Junior wide receiver Cutrell Haywood is a quiet guy. He doesn't need to scream and yell to get your attention. He lets his play on the field do that.
 
Despite playing with two future professionals in David Ungerer and Jeff Cotton, Haywood has been a consistent threat for the Vandal offense. He caught 51 passes as a freshman, finishing the year with 489 yards and six scores. He improved as a sophomore with 60 catches and 570 yards, scoring six times again.
 
"First off I just want to say that it was truly an honor, a blessing, how I got up here because of how it worked out with school," said Haywood. "I thought I wasn't going to make it. So thank you to my high school coaches and the coaches here for giving me an opportunity.
 
"I feel like Coach P (Paul Petrino) and Dave Ungerer and Jeff (Cotton) and the receivers were helping me out. When I first got up here, honestly I thought I wasn't going to play because the playbook was that hard for me to learn. My freshman year, when I was here with Dave, he just let me know what I had to do. If it wasn't for him and Jeff I probably would've been lost."
 
"He's definitely grown in his time as a Vandal," said Brian Reader, wide receivers coach with the Vandals. "He's played a ton of snaps since 2018. One thing you see with him is that he's big and physical. We try to get it in his head too, to play fast and play physical. You can see in the two years that he's been playing how much faster and more physical he's been getting."
 
Haywood's 111 career receptions are good enough for 22^nd in program history, and he still has two seasons to play. While Kasey Dunn's program record of 268 receptions might be a long shot, Haywood would move into third all-time should he match last season's numbers this year. With Ungerer and Cotton now competing at the next level, opportunities should be aplenty.
 
"When I was in high school I was putting up numbers, so when I saw these I wasn't satisfied," Haywood said. "I'm used to seeing the numbers I saw in high school. I thought, if I don't at least get more than what I had last year then it's a problem. I need to represent my school and represent myself and show that I'm ready for the next level. So I'm trying to reach my maximum potential to show that I have the ability to go play at that next level."
 
He's also moving up the record books in yards and touchdown receptions. With over 1,000 yards through two seasons Haywood is on pace to become just the 10^th Vandal ever to record over 2,000 career yards. His 12 career touchdowns are outside the top-10, but another season with six would vault Haywood into a tie for fourth all-time. With the details on what an upcoming season might look like unknown, Haywood is still setting lofty goals.
 
"I need to be bigger and better," said Haywood. "I need to have at least 1000 receiving yards with 10 touchdowns. I just feel like I need to be a 1000-yard receiver. Throughout my whole life I've been a 1000-yard receiver. Before I was kind of getting a feel of college, but I just feel like I have to go get those numbers again."
 
Off the field Haywood has also stepped into more of a leadership role. As one of Idaho's most veteran receivers, he'll be called upon to lead a young group of Vandals.
 
"Coach P was trying to get me to be a leader and fill the role of Jeff" Haywood said. "I wasn't the leader that's going to speak and be loud, I'm the leader that's going to talk when I want to talk and I'm going to show. But I've seen that when I do talk it shows the other players that I really want them to meet their maximum potential. So I need to work on that, being more vocal and showing by example. I need to be consistent at all times."
 
"He's really stepped into a leadership role by his knowledge of the offense," said Reader. "He's understanding more, he's doing his job. He's been great in Zoom meetings with the receiver group, guys that haven't been here as long, really helping them understand the offense. We have to keep working all together as a receiver unit and he's taken that stride to learn more and understand more and be a complete football player."
 
Consistency is what got Haywood here. And consistency is what will take Haywood, and the Vandals, to new heights.
 
-