On Bob Stoops' big day, his phone call changed Matt McCoy's mind; a new attitude changed the Sooners' fortunes
Published: 1/27/2012 2:32 PM
Last Modified: 1/27/2012 2:32 PM
Working on today’s story about Bob Stoops’ first recruiting class back in 1998-99, one of the most enthusiastic guys I spoke to was former Jenks Trojan Matt McCoy.
What ran in the paper this morning was more a re-telling of how Stoops overcame unthinkable challenges just to assemble a list of names he could start recruiting.
My favorite story, though, got left on the cutting room floor. Finite space in newsprint and all. So I offer this blog. (Thanks, Al Gore!)
McCoy cheerfully recollected the day before one of the biggest nights of his young life: a chilly December night in 1998 when Jenks played Union for the 6A state championship.
At Jenks, McCoy had been offered a scholarship by John Blake. But when Blake was fired, McCoy figured the new coach might not retain that offer.
Football ops chief Merv Johnson called to assure him the offer would stand, but McCoy had his doubts.
So during and in-home visit from then-Oklahoma State coach Bob Simmons, McCoy committed to OSU.
But the night before Jenks’ state championship showdown with Union — the same day Stoops was all over the news after his on-campus introduction — McCoy got a phone call.
It was Stoops.
“He said, ‘Don’t worry, you’ve still got a scholarship. And, I’m gonna be at your game tomorrow,’ ” McCoy said. “I was like, ‘This is sweeeeet!’
“It was unbelievable,” McCoy said. “Those guys were on the job like 10 days and to see how organized they had it and how impressed I was with coach Stoops in meeting with him in his office. He was so dynamic. You could see the confidence in him immediately.”
McCoy now sells insurance in Tulsa (his new office will soon relocate less than a mile from my house in Broken Arrow). He redshirted the 1999 season, then played on teams that went 13-0, 11-2, 12-2 and 12-2. At the time, the 48 wins was an NCAA record over four years.
Think where the Sooners might have been if McCoy had chosen OSU. For one, his lob pass out of a field goal formation at Missouri in 2002 — wedged between backup tight end Chris Chester’s elbows — might never have happened. It’s still one of Sooner Nation’s favorite plays of the last 10 years.
McCoy explained why he thought that first class — so lightly recruited, so devoid of any raw NFL talent — was able to succeed at such an unthinkable rate.
“Once we got there on campus, we really bonded. That transitioned the whole team,” he said. “We were going through stuff with coach Smitty (strength coach Jerry Schmidt) I didn’t think was humanly possible. That enabled us to develop that chemistry and that bond to work through anything.
“We had no egos, either. I can say that with all honesty. Rocky Calmus was our starting middle linebacker and he was probably 210 pounds, maybe 215 — certainly no imposing specimen, but he was best linebacker in America. Heup (quarterback Josh Heupel), nobody recruited him and he threw left handed, but look what he did.
“That’s a cliché that gets thrown around a lot, but it really was that way. Nobody cared about who was getting catches or whatever. We just cared about getting wins.”
— John E. Hoover
Written by
John E. Hoover
Sports Columnist
