Bucknell University Athletics
Multi-Talented Palmer Settles into Cornerback Role for Bison Football Squad
10/27/2013 3:44:00 PM | Football
By Jon Terry, Bucknell Athletic Communications
Modern-day youth sports has become alarmingly more specialized. Many kids nowadays are discarding sports at young ages in order to focus on one discipline year round, with the hopes of maybe someday attracting the eye of college recruiters. Fortunately, athletes like Bucknell senior Derrick Palmer are around as living proof that multi-sport participants can still make it in the Division I ranks.
A starting cornerback and team co-captain for the Bison football squad, Palmer grew up playing soccer, basketball and baseball in addition to football, and in high school he developed a passion for track and field.
“When I was younger the sports changed as the seasons changed,” says Palmer, who was born in Atlanta, moved with his family to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and then to Roanoke, Va., in the first grade. “I would play baseball, soccer, football and basketball. It was baseball, football and basketball when I got to high school, but after my sophomore year I stopped playing baseball and decided to run track, mostly to keep my body in shape for football. It wasn't until my early high school years that football started to stand out as my top sport.”
At William Byrd High School in Roanoke, Palmer captained both the football and basketball teams, and even as a late-comer in track, he finished fifth in the district in the high jump and helped the 4x100-meter relay team to a third-place finish.
“The deal we worked out was that I would run track, but still be able to go to all the football workouts and the after-school stuff that they did,” Palmer recalls. “I did sprints, and later on I did the long jump and high jump. I was really out there raw. Jumping was the hardest thing for me, because there is a lot more technique involved. Sprinting I caught on to pretty quickly. I was a part of some successful relay teams and had some individual success as well.”
For Palmer, the opportunity to compete with different teammates and test himself in a different disciplines was even more rewarding than coming home with a district medal.
“It's great to have different experiences,” Palmer explains. “I played travel baseball and travel basketball, but just a season at a time, not year round. It was good to travel and be around friends. Football is different because there is a larger group of guys, and the other sports have fewer numbers. The relationships that you form on the football field is just different than the other sports because there are so many people that have to contribute to the success of the team, so that really helped me a lot in my other sports. Also developing leadership skills being around different teammates was really helpful.”
On the gridiron, Palmer quickly made a name for himself on a very good team. He made the varsity as a freshman, seeing most of his action returning kicks. A year later, he was the only underclassman to start every game as Byrd had one of its best seasons in school history. The squad made it all the way to the state quarterfinals, where it lost to a very good team from Amherst County High.
By then Palmer had developed into a strong two-way player, starring at cornerback and running back. But early in his junior year an injury opened the door for a return to a position he frequented at the youth level: quarterback.
“I was a quarterback after my third year playing football,” Palmer explains. “It was a speed thing. We ran a full-house offense and ran a bunch of sweeps and plays like that. As I got older, I started developing as a quarterback for that type of system. My youth coach went to the same high school where I was going to play, so we had the same type of offense. By the time I got to middle school I just knew the stuff so well. When I got to varsity, I was the backup quarterback. My sophomore year they moved me to running back and I was getting reps there, and then in the second game of my junior season the starting QB had a knee injury so I moved back to quarterback and stayed there the rest of the way.”
Palmer was named a “Sizzling Sophmore” by the Roanoke Times, and he says that was the first time he began to realize that others thought of him as a good player. College recruiters took notice during his junior year, with in-state program Richmond the first to make contact. In the end, Palmer says his decision came down to Bucknell and William & Mary, and as is the case with many Bucknellians, his mind was swayed when he took his visit to campus.
“When I came on my visit, the people I was around were just amazing and I was in awe that they were that close to each other,” says Palmer. “The confidence they had in themselves and in each other really struck me. That's when I made my decision.”
Palmer had another decision to make even after committing to the Bison. At the time, Bucknell was running a spread option offense under head coach Tim Landis. He might have fit well into that system either as a quarterback or slotback, but Landis gave him the option of starting out on offense or defense. For Palmer, the choice was easy.
“Even though I had some success offensively, I just loved playing defense,” he says. “It's a different feeling when you know you are going to line up against somebody and your job is to stop them. The biggest adjustment for me early on was just the gameplan and the structure of the defense. The system we ran in high school was not as complex. You're either in man or in Cover 3, pretty basic high school stuff. When I got here we did a lot of things differently in terms of techniques.”
Palmer also had to get used to the increased speed, size and strength of college receivers, and then another wrinkle came at the end of his first preseason camp when he was moved from cornerback to safety. Not only was that an unfamiliar position, but at safety he was required to make defensive calls.
Admittedly, Palmer was a bit overwhelmed at times during that first season in Orange & Blue, but he played in all 11 games and made four starts as a freshman in 2010. He intercepted a pass against Dartmouth and earned Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors after a nine-tackle performance against Marist.
“From what I know now, looking back to my freshman year I was just sort of out there,” Palmer remembers. “I was just trying to do my own assignment the best that I could. When I switched to safety I didn't really know the coverage rules, but once I started to make some plays I got more confidence and the game just started to come to me. My very first game at Duquesne I was out there on the kickoff and punt teams, and it was the most fun I've ever had.”
He started every game his sophomore year and was a regular again in 2012 before missing the final three contests with an injury. He is back starting at cornerback this season, and he enters today's game with 129 career tackles and two interceptions.
Palmer says it seems like just yesterday that he was that unsure rookie, and now as a senior and a co-captain, one of his jobs is to pass along the knowledge he has accrued to the younger players.
“I definitely try to share my experiences with the younger guys,” he says. “I got pretty close to some of them during in the summer. At the level that we play, you have to be able to contribute early on. You never know when somebody might go down and now we need you to contribute. I try to let them know that they have the ability to compete at this level. The coaches do ask us to be leaders to the younger guys, but one of the great things about our team is that guys just do that on their own. We take it upon ourselves to pass on knowledge and just help each other out.”
After struggling two weeks ago against Holy Cross, the Bison defense was back in form in last Saturday's 17-14 win at Dartmouth. Palmer is focused on leading the defense to more performances like that one and a strong finish to the season, and he also knows that very soon decisions will have to be made on his own future.
A political science major, Palmer is unsure whether he will attend graduate school or enter the job market. Graduation Day next spring will be a big deal for Palmer and his family. His parents Randy and Deborah stressed academics early on – Deborah is a middle school reading teacher – and Derrick also credits his older sister, Pamella, for being a positive role model in the way she balanced her schoolwork with a busy dance and cheerleading schedule. Derrick also has a younger brother, Jason, who is a senior in high school and a standout in track and field.
When Palmer does proceed through the Christy Mathewson Gateway on Graduation Day, he will take with him a lifetime's worth of memories.
“Those bonds that you form with your teammates will last forever,” he says. “That's the best thing about playing on a football team. When you're having a bad day you can show up at the stadium and you have 80 or 90 guys you can talk to about it.”
Note: This story appeared in a recent edition of the Bucknell Football Gameday Program.
