5-Star NCAA football prospect wants to star on offense and defense
Baseball got one of the first legitimate two-way players of the modern era in Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani, who pitches and plays DH for the Angels.
Now, there is a young phenom in football that wants to play both offense and defense in college in 2019.
Horace “Bruiser” McCoy from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California is the 21st ranked high school prospect in the class of 2019, according to 247Sports rankings.
McCoy plays wide receiver and outside linebacker at a high level and he wants to do both in college.
And a lot of colleges are recruiting him to do both, 27 to be exact, including Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Oregon, Washington, UCLA, Florida State and USC.
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While there have been other two-way players in college in recent years, — including UCLA’s Myles Jack, who was named PAC-12 Offensive and Defensive Freshman of the Year in 2013 — they are fairly rare (Jack is now playing linebacker for the Jacksonville Jaguars).
Like Jack, McCoy is truly special.
“There’s nobody that can literally beat any tackle off the edge consistently and can run routes and catch like he can,” J.T. Daniels, McCoy’s quarterback in high school who is USC bound, told Bleacher Report. “When you saw him his junior year, it was like, ‘OK, this kid’s got to be the best player in the country.'”
Last season, as a two-way player, he led the team in sacks as a linebacker and was second on the team in receptions and receiving touchdowns, reported Bleacher Report.
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“It’s kind of like a decision for the future,” McCoy told Bleacher Report. “Say I do play in the NFL. Being able to play both ways makes me more dynamic. I’d hope that in a coach’s eyes, they’ll see, ‘This kid can fit in anywhere if he’s rushing the passer as well as he’s catching the ball. He comes to this team, we can see which one he does better and now he’s getting on the field faster.'”
But when push comes to shove, which position does McCoy like better, wide receiver or linebacker? McCoy says wide receiver “for the glory side of it,” he told Bleacher Report.
“Julio’s kind of like a goal of mine. If I can get to be at that level or better, then I know I’ve accomplished something,” he said.
McCoy is not as polished at linebacker, taking it up just a few years ago. But he has great instincts, particularly as a pass rusher.
“He’s like a high-school Von Miller,” Greg Biggins, a national recruiting analyst with 247Sports, told Bleacher Report. “As an outside ‘backer, he looks like he could do everything and does everything better than everyone else.”
McCoy is definitely a player to keep an eye on these next few years.
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