FORT LAUDERDALE - When Gerald McCoy was a young boy, probably even before he was making finger-paints in kindergarten, he was given a pointed lecture by his parents:
In life, you need to be the head, not the tail.
Come again?
"Instead of doing what you do and worrying about what everyone else is doing, that makes you a tail," Oklahoma's All-American sophomore defensive tackle said. "If you worry about what everyone else is doing, eventually you end up following them instead of doing what you do and sticking to what you do."
At 6-foot-4, 295 pounds, McCoy has a large head and tail. That, however, just impacts his play on the field. Even though he's only a sophomore, McCoy has entrenched himself on the defensive line and, perhaps more importantly, as a leader in the Sooners' locker room.
"You know that you can put trust into that guy and know that he's going to lead you in the right direction," sophomore cornerback Dominique Franks said
After being named the Big 12 Conference Defensive Freshman of the Year in 2007 and being named a freshman All-American, McCoy has 10 tackles for a loss and 6.5 sacks this year and provides a whole lot of headaches for opponents' guards and centers.
"He's just got that special ability," sophomore defensive end Jeremy Beal said. "I don't know what it is, it's just him."
When it comes to playing on defense in the Big 12, it's easy to get overlooked. And it becomes simple to completely forget about any defensive player when the Sooners humiliate opponents by scoring an NCAA-best 54 points per game.
But that's just what the onlookers see. When it comes to what goes on the inside the program, they know there's talent with McCoy.
"Here at Oklahoma, we always emphasize stopping the run," McCoy said. "This is going to be another big test for us but nothing we haven't seen before.
"Florida is fast. They're actually real fast. But we're a real fast defense, and I think our speed can match theirs. … I think we've prepared well enough to where we will probably know what they're doing just as well as they know they're doing."
Percy Harvin, Tim Tebow and Jeff Demps might have something to say about that.
On the same token, however, McCoy is also probably the best run-stopper the Gators have seen this year.
"It always starts up front," McCoy said. "You (can look at) any team who can control the line of scrimmage normally can win the game."
We'll find that out Thursday night. UF's offensive line isn't going to just let the Sooners defense come prancing through.
"They're big, we're big," UF right guard Mike Pouncey said. "It's going to be a good matchup."
