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Sunday, December 7, 1997

Considered undersized for a linebacker, Coakley has come up big for Cowboys

By Bart Hubbuch

The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS -- It was just an off-handed remark by a scout, one heard every February during the NFL's scouting combine. To this day, 10 months later, the words still claw at Dexter Coakley's psyche.

"If the kid were 6-3, he'd be a millionaire."

It wasn't anything new, of course. At 5-9 and 3/4ths, Coakley has been told he is too short to play linebacker since that summer day in 1992 when he asked to switch positions as a senior at Fork Union (S.C.) Military Academy.

But Coakley, now a rookie starter for the Cowboys, had never heard it put so painfully blunt. The phrase cut to the bone, so much so that he actually found himself cursing his mother in his mind.

"That's how seriously I take this game," he said this week. "I've disliked my mom at times for the genetics she gave me. I didn't think it was fair."

Barbara Coakley can rest easy. Her son is taking out that anger and frustration instead on NFL opponents, doing so in such relentless, reliable fashion that even the Cowboys -- who say they were sold on him from the beginning -- have been stunned by their good fortune.

Coakley has been a rare ray of sunshine in this gloomy season of underachievement and disappointment for the 6-7 Cowboys. The speedy, 215-pound outside linebacker is second on the team with 115 tackles (a Cowboys' rookie record) and is a serious candidate for the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year award.

Coakley assured his candidacy by earning the league's Defensive Rookie of the Month award for October. With three regular-season games left starting Monday night against Carolina, Coakley already is just the second rookie in club history to record more than 100 tackles.

Not bad for someone passed over repeatedly in the NFL draft last April, and who wasn't expected -- or expecting -- to start at weakside linebacker when the Cowboys opened training camp in August.

"I thought I might contribute on special teams and learn my way around," he said.

What Coakley lacks in size, he more than makes up for with determination, drive and quickness. One look at his incredibly chiseled physique (which includes just four percent body fat) tells you all you need to know about Coakley's intensity.

Coakley is a weight-room warrior, and he's no less tenacious on the field. Blessed with outstanding sideline-to-sideline quickness, he has two and a half sacks, an interception, two passes defensed, a forced fumble, nine tackles for lost yardage and four quarterback pressures.

"It's been a Cinderella season so far for me," he said. "I never knew coming into this organization my first year that I would get the chances that I've been given. It's like I'm dreaming, and I don't want to wake up."

Neither the Cowboys nor any other NFL team could be surprised by Coakley's tackling ability. After all, he recorded an incredible 616 tackles as a four-year starter at Appalachian State. For his Herculean efforts, Coakley was a first-team Division I-AA All-America and Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore, junior and senior.

But height, or lack thereof, remained Coakley's albatross in the eyes of the NFL. That point was driven home when six linebackers were drafted ahead of Coakley, despite what several scouts say was the second-best performance by a linebacker behind Alabama's Dwayne Rudd (later a No. 1 pick by Minnesota) at last winter's scouting combine.

Coakley can still remember the hurt he felt on draft day, pain that didn't subside until Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones called to say Dallas was about to take him with the 65th overall selection.

"It was a very tough day, because some teams told me they would take me if I was still around in the first or second round," Coakley said. "But I just kept getting knocked down and knocked down. When the Cowboys finally called, I was ready to pack my bags and get on the plane right then."

The Cowboys insist they never were overly concerned about Coakley's height. They wondered about his durability in the NFL at just over 200 pounds, not about how tall Coakley was.

"I didn't really care that much about his height, because I'd seen other small linebackers make it in this league," Cowboys' scouting director Larry Lacewell said. "We didn't bring him in here to put in light bulbs."

Nonetheless, Coakley had to endure endless reports that the Cowboys wanted to bring in a veteran linebacker -- Seth Joyner was the name mentioned most frequently -- to start ahead of Alan Campos and him on the side opposite the tight end.

But once training camp started, it didn't take long for Coakley to make the Cowboys a believer. He beat out Campos after one scrimmage, even making Campos expendable to the point that Dallas released the former fifth-round draft pick in August.

Coakley hasn't disappointed the Cowboys since. He has started all 13 games, recording seven or more tackles in all but one of those contests.

"Coakley was one of the most productive linebackers I'd seen in college football in my thirty-something years of watching young players," Lacewell said. "The surprise is that he hasn't worn down. He seems to be getting better as the year goes on."

But it is the 14th game of his rookie season that Coakley awaits the most. Monday night against Carolina, he gets to line up on the same field as one of his idols, Panthers' linebacker Sam Mills.

The reason for the admiration is obvious. Mills is 5-9, and for the past 12 years, he has had to overcome the same size-related obstacles that Coakley now faces. The fact that Mills is a five-time Pro Bowl selection at linebacker is all the inspiration Coakley says he needs.

"I've followed him throughout his career," Coakley said. "He was always told he wasn't big enough or tall enough until somebody finally gave him a chance. I can definitely relate to that. He's been an inspiration to me. I want to be the next Sam Mills."

The Cowboys wouldn't be surprised if, 12 years from now, some undersized linebacker is saying the same about Coakley.

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(c) 1997, The Dallas Morning News.

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