Kearse doing all the right things

This story is about a guy who got it. A young football player who understood that his commitment to the game didn't begin at Saturday's kickoff and end with the handshakes and hugs after the final gun.

College football is a difficult business. Success takes hundreds of hours far away from the glorious Saturdays. It takes more than physical gifts. It takes the perseverance and the will of army ants to spend dreary hours watching film and redundant summer days running drills.

College football is a job, not just an adventure. It isn't all games. It isn't all fun. And from the day he came to Washington, junior receiver Jermaine Kearse got that.

"My main focus is to work hard and get better every day," Kearse said after practice last week.

If that sounds cliché, well, a lot of the success in sports comes from turning those clichés into habits.

"I pride myself in doing the hard work," Kearse said, "and taking in all of the learning tips, and anything that can help me get better. I take all of that and run with it."

Last season he caught 50 passes and ran with them for 866 yards and eight touchdowns. Next to his quarterback, Jack Locker, he might have been the most dangerous offensive player on the turf.

"Outside of Jake Locker and cornerback Desmond Trufant, man, I don't know if anyone prepares more than Jermaine Kearse," Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said. "On and off the field, in the classroom, in the weight room, he prepares himself so he can compete at a very high level. I'm very appreciative of that."

Kearse was a project when he came to Washington. He was a deep threat who needed a lot of work on his route running. He was a tall (6-foot-2) receiver who knew how to catch the ball, but still was learning what to do after the catch.

Then last season under new coach Sarkisian, Kearse was given extra work, more assignments. He even played on special teams. The staff threw the playbook at Kearse and asked him to become fluent in football.

Some players would have run from, not with, such a huge responsibility. Kearse embraced it. The extra work, for him, was as inviting as a mountain peak to Ed Viesturs.

"He's been extremely willing," Sarkisian said. "I mean we've put him all over the football field."

Part of the joy of following college football is watching the evolution of willing players like Kearse. Last year he gave the coaching staff answers for their complicated questions. It was a breakout season.

And this season?

"Last year he really emerged as a top-tier guy, in the conference, if not the country," receivers coach Jimmie Dougherty said. "A big-play threat. A guy that plays hard, has all the physical tools. He's smart. He's detailed. I can't wait to see him play.

"The thing that we've really gotten on him about (this season) is fine-tuning his game and being more dynamic with the ball in his hands. Now it's just a matter of catching a 4-yard drive route and being explosive and dynamic in the open field. He's playing strong. He's playing confident."

Coaches wait an eternity for the light bulb to switch on for some of their most talented recruits. For many, the light flickers, but isn't sustained. Those players quickly slide into oblivion.

But players such as Kearse are coaches' great rewards.

"He's a coach's dream, an awesome kid to coach," Dougherty said. "He's really worked on everything we've given him. He's taken it all to heart."

Kearse caught eight passes at Notre Dame and seven each against UCLA and Cal. He found a groove with Locker.

"Day in and day out, he's focused on the little details," Locker said, "the things that set you apart from other players at your position. He's done a great job of never settling for anything."

"Never settle." Kearse could have written that, for motivation, on his wrist bands when he came to school.

"When I got here, I saw a guy who had the ability to make plays down the field, but was still raw," Sarkisian said. "What concerned me was there was some inconsistency there. But to his credit he kept fighting, kept battling, kept competing."

Kearse is everything his former Lakes High School teammate, tight end Kavario Middleton, was supposed to be, but wasn't. Where Middleton expected the game to come as easily to him in college as it did in high school, Kearse understood the extra-credit work that was required.

"They're two completely different guys," Sarkisian said. "Jermaine's an extremely competitive young man. He wants to win and he understands that winning just doesn't happen when you step on the field."

It sounds so simple, but it isn't. Kearse got it. Middleton never did.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists