Story by
Times West Virginian, Fairmont
COLUMN: WVU's Corey McIntyre Jr. takes lessons from his Mountaineers dad
- Story byTimes West Virginian, Fairmont
- COLUMN: WVU's Corey McIntyre Jr. takes lessons from his Mountaineers dad
MORGANTOWN — A third straight defeat had been administered upon the West Virginia Mountaineers by Arizona last Saturday, the 52 points the Wildcatsl put on the scoreboard indicated that, for the third straight week, the WVU defensive unit would bear the burden of the defeat.
Corey McIntyre Jr. is a member of that unit's starting defensive line and went off seeking advice about the situation from the man who had brought him along since childhood — his father, a former West Virginia player who was a Mountaineer through the final three years of Coach Don Nelen's era and into the first tenure of WVU's current coach, Rich Rodriguez.
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"I talk to him after almost every game. After this week's game he told me that it's hard but just keep going every day because you've got something to prove," McIntyre the younger said as he met with the Mountaineers media Tuesday afternoon.
If he was looking for how to get through troubled times, he was going to the right place, for Corey McIntyre Sr. had spent a lifetime fighting his way from the bottom up. As has become his custom this year, he had flown from Florida to Morgantown for the game, just as he plans to do this upcoming Saturday when Cincinnati comes to town for a noon game.
"I told him to keep his head up, just be a leader. From all the pain will come the success. You have to go through the pain before you receive that success," Corey Sr. said during a Tuesday evening phone conversation from his home in Florida.
If you are a long-time Mountaineers fan or follower, you will recall Corey McEntyre Sr. He came to WVU out of South Fork High in Florida in 1996, nudged in that direction by his high school coach, Paul Kasula, who in his early days had been a running back coach under Nehlen.
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"He told me I'd love it," McIntyre Sr. said. "Also, Charles Emanuel, who is from the same little town in Florida I am."
McIntyre says it could not have worked out better for him, falling in love with the school. He came in as a running back/linebacker, watched his first game from the bench as a freshman when Amos Zereoue took his first handoff and ran 69 yards for a touchdown against Pitt and now says "I still bleed gold and blue."
He would go on to fight his way into an NFL career, as did Emanuel, but nothing was given to him.
"I have no regrets," he said. "It was hard. It was a change of scenery from Florida to Morgantown but it got me to where I wanted to be in life."
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And knowing that, he was in the background as Corey McEntyre Jr. was being recruited, not urging him to follow in his footsteps.
"I wanted him to choose his own path. I told him he doesn't have to follow me, you don't have to go to the same school I went to. I left it up to him. That's where he felt like home and that's why he's there," McEntyre Sr. said;
"He told me they care for you, it's like his second home for him and it's like that for me, too. I liked everybody here when I visited. What he's told me is to keep my head down and keep on grinding because he's seen me get better every weekend; every day since I've been here," Corey Junior said.
That's the way it was with the father, who had to battle for everything he got and, but for one play, might have gone down as a Mountaineers hero forever.
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One of his biggest moments was in the 2000 Music City Bowl, which was Nehlen's final game, when came when Corey Sr. shut off a late rally by Ole Miss with an interception of a freshman backup quarterback who was rallying his team, Eli Manning.
That would prove to be his only interception of his career but it reminded him of his most painful Mountaineers moment.
"I wish I could have gotten the interception against Pitt," he said of the one that got away in a 38-33 loss to the Panthers. "That could have changed that game and it still haunts me until today. We were playing Pitt, I could have changed the game. The ball hit me right in a bad spot — in my hands — and I dropped it.
"If I'd have caught it, no one could have stopped me from getting to the end zone. No one."
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But as it was, McIntyre's career in Morgantown was a memorable one. In his senior year in a 34-24 loss to Notre Dame WVUStats.com shows him having made 16 tackles, 10 of them solo, although his memory places the number closer to 25 tackles.
Either way it was a great performance.
"I hate Notre Dame," he still says.
Upon graduating, he was heading for the NFL, but the road was not a smooth one.
Undrafted, he was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles, but was put on the taxi squad and sent off to play with the Frankfurt Galaxy in 2023, where he helped them to the World Bowl, mostly at running back.
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The next summer he was signed by the Cleveland Browns, where he played 15 games for them with one start.
"A great organization," is the way he describes the Browns team he played for then. "But Lake Erie is cold."
The next season, when the New Orleans Saints struck down by injuries to two of their fullbacks in the first week of the season, he was signed by them and followed that up by joining the Atlanta Falcons, where was made special teams captain.
At age 29 the break he was working toward finally came his way when the Buffalo Bills released fullback Darian Barnes and signed McIntyre to a two-year contract that he turned into five years of starting, finishing with 104 games of NFL play on his resume.
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And so it was that he left a roadmap for Corey McIntyre Jr. to follow through the hard times.
"Yeah, I had to fight," McIntyre said. "It was some tough times but the person I am, I don't give up. If you tell me no, that makes me want to go knock down the biggest skyscraper in the world. You couldn't tell me no and no one was going to stop me from achieving my dream.
"There were some hard times, some very hard times coming out of the mud, that's where I came from and I loved every minute of it. I'd do it in a heartbeat."
And now he's helping guide his son through troubled times.
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"We can't let that affect us. We have to keep going every week. This week is a new opportunity to get better during the week and prevail next Saturday," McIntyre Jr. said. "I don't want to dwell on it too much because it will give you a negative mindset. That's not good and it's not going to help you. You just have to get on to the next weekend and prepare."
