Wide receiver Marcus Kemp does not cuss, but he knows several crosswords.
Kemp is the University of Hawaii football team’s Will Shortz, a master at puzzles and word play.
Kemp lives in a game room where he plays checkers and chess. He works on jigsaw puzzles while listening to the television. Two years ago, Rubik’s Cube became his fascination.
“I had never played it, and never wanted to, but my friend had one in his house,” Kemp recalled. “I tried to figure it out, but I couldn’t get it that day. I took it home and learned how to do it. Ever since then, I’ve been practicing and practicing.”
Now Kemp can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under 90 seconds. His best time was 45 seconds.
“It’s a lot of memorization,” Kemp said. “You’ve got to remember patterns and algorithms.”
His hobbies have the same qualities as his football vocation: patterns, memorization and speed. Kemp leads the Rainbow Warriors in receiving yards (928), yards per catch (16.3) and touchdown catches (6). Kemp is on track to become the Warriors’ first 1,000-yard receiver since Royce Pollard in 2011.
For all his achievements, the wound is fresh on the one that got away. Trailing Boise State 14-0 Saturday, Kemp — a stride ahead of a defender — dropped a pass that should have been a 50-yard touchdown. While the Warriors did enough other things incorrectly in a 52-16 loss, Kemp was visibly angry at himself following the play. Of the 100 times he was targeted this season, this was the first drop in the open field.
“I’ve never done that before,” Kemp said. “I’ve dropped balls before, but I never dropped a wide-open touchdown down the field like that. Not even in high school did I do that. That was an extreme moment. I usually don’t let the emotions get to me. But when you drop a pass like that, and the whole team and the whole stadium and it’s nationally televised … I couldn’t help myself.”
Kemp has built a resume of acrobatic catches. But on that play, Kemp said, “I was thinking too much. I was thinking about a million things. By the time (the ball) came, I didn’t use my hands like I’m supposed to. I tried to let it drop in, and that went bad for me.”
Kemp was admittedly “complacent” in his blocking and route-running the past couple of games.
“I’m really trying to focus and get back to how I started the season,” Kemp said. “I’m trying to prove to the people who believe in me right and the people who don’t wrong.”
As a Layton High senior in 2012, Kemp’s only Division I-A scholarship offer came from Hawaii.
“All of the (other) FBS schools didn’t think I could play,” Kemp said. “I was rated a 2-star out of high school, and that kind of drove me. There were other players in Utah who were rated higher (whom) I didn’t think were better than me.”
He has two filled-in stars tattooed on his left arm.
“There were a lot of people who didn’t think I could play at this level,” Kemp said. “That motivates me a lot.”
