University of Tennessee Athletics
Four Downs: Rico McCoy
September 02, 2009 | Football
Sept. 2, 2009
BY JOSH PATE
UTSports.com
It's game week, and there's no reason to remind Rico McCoy.
When head coach Lane Kiffin dismissed his players after practice Monday, McCoy was the first one in nearly a dead sprint to the locker room.
Hard hitting, opening-game preparation that's gone on during fall camp may have worn down some bodies, but not McCoy's. He was laughing as he hustled off the field with helmet in hand.
That's typical of McCoy. It doesn't take much to get Tennessee's senior linebacker fired up, particularly when it's the opening week of the season.
First Down: Game-day routine
McCoy doesn't have anything major set in stone for his pregame ritual. No set routines. No must-have foods. No specifics. But he does make one call.
"When I wake up, I usually call my dad," he said of his father, Reggie. "It's nothing, just good luck. But it's a pregame ritual. I talk to him and tell him I've got a big game so I can get focused."
In the locker room, the headphones get tuned loud as the fans wait in the gladiator-like atmosphere of Neyland Stadium.
"Before I go on the field, I always listen to some Pastor Troy and just concentrate on things before I go out through the T," McCoy said.
Second Down: Finally a real game
Kickoff may be the sweetest sound in months for McCoy. He's known to be a playmaker on the field.
McCoy has seven games in which he has recorded 10 or more tackles, four of which came last season. He had 13 takedowns against Alabama and hit double-figures against Florida, Wyoming and Vanderbilt. His 87 tackles last year ranked ninth in the SEC.
So McCoy is ready to quit hitting his own teammates and start hitting someone else - namely, someone wearing Western Kentucky's red and white.
"I feel really good about it," McCoy said of the season opener. "I feel that we're well-prepared. We're tweaking our defense just a little bit as far as focusing on Western Kentucky and their offense. But things are going smooth."
Third Down: Hitting the holes
Monte Kiffin's defensive scheme hasn't changed a whole lot of the things that McCoy and the linebackers do, although it has forced them to adjust their reaction to some extent.
"As far as plays and stuff like that, our D-linemen do a lot more this year so therefore our gaps change," McCoy said. "Just a little bit more knowledge. Pass coverage is pass coverage, so it's just adding a little more knowledge."
McCoy will take all the brainpower he can get on the field. He's studied his peers from the past, particularly those who have propelled themselves into the pros like former UT linebacker and current New England Patriots rising star Jerod Mayo.
Fourth Down: Mixing in young guns
McCoy admitted he's heard the lines before - coaches who promise that freshmen will see the field if they are good. Coaches use that as recruiting ploys. But this staff has stuck to its word, potentially counting on six freshmen to start or see heavy playing time.
It's impressed the freshmen, but also the seniors like McCoy.
"They give the guys an opportunity, just like a guy who has been here three or four years already," McCoy said of the coaches. "If you can run the right route and catch the ball, you'll play. If you come out there and cover the guy and make the tackle, you'll play. I've seen it. This whole team has seen it. If you can play, then you'll play. That's definitely been proven."
Time and again, the players have admitted this fall that such competition has increased everyone's intensity. McCoy concurred.
"It makes everyone work harder," he said. "It doesn't change the chemistry. If this guy is outperforming you, he's probably going to have your spot, so work harder. That's the whole thing - it makes everyone work harder. It's your job to be taken if you don't work hard. That's the way they've made it around here."
