Chargers Head Coach Mike McCoy is never going to be mistaken for Pete Carroll or Ron Rivera when it comes to personality. He’s not as sullen or stoic as Bill Belichick, but McCoy takes the business of football VERY seriously and not exactly one who looks like he’s having a real good time on the sidelines.
However, we've seen some interesting stuff during Organized Team Activities (OTA) lately. Guys seem to actually be having fun and cutting loose a little bit. At the end of practice on Monday the defense picked off a pass and took it back about 100 yards for a touchdown.
I say “the defense” because literally the entire defense ran on to the field to escort the ball in to the end zone and they were hooting and hollering the entire way. It was a show of emotion that has been missing from Chargers Park in recent years and the kind of thing that just might help the Bolts improve instantly in 2016.
“That was something we wanted to emphasize to the players,” said McCoy. “Get back to having fun. Enjoy going out there and working your tails off every day, competing, and be happy for one another’s success. When someone scores a touchdown for the offense you see the linemen going in the end zone and celebrating with those guys. There’s a big play on defense and guys are running on the field celebrating. They work extremely hard. Let’s enjoy our time out here together.”
The atmosphere is certainly livelier around practice this off-season. To perform at their best football players need to be able to play loose. Perhaps McCoy has come to that realization and the extra dancing between drills and gum bumping between offense and defense will be one of the keys to unlocking a winning season in 2016.
Or, this is just an anomaly and when training camp hits and the season gets closer McCoy will revert to being overly conservative, taking his players with him. We’ll find out in a couple of months.
