He’s the surreal McKoy

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This article was published 12/11/2014 (4302 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There is something different about the way Jayden McKoy thinks, the way his engineering student’s brain latches on to the punishing work of a defensive back.

It’s more mechanical, almost. “Methodical,” is a word University of Manitoba Bisons defensive coach Stan Pierre used. The 19-year-old rookie is an athletic phenom, yes, but he’s sharply analytical too, and “he likes rules.” Maybe that’s part of why they asked him to sit out last season, when he was fresh out of Miles Macdonnell Collegiate and wrestling to grasp the speed and flow of the CIS game.

Now, right at the crescendo of his official first year, McKoy is exploding — and right when the Bisons need him the most.

Friday, McKoy hauled down two interceptions (one of them a pick-six) and blocked a punt to help the Bisons orchestrate a stunning comeback win over Saskatchewan in the Canada West Conference semifinal. Monday, he was named Canada West’s top defensive player for the second week in a row. Saturday, the Bisons and their red-hot rookie will march into the conference championship against ferocious Calgary, a rematch of the 2013 final.

“It’s pretty cool,” McKoy said after practice on Tuesday, of his consecutive conference honours. “I’m more excited about the fact it came at the right time, you know what I mean? I’m just glad I can make plays at an opportune time, and that we’re moving on.”

The Bisons are the only team to beat the Dinos on the field this season, a feat accomplished just two weeks ago. McKoy was instrumental in that win. Granted, the Bisons were battling for their playoff lives at the time and Calgary was just waiting for the post-season to begin, but still, the taste of the victory lingers.

“We’re not scared of them anymore,” McKoy said. “They’ve been the big, bad beasts of the west for six years that they’ve won the Hardy Cup. But we know that we can beat them, we truly believe we can. Just knowing we have the ability to beat them is enough for us.”

Two weeks ago, McKoy and his defensive colleagues picked up on some trends in Calgary’s offence they could exploit. This time, they expect that some of those windows might be slammed shut.

“Conceptually, they are who they are… but we’ll see different formations or different ways they can get to things,” Pierre said. “You try to teach the players what they are, and not to worry about how to get to where they are. But it’s tough, especially when the bullets fly.”

The Bisons coaches weren’t thrilled with how the team played as a whole against Saskatchewan — “a bit panicky,” Pierre thought, especially when an early 14-0 lead got decimated by an onslaught that left the score at 30-18 for the Huskies at the half. The U of M squad roared back, thanks to some big defensive plays — McKoy’s 54-yard pick-six got the ball rolling in the third — and a fine couple of drives led by starting pivot Jordan Yantz.

Those early stumbles, though, those will have to be tightened up if the Bisons have a hope of upsetting Calgary’s six-year grip on the Hardy Cup.

“In the playoffs, everybody’s different, everything’s different,” said Yantz, who had to sit out the win over Calgary with an injury — the first time he’d done so in his career. “We’re going to be expected to have to fight tough times, and there’s gonna be highs, and there’s gonna be lows. We just can’t go and be like, it’s playing old Calgary, and beat ourselves up because of that.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca