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VOLUME 25, ISSUE 6 29 Hope For Humbled Yancey D eAngelo Yancey may not want to talk about last season and its consider- able personal disappointment, but that's only because he's intently focused on 2015. After showing promise as a freshman who earned more game snaps than any other receiver and thriving at points in 2013, Yancey had high expectations for 2014 to be Purdue's go-to guy on the out- side. But he never was. His incredi- ble touchdown catch against Notre Dame only teased with a glimpse at the ability he couldn't show con- sistently. Until now. At least, Yancey hopes. Last season's performance, which Yancey called "humbling," may actually have been exactly what he needed. He admits to thinking highly of himself after that freshman year, the one in which coaches were pro- claiming him as a guy who would play on Sundays after leading the team with 546 yards. He admits to thinking his athletic ability would simply win out, that putting in any extra work didn't seem necessary. He admits now to being incredibly wrong. Yancey's 2014 performance was simply "bad," he said. But it did one glorious thing: Made him real- ize how hard he has to work to be better, to fulfill coaches' and his own lofty expectations. "Coming out of my sophomore year, I took it as I wasn't as good as I thought I was, so I had to put in the extra time and the extra work that nobody else was doing because obviously my talent wasn't as good as I thought it was," Yancey said. "So the hard work with my talent, I thought I'd have a better opportunity to be the player I want to be." As soon as the season ended — and Yancey couldn't wait for it to end — he engaged in early-morning workouts with teammate Gregory Phillips. They didn't stop, continuing into the summer when receivers gathered and set their own goal to catch 100 balls from the JUGS machine daily. Yancey dedicated himself to the weight room, beaming with pride as he shows off his "guns." He talks about his increased bench press reps and how he's moving up the ranks among his position group. He pushed hard in the offseason conditioning program to reach his goal weight of 215, dropped body fat, added strength and even was spotted by teammates doing planks in a sweatshirt in the summer heat. "You can just tell he has a different demeanor," senior receiver Danny Anthrop said. "He didn't have the year he wanted or pretty much anybody wanted for him to have after a big year his freshman year. But I think he's going to be back on track, and I'm excited to see that." So is Yancey. Though he seems to be publicly tempering the en- thusiasm and high goal-setting after the 12-catch, 147-yard sophomore season, he still has the physical tools to be the dominant outside receiver Darrell Ha- zell so desperately wants by using his 6-foot-2 frame and increased strength to win one-on-one battles. "I just want to be somebody they can rely on," Yancey said. "I just look at it as make the plays when it's time to make those plays. If they see you making plays, then you'll see a lot more plays getting drawn up for you. Little stuff like that builds your confidence, too, when you see, 'They believe in me to make this play and they're going to call it for me to make it.' I have to make it." — Stacy Clardie Tom Campbell