By Ed McGranahan.

By Ed McGranahan

Meeting Carla Boyd helped connect the dots.

Same smile, eyes that sparkle like diamonds and the sincere warmth.

If charisma is hereditary, Tajh Boyd inherited it from his mother.

“He doesn’t know a stranger,” she said, describing her son the Clemson University quarterback. “He’s got that loving spirit about him, too.”

When Carla appeared at a Clemson practice in August with a gaggle of giggly teenaged girls she knew through her work with at-risk youngsters, Tajh spent a few moments with each one, posing for pictures, signing autographs and just being his mother’s son.

“I’ve always been outgoing,” she said recently. “You could probably tell that.”

Being a mother is a fulltime job, regardless the head count. Carla had one older and one younger than Tajh and always worked outside the home. Being Tajh’s mom has become a third vocation.

“I have balanced being Tajh’s mom and my home life and my work life,” she said. “It’s amazing how I’m able to handle the pressure.”

Establishing priorities and setting boundaries are mandatory, no differently than what she tells the girls at her job.

“I have boundaries,” she said. “I know what buttons people will push. I know what to say and what not to say because somebody’s always watching. I’m very mindful.”

That hasn’t prevented an occasional intrusion. One of the toughest things for them all during Tajh’s transition from a promising high school player to one of the finest quarterbacks in the game has been learning to say “no.”

A pastor pulled up to their home with a busload of church members shortly after the family moved from Virginia hoping for a look at the new quarterback. Another guy who’d seen the Boyd men at the DMV appeared on the door step last Christmas.

“He said his family was visiting for the holidays and wanted to meet Tajh. He was wiping his feet on the doormat, and I said, ‘excuse me, sir. It is Christmas,’” Carla recalled.

“I thought, ‘wow.’”

Carla recently deactivated her Facebook account, and after a woman called the house offering news clips about Tajh, Carla changed the home and cell phone numbers.

“I just feel that’s too personal,” she said.

The Boyds decided while Tajh was being recruited they would relocate to wherever he chose to play. Over the final six months it ranged from Morgantown, W.Va., to Knoxville, Tenn., before Tajh settled on Clemson after flirtations with Eugene, Ore., and Columbus, Ohio.

“Things weren’t always peaches and cream, and there are still some wrinkles but we have been able to maintain so far just being in South Carolina,” she said.

With Tajh nearing the end of his second season as the starter, his mother marvels at the journey from the Virginia Tidewater area to Death Valley.

He began playing as a seven-year old, and she often went to the mat for him.

“A lot of coaches didn’t believe in him and had him playing different positions,” she said. “He always wanted to be a quarterback, but he played linebacker, receiver, running back, and as a lineman. You name it he played it.

“I was a little verbal back then because I was trying to help him fight for a position because he liked throwing the ball.”

As a senior at Phoebus High School he tore an ACL and it broke his heart. Carla remembered the tears when he thought the season was over. A visit to an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports-related injuries assuaged some of their fear. “He said it was torn and it couldn’t get any worse.”

Boyd decided to be fitted with a brace and play on the knee. When Phoebus won a state championship, only the Boyds, Tajh’s coach and the surgeon knew he played on one good leg.

“It made me so nervous, oh my God,” she said. “When Tajh would get hit and go down I would go bananas. People wondered why, but I couldn’t tell them.”

After earning co-MVP at the Army All-American Game, he signed with Clemson.

Their families from Virginia and New Jersey are blown away by the welcome from Clemson fans.

“This tailgating is the best atmosphere I’ve ever seen,” Carla said. “When we go to other schools, I miss Death Valley.”

Is it any wonder? Carla has become something of a celebrity.

“Sometimes they’re looking over there trying to get a glimpse saying ‘that’s Tajh Boyd’s’ mother and his father.’

“My mama says when you walk with Carla, be ready to be in the parade,” she said. “People are taking pictures, and I’m talking with everybody. I’ve had my picture taken with little babies with No. 10 jerseys.

“It’s so cool.”

Living in Seneca gives Tajh a place to escape.

Occasionally she comes home and finds him stretched across her bed asleep.

“He’s still my little boy.”

Watching him stirs the old anxieties, particularly when he runs, though Carla insists, “I’m more laidback now than I was earlier.”

“It makes me nervous,” she said. “When he goes down I might stand up and hold my hands to my face and pray, ‘Lord, he needs to get up.’ ”

The journey would seem far from over. The Boyds are taking it one snap at a time.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime deal, and we’re just trying to make the best of it,” she said. “This is really special.”