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Oklahoma defensive tackle Gerald McCoy isn’t just one of the best defensive linemen in the country, he’s considered one of the best leaders in the OU locker room. McCoy has been through a lot in his life and he has grown physically, spiritually and emotionally from his experiences.

Sooner Spectators caught up with McCoy recently to talk about his family, the major changes in his life over the past year and his role as a sophomore captain on the Oklahoma football team. If the OU defense is in flux after the recent loss of linebacker Ryan Reynolds, McCoy is just the man to lead the Sooners through the storm.

Sooner Spectator: First off, one of the most famous covers on Sooner Spectator has to be Gerald McCoy and the Superman pose on the 2005 recruiting issue when you signed with Oklahoma. What’d you think?

Gerald McCoy: (sigh) I’m gonna tell you something — they tease me every day. This is my third year being here and they tease me all the time about that. Oh, here comes Superman. They’ve been teasing me since the day I got here. The first day I got here, I came in and it was, oh, there goes Superman.

SS: So if you could go back would you do it again?

McCoy: I’d do it again. I’d do it again, twice.

SS: Let’s talk to about your Dad a little bit. He lost his voice at the Washington game. He couldn’t talk the day after the game. Is that a common occurrence with him?

McCoy: Yeah. He’s been losing his voice since I was a kid, even at my Little League football games. That’s what he does. He’s going to forever to be a yeller, a cheerer. One year, on my Little League team, they gave an award and it was only for one year. It was specifically for him. It was cheerleader of the year and it was my Dad. They invented it just for him. All the cheerleaders were expecting an award and it went to my Dad. We still have the trophy in my living room to this day. That’s just how he is. That’s always how he’s been and that’s always how he’s going to be. It wasn’t just him, my Mom was like that too. She was way worse than he was. She would really lose her voice. I was like, ‘Momma! I can’t even talk to you after the game because your voice always goes.’

SS: Your dad was talking about how much he’s seen you mature the last couple of years. He was talking about since the passing of your mother how he’s really seen a change in you and your maturity level. Can you talk about that?

McCoy: I guess you can say I’ve matured. I guess you can say I see how things have changed with how I’m living and how I’m doing things, how I’m taking on the different things that come at me in life. I have to grow up now. I’m about to be 21.
(McCoy pauses)
Dang! I’m about to be — I’m about to be 21 in February, and after that there’s no more kid. No more child, no more of this, no more of that. I have to be a grown man and I have a new function in life. One, I had a baby early so that helped me mature more, but getting to college and having my mother pass — that made me have to mature in life. She wasn’t there to baby me anymore. I just realized life goes by fast and when changes come, you’ve got to adapt. So that’s just what I did. My mother passing away was a change in my life and I just adapted.

SS: Now you have a young daughter, right?

McCoy: Yeah, I have a daughter and she’s two-years old.

SS: And what’s here name?

McCoy: Nevaeh. It’s just Heaven spelled backwards.

SS: Is there a blessing in that your Mom got to see and know her grandchild before she passed?


McCoy: Oh yeah. The good thing about it is that my daughter still remembers my mother. Yeah, she still remembers my mother and she still calls her “Nana” when she sees her picture and she still knows who it is. That’s always good and I don’t think she’ll forget because my mother played a big part in my daughter’s life when I couldn’t be there for her. My mother was there. That’s just a person my daughter won’t forget and I think it was good my mother got to see and spend a lot of time with her before she passed away.

SS: It seems like you’ve had to fight through a lot to get back on the field. Can you talk about going through this experience lately with a bad toe?

McCoy: That dude right over there (McCoy points to defensive tackle coach Jackie Shipp), he always says, that’s just life. You’re going to be injured, you’re going to be hurt and you’re not going to always feel the best every day. You have to keep on pushing regardless of what happens. It’s not only my coach saying that, but my father says that. Regardless of what happens, what goes on, you’re not going to feel your best every day. You’ve got to keep on pushing and you can’t let anything stop you, regardless of what it is. It’s always been like that since I’ve been raised. You don’t let anything stand in your way. You’ve got to do what you need to do and I needed to get it done that day and help my team. I wasn’t going to let anything stop me regardless of how I was feeling.

(Editor's Note: This is only a portion of the in-depth McCoy interview that appears in the Oct. 30 issue of Sooner Spectator. To Subscribe, go to our on-line sign-up page or call toll free 1-877-841-8877!!!!)