Making an example

Charles Harley has coached at Forestville Military Academy for more than a decade, sending what he guesses to be about 20 football players to Division I schools. Among the best, Harley said, was Kevin Dorsey.

From the time Dorsey arrived at Forestville, Harley had a feeling he'd join that elite group of college athletes. And still, he felt Dorsey was capable of more. Much more.

"Even before [Barack] Obama was president," Harley said, "I used to tell people when Kevin was in ninth grade he could be president one day."

Dorsey laughed off his former coach's grand expectations yesterday — "I've heard him say that a few times, but that's never been a dream of mine," he said — but Harley's notion speaks to the aura that has come to surround the Terrapins' junior wide receiver.

Dorsey carries himself with a quiet confidence and speaks eloquently. In the classroom, the economics major embraces his "student-athlete" classification. And when he's not in class, he's probably in the weight room or watching film at the Gossett Football Team House.

With a work ethic rooted in his no-nonsense upbringing, Dorsey has thrust himself to the front of a largely inexperienced receiving corps and into a leadership role in the Terps' locker room.

And no one is surprised.

"He's just a leader. He just does everything right," quarterback Danny O'Brien said. "He's a guy you can look to to be running extra sprints or routes after practice.

"If you're a young receiver trying to aspire to be a good receiver … this is how you do it at the D-I level, and this is how you work."

A LONG TIME COMING

Dorsey's character didn't develop overnight.

Sure, his time at Forestville — a public military high school in Prince George's County with a strict focus on discipline and academics — shaped him. But long before he ever established himself as regiment commander, the academy's highest-ranking cadet, or as the school's most talented football player, he was a strong-willed and confident kid.

Harley recalls the first time he met Dorsey, who came to the academy as an eighth-grader with his father to speak with the coach.

"At that age, Dad usually does all the talking," Harley said. "But the young man steps up and says, ‘My name's Kevin, and I want to play football for you.'

"Right after he left, I called [former Terps recruiting coordinator] James Franklin and said, ‘Coach, I'm going to sound crazy, but I've got a kid here in eighth grade that you'll be recruiting in two or three years.'"

Harley wasn't crazy. By the end of his sophomore season, Dorsey had carved his way into Forestville lore as a wide receiver and quarterback and was taking calls from former Terps coach Ralph Friedgen.

In Dorsey's first meeting with Friedgen — who had never even seen him play live or on tape — he showed up wearing a business suit in a setting for which most high schoolers don T-shirts and jeans.

By the time he left, he had his first scholarship offer.

"[Friedgen] just said, ‘We want to offer you,' and I'm like, ‘What? Have you even watched the tape?'" Dorsey recalled. "But all he said was, ‘Just based on your character, I want you to be part of this football team.' I took that to heart, seeing that this guy already cared about me not only as a football player but as a person, as well."

Shortly thereafter, Dorsey became the first member of the Terps' 2008 recruiting class. Other schools came calling for the eventual four-star recruit, but he had no intention of wavering on the pledge he'd made to Friedgen.

"He committed to me, so I committed to him," Dorsey said.

IN TRANSITION

When the Terps cleaned house last offseason, much of the coaching staff Dorsey had known for five years crumbled. Friedgen's contract was bought out, Franklin became Vanderbilt's coach, and much of the rest of the coaching staff moved on.

What Dorsey was left with was former Connecticut coach Randy Edsall, a man Dorsey knew only as one of his many anonymous suitors while he was in high school.

"It was almost as if [Connecticut] just watched the tape and gave me a scholarship," Dorsey said. "I never really got to talk to [Edsall]."

Fortunately for Dorsey, the straight-laced attitude Edsall brought to the program was one he'd already embraced. A dress code that banned hats indoors and diamond-stud earrings posed no problems for the modest wideout.

"I wouldn't say it was a hard transition because he's definitely someone I love to play for," Dorsey said. "The biggest thing for him [is] he's a player's coach, and it reminds me of playing for Coach Harley because it's someone you want to play for.

"He wants you to succeed, and he's going to demand the best out of you every single day."

Edsall's expected — demanded, really — effort comes naturally to Dorsey.

He earned a reputation in high school for his ceaseless work ethic. He was often spotted running on the Forestville track in the dog days of summer, the dead of winter and any time in between.

That's carried over to his college career. Speaking to reporters early yesterday afternoon, he said he'd left the team house only once in the time since he arrived there at 6:50 a.m.