In this installment of The Recruiting Notebook, we meet an athletic and raw offensive line prospect who could develop into something very good in a couple years: St. Augustine (FL) Creekside 3-star OT Matthew McCoy.

Bio

As with all the same-day commitments, I’m gonna cheat on this part by posting the WTTU piece I just published for this part of the narrative.

Recruiting Ranking

On the 247sports composite, McCoy is a 3-star prospect, the #121 OT nationally, #165 in the State of Florida, and #1250 player overall in this class.

McCoy committed to Miami over Florida, Maryland, Ole Miss, and UCF from a list of 16 scholarship offers from around the country.

As a Player

McCoy is a long, lithely built athlete at 6’6” 285lbs. He carries his weight well, and has a frame to add 20+ lbs and not get sloppy. McCoy already plays with good power, but could benefit from additional strength and just overall maturity. “Grown man strength” is a real thing, and McCoy will benefit from gaining some of that as he continues to mature.

The thing about McCoy that just JUMPS off the screen when you watch his film is his athleticism. He’s a basketball player, and played Tight End as a junior before switching to LT as a senior, and the movement skills of a TE/Basketball Forward are easy to see. McCoy is nimble on his feet and has good balance, but he really changes the game when he’s out in space. On a screen or a power play, something where he gets to move and get to the 2nd or 3rd level of the defense is where you’re going to want to find ways for him to work. In addition to the blocking at the line of scrimmage, of course.

For many basketball players, there can be a lack of physicality when they come over to football. Such is not the case with McCoy. He engages defenders well, and uses his length to great advantage. He has very long arms, which is a great physical trait for a tackle to possess. He can improve working on his hand placement and technique, but that’s literally every HS lineman ever.

Strengths

• Height
• Length
• Athleticism
• Versatility
• “young” as a player and plenty of room to develop his skills

Weaknesses

• A touch light for OT
• Can get stronger
• Only played FB for 2 years. Can improve technique and gain experience.

Miami Outlook

Note: changed this up from just a freshman-season outlook to a career outlook for each player last year and we’re continuing that style this year as well.

McCoy is a very good developmental OT prospect. He’s got height, length, is already at a good (but not great) weight, and is very athletic, as evidenced by his time as a tight end and basketball player. But, with a developmental prospect, the requisite amount of time devoted to that development will need to be given in order to have the player reach his potential.

For McCoy, just like fellow OL signee Anez Cooper, the path forward is likely a redshirt in 2022 to focus on his physical and skill development before working his way into the rotation as he continues his career at Miami. There’s the potential he could compete for a starting tackle job in 2023 given the current roster construction at OT. If not, he should at least push for a spot in the 2-deep as a RS Freshman and look to seriously contend for a starting job as a 3rd year player.

As far as the ceiling for McCoy, that all comes down to the work that he does. Miami’s new OL coach Alex Mirabal has put several OL in the NFL over his college coaching career, including OT Penei Sewell to your Detroit Lions 7th overall. I’m not saying McCoy will end up as the 7th overall pick in the NFL draft, but whatever All-Conference honors and draft potential he will have down the line will come from his hard work and the sage tutelage of a coach who has already put quite a few players from this position into the league.

That’s it for this installment of The Recruiting Notebook.

Go Canes