knows where his cuts are. He watches a lot of film. He wants to be ‘Mr. Reliable,' or ‘Mr. Third Down,' the guy who gets the job done, the guy you can always count on. He takes pride in that.”

Martin-Manley is totally fine with the 'grandpa” stuff. The other receivers tell him he looks older than he is (he'll only be 22 in October, for crying out loud). He's a fifth-year senior, too, so that kind of plays into the 'grandpa” thing.

'They've got their right to brag on it, but I'll take that role,” said Martin-Manley, who has 1,429 career receiving yards.

Martin-Manley has never backed down from the pressures that can come with leadership roles. He played quarterback up until the ninth grade at Brother Rice High, a private Catholic school in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Martin-Manley was a football star at Rice. He also was a star guard on the basketball team, but he didn't wear it like a crown. He also led tours of the school for prospective students and didn't make a peep about touchdowns or 3-pointers.

'The kids didn't know,” McKinney said. 'I'm in the stands at basketball games and the kids are next to me. They say, ‘Hey, that's the kid who showed us around Brother Rice. He never once mentioned he was Kevonte Martin-Manley.' He's just that type. He's the first one to practice and the last one out. He's always been like that.”

Martin-Manley, who's third in the Big Ten in receptions, was No. 2 in punt returns in the Big Ten last season, averaging 15.70 yards on 20 returns (including a dream day of four returns for 184 yards and two TDs against Western Michigan). He lost that job to sophomore Matt VandeBerg in camp earlier this season.

This could've been a real test for a senior who has a solid resume in punt return. It had to have tugged on his pride. Still, Martin-Manley ends every practice with 20 punt return drills, McKinney said.

That's where the respect from teammates comes from. The fact that his receiver mates are comfortable making 'old dude” jokes with him - 'with,” as in laughing with and not at - also is a sign of respect and, really, a comfort level.

'He's a coach for this receiving corps on and off the field,” senior receiver Damond Powell said. 'That's what we need. We're a young group. He pulls us off to the side and gives us pointers here and there on technique or the plays. We need that. I'm grateful to have him around. He's a great friend and a great teammate.”

And, no, Martin-Manley isn't looking for gray hairs. Seriously, he's not. At least not yet.

'I'm just balding a little bit, the hairline is receding,” Martin-Manley said chuckling. 'I'll take it, I'll take it and run with it. That means I'm still living.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@sourcemedia.net