How freshman receiver Victor Tucker has become such a big catch for Charlotte 49ers

The first two passes thrown receiver Victor Tucker’s way in his debut with the Charlotte 49ers didn’t provide a hint of what was to come.

On the 49ers’ first offensive play in their season opener against Fordham, a pass from quarterback Chris Reynolds to Tucker - like Reynolds an unheralded redshirt freshman - fell incomplete.

On Charlotte’s next possession, facing a third-and-11, Tucker ran free across the middle of the field. Reynolds’ pass hit Tucker’s hands, but he dropped it.

After that inauspicious beginning, however, Tucker caught seven passes for 127 yards and a touchdown against Fordham, including a 60-yarder. He’s become one of top offensive weapons and most pleasant surprises for Charlotte (3-4, 2-2 Conference USA), which faces Southern Mississippi (3-3, 2-1) Saturday at Richardson Stadium.

Tucker’s sure hands and precise route running made him the top target of Reynolds (before he suffered a season-ending ankle injury) and, now, Evan Shirreffs. Tucker has 42 catches for 514 yards and two touchdowns. His 6.0 catches per game ranks sixth in Conference USA and his 73.4 yards per game ranks eighth.

Take away the Ala.-Birmingham game, in which Tucker played sparingly after suffering a shoulder injury, and his catches per game rises to 6.8 (which would tie for the league lead) and his yards per game increases to 84.7 (third in the conference).

Among freshmen nationally, only Purdue’s Rondale Moore has more catches per game (8.1) and yards per game (104.0) than Tucker.

But ask Tucker about how he feels the season is going, he puts team first.

“Well, I didn’t expect us to be 3-4 at this point,” he said. “But that’s part of life. There are trials and tribulations and you’ve got to work through them. It’s a blessing to be able to strap it on with my teammates and fight through it.”

First-year 49ers offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery didn’t have a hand in recruiting Tucker, who is 5-foot-11 and 182 pounds. But it didn’t take Montgomery long to see Tucker’s value during spring practice.

“He’s been one of our most consistent players,” Montgomery said. “He’s not the fastest guy out there, but he knows how to run good routes and how to use his body and his hands. He’s a very savvy receiver for as young as he is.

“He’s very coachable. He carries everything to field. You know, with some guys you go over things on the (whiteboard in the meeting room), and by the time they get to the field, they forget everything. He learns from his mistakes and then keeps them at a minimum after that. There are guys in football and life who mess up over and over. He’s not one of them.”

Tucker came to Charlotte from Carol City High in Miami Gardens, Fla. Playing in a conference that he said is called the “SEC of Miami football,” Tucker helped the Chiefs win the 2016 Florida 6A state championship.

“He’s from Florida like I am, so I kind of knew about Vic from high school,” said 49ers safety Ben DeLuca, who’s from Apopka, Fla. “You can tell he grew up in that football environment, where it means a little more. You see he’s got that passion about football, how much it matters to him.”

Carol City has produced scores of top-level college football players, several of whom made it to the NFL, including Santana Moss, Allen Hurns and Ricky Jean-Francois. But the town of Carol City also has its share of problems, and Tucker knew football was his way out.

“It’s great to see some of the guys who made it to the NFL, who came from where I came from and who went through some of the things that I went through,” Tucker said. “Miami is not always a pretty place, and things happen to people that you don’t see. So I’ve seen there’s a better way out of there, getting off the streets and not doing things like robbing and stealing.

“I grew up with a lot of killing around me. I saw people give up on their dreams of football, guys who in my opinion were better than me. They didn’t pursue football because they might have had to take immediate action for their family and I respect that. But I just want to do things the right way and be a light that the young kids can look up to.”

Tucker wasn’t heavily recruited, and the 49ers were the only Football Bowl Subdivision program to offer him a scholarship. Like others who have recently signed with Charlotte, he cited wanting to help change the atmosphere around a program that’s never had a winning season in its five-plus years of existence and was 1-11 in 2017 as a reason he came.

“Charlotte, much like my high school when I got there, wasn’t winning a lot at the time,” Tucker said. “I wanted to be a guy to help change that culture. Charlotte is a new program and I want to have a chance to etch my name in school history. I always want to leave it better than I found it, and I feel I can do that.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2018 at 7:48 PM with the headline "How freshman receiver Victor Tucker has become such a big catch for Charlotte 49ers."