From fringe prospect to future 1st-rounder

[aubiefifty 17,488]

From fringe prospect to future 1st-rounder, Roger McCreary was built for this

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

10-13 minutes

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Antonio Coleman remembers texting Travis Williams five years ago, insisting that the then-Auburn assistant coach should evaluate this defensive back out of Mobile.

Coleman, a former Auburn player himself, had just been promoted to defensive coordinator at Williamson High and thought this scrawny-looking soon-to-be junior named Roger McCreary — then just 5-11 and about 160 pounds — had potential to be something special. Coleman had seen him in the weight room, benching 355 pounds, and he took note of how McCreary carried himself on and off the field.

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That’s when Coleman began to message Williams, who he had known from Williams’ days as a defensive graduate assistant when Coleman played at Auburn. First there were texts. Then short video clips of McCreary in action, followed by some of his stats. Coleman even sent along an entire highlight reel to try to get Williams’ attention.

“Travis, you really need to check him out, man,” Coleman said.

Eventually, Auburn’s coaching staff gave McCreary a look. They reviewed his film, visited his school and got to know him, but a scholarship offer wasn’t on the table. At least not yet.

It took a while for McCreary to get noticed by most programs. He was a bit undersized in high school, and it wasn’t clear what position he would play at the next level. At Williamson, he did a little bit of everything. He played defensive back and linebacker, quarterback and running back.

He was a jack of all trades but a master of none.

South Alabama offered him the spring before his senior season, and McCreary committed to the Jaguars, believing it was the best offer he was going to get. It wasn’t until after the end of his senior season that recruiting picked up for him. McCreary had eight interceptions and more than 100 tackles for Williamson that fall, and he racked up more than 2,100 yards of offense too.

Auburn circled back to him in early December, and then-defensive coordinator Kevin Steele had one question for Coleman: Is he fast?

Coleman assured Steele that McCreary was “probably one of the fastest guys” in Alabama, but he was raw and may need time to develop. He promised Steele that McCreary would “be one of the best kids in the nation” once he focused on one position.

“If I had a guy that was fast and can run, why would I go anywhere else if I have a kid in my backyard?” Steele told Coleman.

An offer came Dec. 12. McCreary was shocked, and a day later, he decommitted from South Alabama. By late January, after an official visit to the Plains and in-home visits from Steele and Gus Malzahn, McCreary committed to the Tigers. He was the third-lowest rated signee in Auburn’s 2018 class — a three-star prospect and borderline top-1,000 recruit in the country — but four years later, McCreary has developed into one of the top cornerbacks in college football and a projected first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.

“To see him grow and become a force like that, man, in a sport that’s so big and with so many great defensive backs and great defensive players period, that’s real big,” Coleman said.

***

Antonio Coleman knew early on that Roger McCreary was different.

He could tell just from the way McCreary approached everything with intention. He first noticed it in the weight room, when the 160-pound McCreary benched 220 percent of his body weight. Then on the field, when McCreary clocked a 40-yard time in the low-4.4 range “without any technique.” In the meeting room, he absorbed everything Coleman and Williamson’s coaches threw at him.

There was something almost balletic about the way McCreary moved on the field, whether it was bending his body and repositioning himself midair to intercept a pass, or if it was identifying a seam in the defense and breaking off an 80-yard run for a touchdown. But there was a destructive element, too, in the way he tackled with aggression on defense.

“Like, how can he do that? Just his DNA, his makeup and his mindset and how smart he was, how in-tune to the game he was, it put him on a whole different level,” Coleman said. “He was playing on a high school level, but as far as his thinking process and how he regurgitates everything that you teach him, it blew my mind.”

In hindsight, none of it should have come as too much of a surprise to Coleman, who’d known McCreary since he was a young child. Coleman grew up in Mobile with McCreary’s mother, Felicia James, and knew the caliber of athlete she was.

James played basketball, baseball and softball growing up. She also played Pop Warner football with Coleman at the RV Taylor Boys and Girls Club. There were a few girls playing Pop Warner back then, but none who played like James. Coleman recalls a couple instances when James tackled a boy and knocked them out of the game entirely; there was a ferocity to her game.

“That was the type of impact she brought when she played,” Coleman said. “She was a heck of a football player, man. That’s why I tell people all the time, he got it honest. It’s in his genes and it’s in his blood.”

James always made sure sports were a focal point in her son’s life. She was still in high school at Williamson when she had him, and she would bring him to basketball practices and games when he was just a couple years old.

By the time he was 4-years old, weekends were spent at the park. James took him to football games and “let him run around and just get a feel for the game.” She taught him how to throw a baseball, too. He also picked up on soccer and basketball, and eventually ran track. Seasons often overlapped, and McCreary would have to hustle from game to game, uniform to uniform.

There was always something going on, and that was by design.

“There was nothing else we needed to do on a Saturday but go watch sports,” James said. “I always tried to introduce him to something positive other than the streets. There was so much going on in the streets, I didn’t want him to deviate from where he needed to be.”

Sports, and the bond they built between McCreary and his mom, were such a central part of McCreary’s life that James claims her son sent her into labor when she was pregnant with his sister, Tadaisha.

James recalls her and McCreary playing around on a court before one of his basketball games when he was 9-years old and she was nine months pregnant with Tadaisha. McCreary tried to blow by his mom to get to the basket, and James — against her better judgment — tried to block his shot, falling on top of him and to the ground in the process.

The next morning, James said with a laugh, she was in labor.

At Williamson, the same school where he watched his mom play basketball when he was an infant, McCreary lettered on the hardwood and in track, but football was where he shined brightest. He earned Class 5A All-State first-team honors as a senior before signing with Auburn.

“I always saw something special in him,” James said. “He’s strong. He’s powerful. He’s humble and just tenacious, competitive and he wants to see himself succeed. He’s going after his dream.”

***

Roger McCreary faced a decision in January: return to Auburn for his senior season or declare early for the NFL Draft.

It wasn’t an easy one to mull, but McCreary was thorough in his process. He submitted paperwork to the NFL for a pre-draft evaluation, and the feedback had him as a possible third-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. He consulted Coleman, his high school defensive coordinator and a former NFL player, as well as former Auburn teammates who made it to the league.

He also talked through it with his mother, who wanted him to return to school and earn his degree. “The conversations were scary at one point, because I actually thought he was going to go,” James said.

McCreary weighed his options. He had already come so far, and the NFL dream was within reach. Coleman thought he should listen to his mom and return to school. Former teammates told him that, unless he really believed he needed to leave Auburn, he should give it one more year.

James was convinced her son was going to turn pro, but something changed during the process, and McCreary informed his mom he was going back to Auburn. More than anything, he told her, he wanted his degree and the chance to become a first-generation college graduate.

“I don’t know if he did it for me or if he did it for himself,” James said. “I hope he did it for himself, but I am very proud of him for that… but I was at a loss for words.”

McCreary earned his degree in August. That brought tears of joy to his mother’s face, and it allowed him to shift his focus this fall to his other goal — improving his draft stock. His decision to bet on himself has paid off through Auburn’s first nine games. He has 34 tackles, nine pass breakups (tied for 10th in the country) and two interceptions, including a pick-six against Alabama State.

He has posted the highest coverage grade (90.1) among all cornerbacks in the SEC this season, as well as the most forced incompletions (14) in the league, according to Pro Football Focus. Though Auburn has shifted to more zone coverage under defensive coordinator Derek Mason, McCreary has still been an asset in man-to-man, logging the fourth-most reps in press coverage (125) among SEC defenders.

“I told (Auburn’s coaches), and it sticks to this day: He’s not short of talent,” Coleman said. “It’s all about developing him as a corner vs. him playing five or six positions in high school. Once you develop him as a corner, he’ll be one of the best kids in the nation.… This kid, he works his tail off and he deserves everything he’s getting right now.”

McCreary is on pace to be the latest in a growing pipeline of Auburn defensive backs to make it to the NFL, following in the footsteps of Jamel Dean, Carlton Davis, Noah Igbinoghene, Daniel Thomas and Jamien Sherwood. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has McCreary projected as a first-round pick and the No. 3 cornerback in the 2022 draft class, while The Athletic has him pegged as the 15th-best overall prospect in the draft.

McCreary’s ascension from fringe top-1,000 recruit to one of the top corners in all of college football has been nothing short of meteoric.

“When he got the opportunity to go out and show that he was one of the best in the country, he did it,” safety Smoke Monday said. “…He went out and showed people, hey, he’s Roger McCreary, and he’s going to go out and lock people down.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

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[Tigerpro2a 5,650]

@bigbirdMY "Mane" crush ( Throw back to T. Howard) . Rog is one of my favorite players to come through in a long time. Doesn't trash talk. Let's his game to it for him and has plenty to go around. 

[woodford 3,688]

He is awesome. Needs to make some plays this weekend!

[Hank2020 3,233]

1 hour ago, woodford said:

He is awesome. Needs to make some plays this weekend!

I doubt they purposely go his way. Most have tried to dodge him.

[AUwent 3,786]

A first round pick is just what the doctor ordered for our recruiting.

[W.E.D 11,070]

I didn't realize/didn't remember he was so lowly rated.

Edited November 12, 2021 by W.E.D

[AU9377 5,370]

20 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

I didn't realize/didn't remember he was so lowly rated.

I remember getting him confused with Smoke Monday at that time.  That class had several headliners like Seth Williams and Zacoby McClain.

[AU9377 5,370]

42 minutes ago, AUwent said:

A first round pick is just what the doctor ordered for our recruiting.

If the draft was next week,  I would agree.  But it never hurts, even if it helps two years down the road.

[DAG 34,126]

DB U

[Tigerpro2a 5,650]

52 minutes ago, DAG said:

DB U

We been making a decent case for at least runner up. Carlton Davis, Jamel Dean, Noah Iggy, Roger McCreary.

[Gowebb11 9,548]

1 minute ago, Tigerpro2a said:

We been making a decent case for at least runner up. Carlton Davis, Jamel Dean, Noah Iggy, Roger McCreary.

Don’t forget Daniel Thomas and Jeremiah Dinson from the safety spot. 

[e808 3,028]

There is Rudy Ford and Jonathan Jones as well.

[Sizzle 3,932]

4 hours ago, W.E.D said:

I didn't realize/didn't remember he was so lowly rated.

Yeah I remember it like it was yesterday. Kevin Steele offered him super late in the process when he was still committed to South Alabama. Once we offered then other good offers started rolling in for him but it was too late for everybody else and he ended up switching his commitment from USA to us

[bigbird 60,624]

Still no love for Neiko...

😂

[fredst 9,064]

Another reminder that rankings are the end-all/be-all, particularly when it comes to individual players. Glad he has excelled the way he has

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,841]

Not my field of knowledge, but he seems like the most skilled out of the recent bunch to me. I feel like Noah’s calling point was upside and big jumps in development, Carlton was just being a monster in press coverage, and I still don’t have a distinguished opinion on Jamel other than he rarely got cooked. 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Dual-Threat Rigby

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,841]

It also sucks that he’s leaving just bc that’s it right? A core that began in…2016? ends with him. Very sad

Edited November 12, 2021 by Dual-Threat Rigby

[e808 3,028]

2 hours ago, bigbird said:

Still no love for Neiko...

😂

I thought he was one of the worst but he manage to stay in the league a long time.  Either he was holding out at Auburn or very clever in the pros lol

[Tigerpro2a 5,650]

5 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

It also sucks that he’s leaving just bc that’s it right? A core that began in…2016? ends with him. Very sad

He is leaving, but the foundation is laid. Pritchett will be that guy next year. I think both he and Simpson get drafted. Probably neither 1st or 2nd rounders, but 3-5 I could see Pritchett going in if he has  good year. He already has a lot of good tape from the last 2 seasons.