Player Profile: Cyrus Gray

Touch of Gray

Courtesy of the 12th Man Foundation

During the latter stages of her pregnancy in 1989, Sharonia Gray began contemplating names for her second child, who was due in mid-November. Naturally, Gray sought feedback from her mother, JoAnn Aldridge, who’d provided the name for Sharonia’s first son three years earlier.

Sharonia’s husband at the time was named Charles (they’ve since divorced), and the Grays wanted a name that commanded respect and reflected a connection to their faith. After much thought, Aldridge delivered the distinctive winning name: “Sir Charlton,” which resembled his father’s first name and also incorporated Charlton Heston, whose roles as Moses and Ben-Hur in 1950s movies made him identified with Biblical epics more than any other actor in his time.

Now, the challenge was to find a name for the second boy of the family that was equally unique and symbolic. This time, Sharonia uncovered the perfect name while reading in the Old Testament: “Cyrus,” who became king of Persia in 559 B.C.

The book of Isaiah refers to Cyrus as the Lord’s “anointed” one, and Sharonia concluded it was a perfectly unique name. From the time Cyrus Danall Gray was born on Nov. 18, 1989, she often reminded her son that he was named in honor of a triumphant, popular ruler.

“King Cyrus was a great ruler of Babylon,” says the perpetually polite, typically smiling, 21-year-old Cyrus Gray. “It’s a great name to carry. He led his people in a very positive way. I try to do the same thing in a different way with my team and my family. I want to be a positive example to the people around me; I want to do the right things and do them the right way; and I want to lead humbly.”

According to his Texas A&M teammates and coaches, the amiable and good-natured Gray is three-for-three in those personal agenda items.

“He’s always doing things the right way,” A&M receiver Ryan Swope said of Gray.

“The one word that comes to mind when describing Cyrus as a player, a person and a leader is ‘selfless,’” says A&M running backs coach Randy Jordan. “He defines the word, ‘unselfishness.’ He not only wants to win, he’s totally committed to doing things the right way…all the time. He’s generally a soft-spoken guy, but he leads by great example. He’s a pretty remarkable role model.”

Adds A&M head coach Mike Sherman: “Cyrus is not perfect, but his attitude is pretty close. He is genuine, very humble and cares deeply about his team and his university. I think this year will be a big year for him. Very big.”

Clearly, his teammates and coaches view Gray as one of the most widely beloved A&M players in years. Maybe longer.

They go beyond complimenting him and choose, instead, to heap praises in Gray’s direction. Gray possesses a unifying personality, and he appears to be universally respected, admired and appreciated in a locker room filled with large young men and even larger egos.

He is so humble, so team-oriented and so unassuming that no one seems to mind that he emerged last season as one of the prominent faces and most well-known names of the program. No jealousy detected from his peers. No animosity directed toward him. Nothing of the sort.

“All the guys really respect him because he cares so much about the team,” A&M strength and conditioning coach Dave Kennedy said. “Last year when (fellow running back) Christine Michael was starting in front of Cyrus, Cyrus was still Christine’s biggest fan. And when Christine (broke his leg against Texas Tech on Oct. 30, 2010), Cyrus was the first guy there for him at the hospital that night. And Cyrus was back at the hospital the first thing the next morning. He really hurt for Christine. That type of team-oriented approach commands respect.”

Gray, whose physique is as chiseled as a Rodin sculpture, also is saluted for his relentless work ethic on and off the field. He’s added 11 pounds to his 5-foot-10 frame, bringing his total weight to a compact 206 pounds. His weight and strength gains did not go unnoticed. He and walk-on linebacker Caleb Russell were voted by teammates as the top off-season performers and hardest workers in the weight room in 2011, an award Gray has cherished for years.

The explosive Gray is also such a phenomenal player—he enters this season riding a streak of seven consecutive 100-yard rushing performances, including a 223-yard effort against Texas last Thanksgiving (the most ever by an Aggie against the Longhorns)—that teammates and coaches believe Gray could be on the verge of a breakthrough season that could possibly thrust him and the Aggies into the most radiant national spotlight.

“He’s really good, but he can be even better, and he has so much room for improvement,” Jordan said. “He left a lot of yards out there on the football field last year. He can improve his third-level cuts against corners and safeties, and he can be better between the tackles in short-yardage situations. If he continues to work as hard as he has been working—and I firmly believe he will—the sky is literally the limit for him. He could be exceptional, and this could be a really, really memorable season for him.”

Jordan is not alone in that assessment. ESPN.com’s David Ubben, for example, listed Gray as the preseason No. 1 running back in the Big 12 Conference in 2011. And some websites, such as PigskinU.com and FootballNation.com, have listed Gray as a possible Heisman Trophy candidate.

Regardless, it appears that he could be well on his way to living up to his namesake’s famous moniker. The former king of Persia, who fulfilled Biblical prophecy by releasing more than 40,000 Jews from some 70 years of oppression, was commonly referred to as, “Cyrus The Great.”

The name may soon be suitable for Gray, as well. And if, by chance, he leads Texas A&M, with its student body of more than 45,000, to its first national title in some 70 years, Sharonia Gray will seem rather prophetic in her own right. But Gray’s grandmother wouldn’t be too surprised.

“I know I’m his grandmother, but I’ve always thought he was destined for greatness,” Aldridge said. “I can see him doing great things in football, and I can see him becoming a motivational speaker later on in life. I can see him encouraging kids to go to college and to be whatever they can be. I can see him encouraging people. He doesn’t have a prejudiced bone in his body. He loves all people, and he is just a natural-born leader.”

THE ROAD TO AGGIELAND

Sitting in the kitchen of Aldridge’s small, tidy home in Glenn Heights (just a stone throw south of DeSoto) on a sultry summer afternoon, Sharonia Gray and her mother playfully one-up each other in providing examples of how much they have grown to love Texas A&M the past few years.

Both are wearing maroon T-shirts. Both sport Texas A&M stickers on their vehicles. And both make it a point to promote A&M whenever the opportunity presents itself.

“I didn’t know any college could have so much camaraderie,” Sharonia Gray says. “A&M is such a special place. Sometimes, when I will pull up next to another car at a stoplight, I will roll down my window if I see an A&M sticker on the window and give them the thumbs up. That is so cool to me. A&M does a great job of making you feel part of the family.”

Aldridge ultimately wins the one-up game, however, when she informs her household guest that her daughter initially wanted Cyrus to attend Notre Dame, not Texas A&M.

“I liked Notre Dame, too, but I reminded him that if something happened to him—or us—while he was at Notre Dame, we were a long way from him and somebody would have to get on a plane,” said the quick-witted, bright-eyed Aldridge. “He also wouldn’t be able to come home every other weekend to see his friends if he went to Notre Dame, and we wouldn’t be able to see all his games. I knew there was good potential for him at A&M because I work with some teachers and principals who are connected to A&M.

“Besides, (former DeSoto teammates) Von (Miller) and Garrick (Williams) were already there and then he also knew (former A&M receiver) Pierre Brown, a longtime friend from church. Pierre promoted the school and just said it was fantastic. I had a good feeling that A&M would be a good place for him, and I told him so. I guess I was right about that, huh?”

Mike Sherman was also right about Gray, as well.

Prior to Sherman being hired as the Aggies’ head coach in late November 2007, A&M had not shown much interest in Gray, who was a run-oriented quarterback late in his prep career at DeSoto. But the Aggies’ previous coaching staff was not alone in overlooking and underestimating Gray.

“Honestly, no one in the state had shown much interest in me,” said Gray, who rushed for 1,975 yards and 28 touchdowns as a senior for the Eagles. “The schools I was looking at (included) Cal, Notre Dame, Florida, Louisville and Kansas. They were all further away. I went to Notre Dame and fell in love with the campus and the tradition they have there. But I actually had been going to A&M since my sophomore year of high school for camps and games.

“Since seventh grade, Von and I were like brothers. We went a lot of different places together, and A&M was one of the places we both fell in love with. During the recruiting process, I thought I was going to go to Notre Dame, but at the last minute, Coach Sherman flew in, and we just sat in the room and talked about life and things outside of football. That really caught my eye because I knew right away I could trust him.”

Gray caught Sherman’s eye partly because of what he could do on the field and largely because of the intangible qualities he could bring to a team that, especially at that time, was in dire need of high-character players. When asked about Gray’s makeup and moral fiber, former DeSoto head coach Dave Meadows sung so many praises that he could have easily been mistaken for a member of a church choir.

“He’s as good a kid and dependable a kid as I’ve ever been around,” Meadows told 12th Man Magazine in February 2008. “The guys really follow him around like puppies. Wherever he is, he’s always in front leading, and people are always following him.”

Because of Gray’s combination of skills and qualities, Sherman identified him as the top running back in the state in the 2008 class—perhaps one of the first indications of how much better Sherman would be as a talent evaluator than his predecessor (Sherman’s other top ’08 signees late in the recruiting process included Jeff Fuller, Trent Hunter and Terence Frederick, who’ve also worked out quite well).

Gray arrived on campus in the summer of ’08 and immediately proved to be one of the few bright spots of an otherwise dismal 4-8 season for the Aggies. Gray played in all 12 games as a true freshman, starting eight at running back. He finished as the Aggies’ second-leading rusher (behind only Mike Goodson) with 363 yards. He was also extremely impressive on special teams, setting a school record with 1,169 kickoff return yards.

Of course, the Aggies were outscored 449-300 in 2008, which meant Gray had plenty of chances to amass kickoff return yardage. But at least he made the most of his opportunities, including a 98-yard return for a touchdown in a 66-28 home loss to Oklahoma.

Gray recalls being pleased with his work on special teams in ’08. But he was not so satisfied with his productivity at running back.

“I was basically an option quarterback in high school, so it was a lot different being a running back my freshman year,” Gray said. “I had to learn to block, run passing routes and even how to get out of my stance. I remember the first day Coach Jordan asked me to do (a block called) a ‘zone seal’ and I remember looking at him like, ‘What is a zone seal?’ It took me awhile to become comfortable at running back, and I was not as good as I could have been. I credit Coach Jordan for spending so much time and effort with me. We put in a lot of work together.”

It paid off. As a sophomore in ’09, Gray started nine games and again finished second on the team in rushing with 757 yards. He led the squad with three 100-yard performances and excelled on special teams again, taking a kickoff back 99 yards for a score at Colorado. He was subsequently named the Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week.

In the estimation of many observers, however, Gray was still the second-best running back on the A&M roster…by a considerable distance.

True freshman Christine Michael burst impressively onto the scene in ’09, rushing for a team-high 844 yards, despite starting only four games. Michael averaged 70.3 rushing yards per game and generally seemed more elusive and explosive out of the backfield than Gray, who averaged 58.2 rushing yards per game in ’09.

In typical Gray fashion, though, he didn’t pout about a freshman stealing the spotlight from him. Instead, he embraced and befriended Michael like a brother and challenged him to continue pushing each other into the off-season following the Aggies’ return from the Independence Bowl.

“He’s the consummate team player,” Jordan said of Gray. “He’s a fierce competitor, so he wants to win every drill and start every game. But he doesn’t hold grudges, and if you are Cyrus’ teammate and you’re in the game, he is going to root for you, even if you happen to be playing the same position as him. That’s rare.”

That’s Cyrus.

THE BEST IS YET TO COME

Last spring, Adam Hochfelder, the executive director of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine—long considered the premier annual gridiron publication in the Lone Star State—contacted Alan Cannon, Texas A&M’s associate athletic director for media relations about a photo request. After Gray’s spectacular 2010 season, in which he rushed for 1,133 yards (the first 1,000-yard rusher at A&M since Courtney Lewis in 2003), Texas Football had decided to place Gray and another student-athlete on the cover of the 2011 magazine.

Hochfelder had also contacted Cannon the previous year when Texas Football placed A&M’s Jerrod Johnson, along with TCU quarterback Andy Dalton and University of Houston signal caller Case Keenum, on the magazine cover. Cannon handled all the arrangements for Johnson and had even driven the A&M QB to the cover shoot.

The request was similar for this year’s magazine cover…with one major exception. The other student-athlete to be featured on the cover was still in high school, which meant he was considered a college prospect.

That meant Cannon, as an employee of Texas A&M, could not be involved in facilitating the picture of Gray and the prep player. After checking with A&M’s NCAA Compliance Office, Cannon was instructed that he could only provide Gray with the phone number for the Texas Football officials.

“I was told I couldn’t be involved in any way,” Cannon recalled. “I gave Cyrus the information, the phone number and told him that he would have to make all the arrangements by himself. After the photo shoot, I got another call from Texas Football, and they were raving about how Cyrus was on time; he was responsible and respectful; he was appreciative and accommodating; he was polite; and he answered every question with ‘yes, sir’ or ‘no, sir.’ The guy finally asked me, ‘Is this kid for real?’”

That’s a question that is also being asked nowadays by some national media members as predictions and projections continue to me made regarding the 2011 season. If Gray is the real deal, perhaps the Aggies are also real contenders in the Big 12 and in the national title picture.

So, is he the real deal?

“Absolutely,” says Kennedy, who has trained elite-level players such as Eddie George, Joey Galloway, David Boston, Andy Katzenmoyer and Larry Fitzgerald on previous coaching stops. “He’s generally a quiet guy, but he has a tough, hard edge when it comes to his commitment to win. He’s a competitor.”

And he’s determined to build on last year’s successes. Gray’s seven straight 100-yard rushing games from last season was the longest such streak by an A&M running back since 1988 when A&M’s all-time leading rusher, Darren Lewis, surpassed 100 yards in 10 straight games. But with all due respect to Lewis, he didn’t compile his records against the same caliber of opponents that Gray faced last season.

The final three games of Gray’s remarkable streak to close the season came against Nebraska, Texas and LSU—three teams that finished among the top 12 nationally (out of 120 total Bowl Subdivision schools) in total defense. Overall, Gray rushed for 938 yards in the season’s final seven games, an average of 134 yards per contest.

Most significantly, his surge, along with the insertion of Ryan Tannehill, seemed to energize the entire team.

During the first six games of 2010, Michael started at running back for the Aggies, while Gray was primarily used in a reserve role. In those first six games, A&M went 3-3. The Aggies had lost three straight, including a humiliating, 30-9 home loss to Missouri, when Gray decided he needed to do more to help the team.

He called his mom; he texted director of football operations Gary Reynolds; and he eventually scheduled an appointment with Sherman.

In the meeting with Sherman, Gray volunteered to return punts, if necessary. And he asked the coach to consider expanding his role for the next game, an Oct. 23 trip to Lawrence, Kan. to face the Jayhawks.

“A big thing people forget is that we started Cyrus against Kansas, before Christine was hurt,” Sherman said. “And he proceeded to have 100-yard days from there on for the rest of the season. That was a big catalyst for us, as well as Tannehill’s production at quarterback. Cyrus came up to me before the Kansas week and said, ‘Coach, I can do more.’ He had been playing on third downs, but he wanted to do more. He wanted to help us win. I said, ‘You are helping us win.’ But he still wanted to do more. I challenged him.

“I said, ‘OK, let’s go through this week in practice, and at the end of the week we will determine who starts.’ At the end of the week, I told Cyrus that he could start, and he started that game. Unfortunately, Christine did get hurt (the following week against Texas Tech). But Cyrus did certainly pick it up beginning with that Kansas game. He really impressed us.”

After making a positive impression on practically everyone in 2010, Gray considered—along with Fuller—the possibility of forgoing his senior season and entering the NFL Draft. Gray, who also has two younger sisters, knew his family could benefit from the financial security of an NFL contract.

Gray learned his work ethic from his hard-working parents. His father runs a barber shop, and his mother was primarily a hair stylist for some 20 years. But she returned to college and earned her degree in conflict resolution and mediation from North Texas in 2008 because she vowed to graduate before Cyrus.

She is currently working as a substitute teacher, pursuing her teaching certificate, hoping to become a school counselor and styling hair on the weekends. She’s also moved back in with her mother—at least on a temporary basis—because times are tough.

But Sharonia was adamant that Cyrus not consider any of those factors when making a decision about the NFL. And after plenty of prayer and consultation, Gray—like his former DeSoto teammate Von Miller the previous spring—decided to return to A&M complete some unfinished business.

Gray, who has long been a student of the game and a big fan of watching the greatest professional running backs in history on the NFL Network, has also become quite the aficionado of A&M’s legacy of great running backs. In recent years, he has had the opportunity to meet former A&M stars such as Lewis, Greg Hill and Leeland McElroy.

And as he looks toward 2011 and the healthy return of Michael, Gray believes that he and his buddy from Beaumont can be the best one-two punch at running back for A&M since Hill and Rodney Thomas or Thomas and McElroy.

“When I thought about leaving early, I talked with Von, who is one of those guys who will tell you anything, and he pointed out that it worked out really well for him to come back to get his degree and play his senior year,” said Gray, an agricultural leadership and development major who is three semester hours from earning his Aggie ring. “I prayed about it, weighed the pros and cons and realized that we would have a great team this year, so I just couldn’t leave because we have the opportunity to do something really special.

“Our defense is getting better, our offensive line should be outstanding, Fuller is back, Tannehill is back and so forth. C-Mike is back healthy, too, and we will be able to feed off each other, which is great for both of us. The opportunity to come back and team with C-Mike is exciting. We’d love to leave our own legacy among the great (running back) names in A&M history.”

If he can pick up this season where he left off last year, Gray may eventually be revered as one of the noblest men of Kyle Field, based primarily on the greatness of his game and not merely the roots of nobility in his first name.