Glades OL the next big thing in Florida

HOOVER, Ala. - Belle Glade (Fla.) Glades Central is a prospect producing factory. Rivals.com has already introduced you to Deonte Thompson in the class of 2007, but you may not know much about offensive tackle Ernest McCoy yet, who actually has more offers than Thompson. He's also a sure bet to win any Christopher Barney look alike contest.

"He's already been offered by the three big in-state schools and some others," Glades Central head coach Willie Snead said. "There are some other schools that have said they'll have an offer a few games into the season. He's a huge kid that moves well and is still raw. Coaches are all over that, those are things that you can't coach. When he's on the field, he's got that mean streak too."

"Right now I have offers from Miami, Florida, Florida State, Pittsburgh and South Florida," McCoy said. "I am getting mail from just about everybody out there that I could think of. It's pretty cool that I am already getting this attention, it makes me want to work hard and show that I'm the best."

The massive McCoy comes in at 6-foot-5, 330 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in the 5.25 second range. However, he says its his quickness of the ball and his stregth that make him such an attractive prospect.

"I like to watch my opponents first move," McCoy said. "I just fire off the ball and bulldoze him out of the way. I just use my strength and I love to just push him out of the way. I like to dominate guys."

Like most anyone would be who is still a year away from being thrust into the spotlight of the recruiting process, McCoy hasn't narrowed things down much.

"I guess some of the main schools I'm looking at are Miami, Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Auburn, Alabama, Pittsburgh and some others," McCoy said. "Miami was the first to offer after I went to their camp this summer, then pretty much all the others offered after that."

McCoy has attended camps at Miami, Auburn, Alabama and Florida so far this summer. He did not participate at the 7-on-7 due to his position, but was there to lend support for his teammates.

"Man, I wish I could be out there," McCoy said. "Those boys don't want me out there. I think our offensive and defensive lines our one of the strongest points of our team and that would give us an advantage over some of those teams that beat us."

McCoy looks so much like 2005 Miami signee that one might have to take a second look to make sure it isn't the former four-star Rivals 100 selection. They are very similar in size, have the same type of hair and favor one another in the face.

Barney chose to sign with the Hurricanes after taking the process down the wire. McCoy could be headed down the same road as Barney one day.

"I grew up a big Miami fan as a kid," McCoy said. "I grew up watching them dominate everyone. It's close to home, the coaches are great and it's a great program. Distance is not a factor for me, but it never hurts to be close to home. Me and Deonte have been talking and we'd like to try to go to the same place, but who knows."