With spring football days away, Sooners WR Trey Metoyer 'excited about getting started'
Published: 2/29/2012 1:33 PM
Last Modified: 2/29/2012 1:33 PM
It’s Leap Day, Feb. 29th. In Oklahoma, that can mean only one thing: spring football starts next week.
The Sooners open spring practice Monday, and maybe the one guy OU coaches are most eager to see is wide receiver Trey Metoyer.
Metoyer was the No. 1 prep wideout in the nation in 2010, but didn’t get academically qualified out of Whitehouse High School. Some blamed Metoyer for not taking all the right classes, some blamed Whitehouse for not giving him all the right classes.
Either way, the NCAA didn’t clear him last summer, and he spent the fall playing at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va.
“Trey had to go through a lot of stuff to get here,” OU receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator Jay Norvell told reporters on National Signing Day. “I don’t know if any of you guys have ever been to Chatham, Virginia. There ain’t a whole lot there.
“He had a dorm bed and a uniform and that’s about all he had. His classes were all on the first floor and he lived on the third floor. There wasn’t a whole lot else going on but school and pushups and a little bit of football as a monotony breaker.”
Metoyer never wavered in his commitment to OU, but Norvell said it was a difficult time for him.
“It was a great learning experience for him and I think he learned a lot about himself and discipline and I think he’ll do a lot for other kids that will be in his situation,” Norvell said. “There’s a lot of people who said he could never do what he did, and he did it. So, God bless him and he deserves a lot of credit and his family deserves a lot of credit for supporting him and now he gets a chance to take the next step.”
Metoyer is a slick, fast and powerful receiving target. He’s a broad-shouldered 6-foot-2, a muscular 200 pounds. At Whitehouse, he caught 252 passes — second all-time in Texas high school history — including 108 for 1,540 yards and 23 touchdowns his senior year.
He enrolled at OU at mid-term and is expected to be one of the most visible players during spring practice as the Sooner offense transitions into life without Ryan Broyles.
“I know he’s excited about getting started,” Norvell said, “and we’re excited about working with him.”
Maybe a better tale than just the football side of things, Norvell said, is the simple notion that Metoyer is now a college student.
“It’s incredible. It really is,” Norvell said. “You think about this recruiting thing, and you live this with their families. Every obstacle that they go through and every disappointment — it’s really hard on them. That kid had a ton of obstacles.
“He’s a great kid and so many kids, people tell them they can’t do stuff and there were a lot of people who told Trey he couldn’t do it. He overcame it, and it’s just neat to see. You’re happy for these kids because it’s their lifelong dream.”
— John E. Hoover
Written by
John E. Hoover
Sports Columnist
