McCoy has used his redshirt year wisely
OU football: Defensive line
McCoy has used his redshirt year wisely

By Scott Wright

Published: March 28, 2007

NORMAN — Gerald McCoy's ability to impersonate Oklahoma defensive line coach Jackie Shipp wasn't the only thing that McCoy became better at as a redshirting freshman last fall.

Fortunately, everything else he improved on will help him on the football field.

Technique, terminology, strength, leverage. All of those things came natural for McCoy at Southeast High School, where he was named the USA Today National Defensive Player of the Year.

But this isn't high school. Even though he wanted to play — and fans clamored for it — last season, McCoy sees the redshirt season paying off already.

"Actually, it was a real good thing,” McCoy said. "I got to work with the guys, practice with the first team, travel with the team.

"Coach Stoops kept me up front. He didn't make me do things like a redshirt. He made me come to all the meetings. And when I got to work at it, it made me better for this year.”

Stoops offers quite a list of areas where McCoy has improved since he arrived in Norman last summer.

"Any guy in their redshirt year, they get stronger, they get quicker through the extra work in the weight room,” he said. "Then, just understanding the techniques. Coach Shipp does a great job teaching, and Gerald's a good learner.

"His leverage, his ability to jump the football, his ability to feel and get off of blocks, read blocks. It's a lot of work in there, and he's done a good job.”

But McCoy's potential is based in his work ethic, his commitment.

"He just sat back and learned last season,” teammate DeMarcus Granger said. "He was in our meetings every day, got his notebook out, writing stuff down, asking questions and learning. He was just soaking everything in like a sponge.

"That helps a lot more than missing those meetings, then coming out here and thinking you can just do what you did in high school.”

That was McCyou did in high school.”

That was McCoy's first step to becoming a college player. He had to forget everything about how great he was in high school.

"I had to adjust to it at first,” he said. "Coming out of high school, how I was ranked and everything, I wasn't used to being at the bottom. So I had to start at the bottom and work my way up.

"Coach Shipp worked with me from day one, staying on me. I'm still getting better. I'm not where I need to be, but the redshirt year was good for me.”

Early last season, the defensive tackle spot was an area of concern. Upperclassmen Steven Coleman and Cory Bennett are back, along with Granger, a sophomore, but that doesn't mean McCoy will be a tag-along on the end of the two-deep roster.

He expects to play, and his coaches expect it, too.

"We're looking for depth and playmaking at the interior defensive line,” defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. "(McCoy) and Adrian Taylor are guys we're counting on to provide playmaking ability.

"Gerald is more aggressive now, more intuitive, more sure of himself, more confident. And he'll keep growing. He's far from a polished product.”

And McCoy knows it.

"Stay low, get your feet right, get your feet right!” McCoy yelled in his best Shipp impersonation.

"I hear that every day, all day. Once I get those things down, everything will start coming along a lot easier.”