- ABC News
- August 25, 2015
Carlton Heard hardly fits the profile as one of college football's movers and shakers. A redshirt senior receiver at South Carolina, Heard was barely 5-foot-9 when he graduated from high school. He started his college career as a walk-on at Gardner-Webb, a tiny FCS school in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, and had never played a down of football at the FBS level this time a year ago. He's still looking for his first career catch with the Gamecocks. And yet, it's hard to find a player who shaped the college football landscape more dramatically -- and with one play, no less -- than Heard did last season with his blocked punt in the final seconds to send South Carolina to an improbable 23-20 overtime victory at Florida. If Heard doesn't race through the middle of the Gators' line to block a punt with 39 seconds to play last season, college football might look completely different than it does right now. For one, it's a real long shot that Steve Spurrier would have returned to the...