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Texas Tech football's Coy Eakin a competitor in more than one arena
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- Texas Tech football's Coy Eakin a competitor in more than one arena
On a sunny fall morning outside the new south end zone building at Jones AT&T Stadium, Texas Tech football receiver Coy Eakin walked past associate head coach Kenny Perry . Eakin continued on his way, and Perry made an unsolicited observation about Eakin's impressive work ethic.
At Tech, they don't have to coach up Eakin as much as they have to occasionally coach him down — off a ledge, that is. No one takes it harder if he drops a pass or misses an assignment.
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"Huge care factor," Tech coach Joey McGuire said. "He eats himself up because he is such a perfectionist."
In other words, not much has changed with Coy Eakin since he was a little boy. Mark Eakin can remember looking outside and seeing his redhaired son, setting up cones and targets to practice by himself. This was during his flag-football years, before age 10.
"He'd be running drills," Mark Eakin said, "and then he'd make us come out there and time his 40. And then he'd have all his little throwing targets. He's a very, very driven person — they say even there (at Texas Tech). When I talk to all the strength coaches and stuff, they always talk about how hard he works out and does everything. It doesn't surprise us, but it's good to hear that he's never lost that part of it."
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The 6-foot-2, 210-pound sophomore from Stephenville has started 14 of Tech's past 16 games dating to last season. He's caught 22 passes for 339 yards this season, and his five touchdown receptions and 15.4 yards per catch lead the team.
Texas Tech wide receiver Coy Eakin (8) has caught 22 passes for 339 yards and a team-high five touchdowns this season. Eakin twice suffered broken collarbones before the 2023 season, but he finished strong with seven catches, 106 yards and a TD in Tech's Independence Bowl victory over California.
Growing up in rodeo and football made Coy Eakin choose between sports
Coy Eakin was going to throw himself into whatever sport he chose. The hard part was deciding which one. Playing for a 16-0 state champion at Stephenville, Eakin led the nation with 93 catches for 2,140 yards and 31 touchdowns. He's also the son of the rodeo head coach at Tarleton State and an avid roper.
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Coy came to a fork in the road at age 14.
"Eighth grade, middle school, we started practicing two hours after school for football," he said, "and then I still wanted to rodeo, so I'd go practice for another hour and a half after football. It got to the point where it was, 'All right, I need to pick one, because this is too much on my body.' If it came down to it, I'd miss a rodeo rather than miss a game, so I was like, 'Yeah, I need to go to football.' "
During his time with the Red Raiders , Eakin has come to be called Cowboy Coy, not just for the alliteration. Born in Canyon when his father was rodeo coach at West Texas A&M, Coy recites a memory of going with his dad to school on Friday mornings and stopping for donuts.
Texas Tech wide receiver Coy Eakin is the son of the Tarleton State rodeo coach and competed in rodeo up to about age 14. Tie-down roping and team roping were his primary pursuits.
Coy turned 5 in August 2008, and that's when his father got the job at Tarleton, which might be like a football coach getting the job at Alabama . The Tarleton men's team has won five national championships, the women's team has won four national championships and its individuals have claimed 30 national titles. For several years, Mark Eakin said, Tarleton's had the largest team in the country.
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The program's Hall of Fame includes a who's who of National Finals Rodeo qualifiers and world champions.
Coy Eakin grew up in that world, winning his own collection of saddles and buckles.
"I got more nervous for rodeo events," he said, "than I ever did for football."
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"He was very talented," Mark said, "and we went really hard (at rodeoing) when he was young. I might have burned him out. We were used to the Panhandle where you drive four or five hours to a little junior rodeo, and down here you can go to eight of them and spend one tank of gas. We took him everywhere. He's won a bunch."
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Coy rode steers and calves when he was little. Later, he gravitated to tie-down roping and the heeler side of team roping. At age 10, he suffered a broken tibia and fibula during a tie-down practice run. Eakin dismounted a skittish horse and the horse stepped on his lower leg.
Being in a cast for nine months kept Eakin from running — much less rodeoing — for well over a year. The injuries and the cast stunted the growth in his right foot, so Eakin now wears a size-14 shoe on his left foot and a size-12 on his right.
Texas Tech football player Coy Eakin displays a prize buckle during his days as a junior-rodeo competitor. Eakin later decided to pursue football, and he was the nation's top high-school receiver three years ago, catching 93 passes for 2,140 yards and 31 touchdowns on Stephenville's 16-0 state-championship team.
Coy Eakin put sure hands to work as one of Texas Tech football's top receivers
Once healed, nevertheless, he went back into the arena for more roping.
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"Then around eighth grade," Eakin said, "I was heeling and as I came up to dally, three of my fingers almost got stuck in the rope. I was like, 'If I cut off my fingers I cannot play football. So I was like, 'Yeah, I know what my priority is.' "
To dally a rope means to wrap it around a saddle horn. To do it at high speed with a 240-pound calf on the other end puts the hand, thumb and fingers at risk of serious injury.
"My last three fingers almost got caught in the dally," Eakin said. "I kind of got sucked down, and I ripped my hand out of it. I was like, 'Yeah, there's no way I'm losing my fingers over this.' "
Ever since, Eakin's used his hands on the pigskin more than the piggin' string. Beginning with last year's Independence Bowl , Eakin caught six TD passes in a six-game stretch.
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The Red Raiders play TCU at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Fort Worth, about 80 miles from Eakin's hometown. Mark Eakin will be at Amon Carter Stadium, though, coincidentally, his Tarleton State team is entered in the Texas Tech Rodeo from Thursday through Saturday. He'll make it to Lubbock for the competition Thursday and Friday and other coaches will oversee the team Saturday.
Bouncing back from injury has been a recurring theme in Eakin's athletics career. Last year, he twice suffered a broken collarbone — the right in spring practice, the left in August workouts — causing him to miss the non-conference schedule.
This year, he's stayed healthy, giving him time to develop chemistry with Behren Morton .
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"Playing confident and building that relationship," he said, "and then this year having two camps where I was completely healthy (spring and preseason) and making it through gave me a lot of confidence going into the season. It just gave me a better start to the season than last year."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football's Coy Eakin a competitor in more than one arena
