You’ve probably seen this a couple times now, but Cincinnati receiver Mardy Gilyard’s tumble-and-embrace act against South Florida was a pretty special moment — and really, didn’t we need better news about receivers crashing into stuff?

Gilyard was a stud in high school who traveled a long road to arrive today as one of the Big East’s best receivers and one of the nation’s best kickoff return men. He played special teams and spot duty in the secondary as a true freshman in 2005, but redshirted a year later with academic trouble that ultimately cost him his scholarship and had him sleeping in his car.

He returned as a receiver for first-year coach Brian Kelly last year and has taken off ever since. Gilyard is a dangerous, dangerous player, but recent events reveal he’s also a genuine, refreshing kid.

“As soon as I hit him, I was instantly trying to snatch my helmet off,” Gilyard said. “It’s a trick I play with little kids, because I’m always babysitting or something. If a kid knocks their head, instantly the first reaction of the parent or the guardian is to go, ‘Oh my God.’ If the kid sees you scared, they’re automatically going to be scared. I kind of grabbed him and said, ‘Everything is OK.’ When I do that with my nieces and nephews and they bump their head, I start laughing. They’ll look at me, rub their head and laugh too. They wonder why I’m laughing, but they forget about bumping their head. So, I said to him, ‘Everything is OK.’ He gave me a little smirk, and he slapped me five, and then his dad came over and said, “OH MY GOD, ARE YOU OK?” He kind of glanced over and started crying. He was hugging me and choking the life out of me. I said, ‘You have to let me go. I have to go. You’re OK, right?’ I wasn’t going to leave until he told me he was OK. They would have just had to send a sub in for me. I had to make sure that kid was OK, because I hit him, you know?”