Joey Halzle on Bru McCoy's return from injury: 'It's absolutely insane what that kid did'
There was only one word Joey Halzle could come up with to describe Bru McCoy. The gruesome injury suffered last September, the way the fifth-year Tennessee receiver attacked rehab, the way he’s on track to rejoin his teammates this season.
It’s all insane.
“It’s absolutely insane what that kid did this offseason,” Halzle, Tennessee’s second-year offensive coordinator, said during his media day press conference on Tuesday.
There was 6:16 left in the first half against South Carolina last September at Neyland Stadium when McCoy caught an 18-yard pass from Joe Milton. The Vols were leading 17-10 on the way to a 41-20 win, but McCoy’s season was over after suffering a gruesome injury to his lower leg.
McCoy left in an ambulance after being carted off the field. He entered the game leading the Vols in receptions with 15 for 196 yards and a touchdown. He had two catches for 21 yards before the injury against the Gamecocks.
‘The guy still looks like a superhero when he walks around out here’
Now, 10 months later, he’s back for a third season at Tennessee and somehow making it look like the injury never happened.
“That ankle injury, we all saw it,” Halzle said. “But the fact that that kid is out there running full speed and making cuts and making catches and didn’t gain a bunch of weight — the guy still looks like a superhero when he walks around out here — it’s like, this guy’s absolutely insane.”
In 2022, his first season at Tennessee, McCoy caught 52 passes for 667 yards and four touchdowns.
He started his collegiate career at USC, then transferred to Tennessee. He caught 21 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns with the Trojans during the COVID-shortened 2020 season,
McCoy announced in January that he would be returning to Tennessee, but never let himself look too far down the road. He just knew where he wanted to be by the time the new season rolled around.
“I don’t want to come back and be less of who I was as a player,” McCoy said at the time. “I want to be better. So my goal is to kind of, in my head, I’m like (thinking) show everyone that this wasn’t a setback, it was just the change. It was adversity that you grow from and you come back better.”
That’s exactly what he showed his Tennessee coaches and teammates.
“The way he went through that, it was like, alright, what’s my job?” Halzle said. “What am I supposed to do when I can’t run right now?”
Up Next: Tennessee vs. Chattanooga, August 31, 12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network
If anything, Tennessee’s training staff had to slow him down.
“(They were) actually saying, hey Bru, we got to pull you back a little bit,” Halzle said. “Like he’s pushing it over and over and over to try to get there as quickly as possible. The guy’s just an absolute animal in every aspect, whether it’s strength training, conditioning, his rehab, his football knowledge.
“He just attacks it all the same way, which is why he’s made this this comeback so quickly, which I don’t know if everyone thought he was going to be able to, but it’s special to watch.”
