DeAndre Hopkins soaring high for Houston Texans

When Kourtnei Brown was at Clemson, he and his teammates made a trip to Daniel High one Friday night to check out the kid they had heard so much about.

DeAndre Hopkins was just a hotshot recruit then.

“He was always in the newspapers, always in the news. So, let’s check the guy out,” Brown said.

What he saw on that field is the same thing Brown saw at Clemson and is now seeing as a teammate of Hopkins with the Houston Texans. Hopkins, a Tiger from 2010-2012, entered Week 8 as the NFL’s leading wide receiver with 776 yards and added another eight receptions for 94 yards in a 20-6 win over Tennessee on Sunday that made the Texans 3-5 on the season.

Hopkins has not been able to fully enjoy his success this season because of the Texans’ struggles, but Sunday was a slightly different story.

“Oh yeah, man, but we’ve still got a losing record, so you can’t get too happy,” said Hopkins, who had 76 catches for 1,210 yards a year ago, now has 66 catches for 870 yards and six touchdowns this season. He snagged a 21-yard score on Sunday.

None of it has surprised Brown.

“I already knew what to expect,” Brown said. “We watched him do the exact same things he did at Clemson and now in the NFL.”

The Texans were hopeful this is the Hopkins they were getting when they selected him 27th overall in the 2013 draft, but his first two-and-a-half seasons would have been tough for the most optimistic scout to predict.

Late last season, he became the second-youngest player in NFL history to top 2,000 yards receiving and he now has 2,882 — which leads all third-year receivers in the NFL this season.

“I put up hard work in the offseason to put up these numbers and be where I am right now, so you have to embrace it when you work this hard in the offseason,” he said.

Earlier this year, Hopkins became the first player in NFL history to have at least nine catches for 145 yards in three consecutive games. He already was the first player in franchise history to have more than 50 catches and more than 15 yards per catch in back-to-back seasons.

Johnathan Joseph, a former South Carolina standout who’s now a cornerback for the Texans, saw flashes of Hopkins’ ability early.

“He made several highlight catches the first OTA segment,” Joseph said. “I think he has put the work in to get better each and every offseason. This year, people are seeing the result of it, but I have always seen he has something special inside of him from the day he got here.”

The Texans thought enough of Hopkins to let wide receiver Andre Johnson, a 12-year veteran and the leading receiver in Texans history, leave in the offseason for Indianapolis. Hopkins wondered then if the team would try to acquire another big-name wide receiver to replace Johnson and was happy when Houston did not.

“I was hoping the work that I had put in through the years would make them want me to be the No. 1 receiver,” he said. “I knew the position I was in and knew the responsibilities that I had coming back here to be the go-to guy.”

On Sunday, he passed Johnson on one list, becoming the most prolific wide receiver in his first three years in Texans history, but he’s no longer measuring himself against Johnson. Now, his targets are bigger.

Hopkins knows off the top of his head that Calvin Johnson holds the NFL’s single-season receiving yards record (1,964) and that Randy Moss has the single-season touchdown record (23). Hopkins can “no doubt” hit both those marks.

“I am shooting for the best,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve reached my potential. I don’t think there is any ceiling.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 9:03 PM.