Shady Sees The Light
Pitt's McCoy Out To Prove Nay-Sayers Wrong
By Joe Giardina

It was January 13th, hours before Pitt would tip off against Georgetown at the Peterson Events Center. ESPN was on site, prepping the crowd for the college basketball game of the week. But the attention wasn't on the hard court. It was on running back LeSean McCoy.

His hat tilted low and to the side, nearly covering his eyes, the man they call "Shady" cast a shadow that day over everyone else as he stood taller than his 5'11", 205 pound frame suggested. He strolled in along with other football recruits to watch the live taping of College Gameday on the floor of the Pete. .

When the students first got sight of the former Bishop McDevitt star, they made it known that even though Christmas had passed, he was still on their wish lists. They had prepared for his visit, with "We Want Shady" signs sprinkled throughout the crowd of a few thousand students. One fan held up a sign with a list of several recruits who had already committed to Pitt with a check mark next to their names. At the top of that list read LeSean McCoy next to an empty box. Playing to the crowd, McCoy asked to borrow a sharpie and checked the box himself.

The next day he checked a more formal box, informing coach Wannstadt that he will play for the Panthers in 2007.

"It was unbelievable," McCoy said of that morning at the Pete. "I didn't know Pitt had those types of fans but they showed me they did."

Coming out of Bishop McDevitt in 2006, few could have seen this coming. In his sophomore and junior years, McCoy ran for 5,389 yards and 61 touchdowns. He was bound for Miami. Or maybe it was USC. Or even Alabama. Either way, it wasn't going to be Pitt. He was a five-star recruit, and he knew it. Some thought he was a little too cocky, but those who know him best say he was just outgoing. That didn't stop some people from thinking he had character issues and labeling him as a bad seed.

"People that say he has character issues don't know the kid," Bishop McDevitt head coach Jeff Weachter said. "The kid is high-quality. I've known him since he was eight years old and he has never been in any real trouble."

But during his senior year he severely broke his ankle. Couple that with less-than-impressive grades and McCoy was bound for prep school. He enrolled at Milford Academy in New York to boost his grades and to heal his ankle. But that only made the naysayers talk more.

"He made a mistake and should have paid a little more attention to his school work at McDevitt," Weachter said. "LeSean is an intelligent kid, there are some kids that just mature [later]."

As soon as he arrived at Milford he was buried on the depth chart with a bum ankle and behind the likes of Bo Harris, who is going to Auburn, and Craig Cooper, who will be playing at Miami. It was a humbling experience, to say the least.

"It made me appreciative and grateful for everything I have," McCoy said. "Just sitting back and watching everything happen, being injured and seeing the different routes of everything. Definitely I matured."

"When he first got here he was on crutches and 20 pounds over weight," Milford Academy head coach Bill Chaplick said. "He worked really hard to shed the weight and get back into shape. For him to be able to compete at running back with Bo Harris and Craig Cooper, I mean, that brings you to reality right there."

While at Milford, Chaplick said he saw McCoy mature "one hundred percent." Aaron Berry, his high school teammate at McDevitt and a sophomore defensive back at Pitt, noticed the change as well.

"Milford was good for him," Berry said. "I think it woke him up and made him realize how important the off-field things are to his ultimate success."

With his injury behind him and his grades in order, his recruiting began to open back up. This time Penn State was in the lead and they seemed confident they would ink the star running back. But McCoy had one more visit to make.

"I came in [to Pitt] on a visit and I saw a lot of things I didn't see here before that I didn't expect here at Pitt," McCoy said. "That really caught my eye and I just fell in love with them. Any school will say anything you want, but [Coach Wannstedt] said the right things. I know a lot of guys that will lie through the whole process. I'm just grateful that the school that I picked was honest with me."

Then came the experience at the Peterson Events Center and McCoy was officially hooked.

"The environment, the atmosphere, just everybody," he said. "Not just the football part but also the fans, they played a big roll in everything."

After signing his letter of intent with the Panthers, rumors began swirling around Happy Valley that Penn State was no longer interested in McCoy, and had in fact pulled his scholarship

"That's impossible," he said, admitting that Penn State continued to contact him. "I've never had a school pull an offer from me. That's just the fans talking who don't really know too much."

"That's not true at all," Berry, a close friend of McCoy said. "They were heavy on him the whole time. Really heavy. I think that's just some people saying that stuff because they were upset that he chose Pitt over them."

In 2002 Pitt got a similar commitment from another prep school player who was said to have character issues. Five years, a Biletnikoff Award, a Heisman Trophy runner up and one NFL Pro Bowl later, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone to say anything negative about former Panthers' wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald.

McCoy has already begun to follow in his footsteps, guaranteeing he will be playing for the blue and gold next season. And while the transition from high school to college may have taken him longer than expected, it could be well worth the wait.