terrence mcgee

[cashfruit]

i assume most of you guys visit espn but in case you missed it, heres a nice arcticle on mcgee

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor..._len&id=1942684

 

Growing up in Athens, the one in Texas and not Greece, Terrence McGee never thought all that much about visiting faraway places.

 

 

A big-time sojourn away from Athens, a city of about 12,000 that claims to be the place where the hamburger originated and which proudly touts itself as the "Black-Eyed Pea Capital of the World," typically meant driving the 75 miles northwest to Dallas. Or, for McGee, heading over to Natchitoches, La., after a successful high school career, to play football at Division I-AA Northwestern State University.

 

 

In fact, asked on Thursday to identify the "most exotic" locale he has ever visited, the Buffalo Bills second-year veteran paused for several seconds, repeated the question, and then settled on "Florida, I guess," as his answer. A couple months from now, if the query is repeated, McGee is apt to offer a much quicker and more far-flung reply.

 

 

“ Patience. Speed, running ability, having some quickness, all of that is important, don't get me wrong. But having the patience to allow things to open up in front of you, rather than just running full-tilt up the field, that is probably the thing that sets the really good return guys apart.”

—Terrence McGee

 

Barring an upset in the Pro Bowl vote, or the kind of inexplicable politics that often mark the players' segment of the balloting, the kid from tiny Athens should he headed to Hawaii as part of the AFC squad. Even McGee, noted more for busting kickoffs than any kind of braggadocio, acknowledged he's thinking of some serious Waikiki beach time.

 

 

"I can't help but think about Hawaii, you know, with the way things are going," allowed McGee, who has authored three of the NFL's 10 kickoff returns for touchdowns in 2004, the latest coming on a game-opening, 104-yard sprint against the Dolphins last Sunday. "People are talking about it like it's going to happen. I don't want to get too caught up in it yet but, hey, I guess you can't ignore it, either."

 

 

Nor can opposition special teams coaches ignore McGee, who is averaging 26.9 yards per kickoff return, best in the league among players with 25 or more runbacks. Certainly the former fourth-round draft choice, who appeared in 14 games last year, is a big element in the Bills' turnaround, with the team having won six of its last eight outings after a dismal 0-4 start to the season.

 

 

In addition to last weekend's effort, McGee had touchdown returns of 98 yards against New England on Oct. 3 and of 87 yards versus Arizona on Oct. 31. For the year, McGee has 1,103 yards on 41 returns, leaving him just 178 yards shy of breaking the club record established by Charlie Rogers only two years ago.

 

 

He needs one more touchdown return to tie the league single-season record, currently shared by Travis Williams of Green Bay (1967) and Chicago's Cecil Turner (1970). Not bad for a player better known for his punt return skills while in college and who logged just eight kickoff returns in his 2003 rookie campaign.

 

 

Not bad, either, for a young player forced into the starting lineup at cornerback because of an injury to Troy Vincent, and whose fatigue level and penchant for the BET network has turned him into a self-avowed couch potato. At a time when many players are into video games, McGee plants himself in front of the television with a remote control, not the controls to the latest X-Box offering.

 

 

He has always been, McGee conceded, a homebody. Not even the rarity of having taken three kickoffs "to the house," as part of the remaking of the Buffalo special teams under coach Bobby April, is enough to get McGee out and seeking the spotlight. It has largely been left for others to pump McGee, who has twice been named as the AFC special teams player of the week, for the Pro Bowl recognition due him.

 

 

"He's just been great," said April, whose past protégés have included Deion Sanders and Rod Woodson, among others. "When he gets the ball in his hands now, there's a certain kind of expectation, you know? There's that feeling that something big could happen."

 

 

McGee's play in the secondary, where he has started nine games since Vincent's injury, has been mixed at times. He has 67 tackles, three interceptions, three sacks, and a dozen passes defensed. Like most young cornerbacks, this has been a roller coaster existence. As a kickoff return man, though, McGee has experienced more peaks than valleys.

 

 

McGee was taken aback this summer when April first approached him and suggested he could be a standout kickoff returner. At Northwestern State, as a four-year starter in the defensive backfield, he lined up at both cornerback and safety. His most notable deeds on special teams had come as a punt returner (56 runbacks for 972 yards and three scores) and a rusher off the corner against placements (three blocked kicks) and McGee posted just a dozen kickoff returns.

 

 

But the former high school tailback possessed innate balance and vision, April sensed, and one other key quality that translates well to the kickoff return game.

 

 

"Patience," explained McGee on Thursday morning, following the Bills' walk-through for this weekend's game against the Cleveland Browns. "Speed, running ability, having some quickness, all of that is important, don't get me wrong. But having the patience to allow things to open up in front of you, rather than just running full-tilt up the field, that is probably the thing that sets the really good return guys apart."

 

 

Even on last Sunday's 104-yard return, a runback on which he wasn't touched at all, McGee was savvy enough to wait for the one really critical block that he needed, from London Fletcher, before cutting up through a yawning crease in the Miami coverage. At just 5-feet-9 and 201 pounds, McGee has deceptive strength as well, and that is crucial, too, since April has also stressed the need for hitting "the seam" hard on kickoff returns.

 

 

The best kickoff returners characteristically have to muscle past the first wave of cover defenders, to break out of the trash inherent to the exercise, before then hitting the second level at peak speed. Then it becomes a case of either making one or two moves or simply sprinting past the defenders.

 

 

"It just comes kind of unconsciously," McGee said. "You just react."

 

 

The general reaction to the Buffalo special teams this year, after several seasons in which the units were much maligned along the plains of Western New York, certainly has been a positive one. With the three kickoff returns by McGee, and punt return scores by Nate Clements and Jonathan Smith, the Bills have tied the league record for combined kick returns for touchdown in a season.

 

 

And if McGee has been unearthed as an emerging star, April, one of the NFL's premier special teams coaches but unfairly blamed for many of the kicking game problems in St. Louis the last few seasons, has seen his reputation restored. It isn't just happenstance, McGee agreed, that the Buffalo return game is suddenly so dangerous.

 

 

"Coach April is, uh, shall we say a little bit lively?" said McGee, referring to the ever-manic special teams mentor. "He stresses how important and how serious this is, but he has a way of making it fun, too. He's brought us a long way, definitely a long way."

 

 

For McGee, there is probably one more long trip to make, the flight to Hawaii that the kid from Athens never even dreamed about until a few weeks ago.