Steve Campbell, the coach at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, still wonders. "FSU looked at him and said no," Campbell said. "Florida had looked and said no. Miami basically was on him and said no. It was amazing. Mississippi State said no. Ole Miss, no. Auburn, no. They all looked at him."
Cody's weight hovered near 400 during his time in Perkinston, and some coaches don't believe a player that heavy has the stamina or the athletic ability to make an impact at the college level. "A lot of people are just wary of guys that big," Campbell said. "You know when people say that if things seem too good to be true that they usually are. A big guy like that who's that athletic, you just don't believe what you're seeing."
Fortunately for Cody, neither Campbell nor Jones had that attitude. Cody received no recruiting interest while at Riverdale because he played only his freshman and senior seasons. Jones said Cody's father died when Cody was 12, and Cody had to spend afternoons during his sophomore and junior seasons babysitting his younger brother. Finally, before his senior season, Cody approached Jones about playing football again.
Of course, after the tailback-squashing incident at spring practice, Jones had to institute The Terrence Rules. Cody wasn't allowed to tackle opponents at practice. He could only wrap them up. One day, Cody met a 230-pound fullback in the A gap. Cody picked up the kid, slung him over his shoulder and kept charging through the backfield.
"Is that what you want, Coach?" Cody asked Jones.
"Yep," Jones said. "That'll do."
Cody dominated as a senior. Against North Fort Myers, he had a memorable collision with future West Virginia star Noel Devine. "Terrence hit and spun Noel Devine so hard that [Devine] was on the sideline puking," Jones said. When Riverdale had the ball on the goal line, Jones called for handoffs to Cody. "The ball looked like a Nerf ball in his hands," Jones said.
Because Cody hadn't played as a junior or hit the camp circuit, few college coaches knew about him. Campbell and his staff might never have known had running backs coach Chad Huff not called Jones to inquire about Riverdale tailback Chevon Walker. Jones told Huff that Walker had his grades in order to go to Florida, but if Huff wanted to see a player, he should check out the video of his defensive tackle on Sunshine Preps, a free-to-players service that distributes game tape to colleges. Huff and Campbell gathered around Campbell's computer. Campbell clicked the link.
"Wow," both coaches said.
"TC stood out like a sore thumb," Campbell said. "He was dominating in high school. You didn't have to watch but a couple plays and you knew he could be a difference-maker."
Even Cody's brief career as a fullback suggested to Campbell that he wasn't dealing with some sluggish giant. "It was hilarious watching high school kids try to tackle him," Campbell said. "He just waded through people like a bulldozer. You could see the athleticism watching him run the ball. He would spin and twist." Campbell called Jones immediately. Jones asked if Campbell could mail Cody scholarship forms. Campbell said he'd FedEx them.
Once Campbell fitted him in a pair of size 18 cleats and an XXXXXL jersey, Cody played with a motor, and he had the quickness and agility of a player 150 pounds lighter. At first, Cody's teammates didn't know what to think of him. Former Mississippi Gulf Coast center Keating Helms, now the starter at Louisiana-Monroe, remembers turning to see Cody filling an entire door frame. Helms also remembers his first thought upon seeing Mount Cody. "Straight fear," Helms said.
That didn't last long. Helms and his teammates realized quickly that, off the field, Cody might be the world's largest teddy bear. Cody, an avid watcher of The Cartoon Network, slept on Batman sheets. "I've walked in on him watching Pokemon," Helms says. Cody said that above all else, he'll always be a Tom and Jerry man. Helms and Cody became fast friends. Helms didn't even mind when Cody sat on his futon and broke it.
On the practice field, Helms rarely attempted to block Cody without help. Asked how he feels when he flips on the TV and sees offensive linemen trying to block Cody, Helms chuckled. "That's a good word," he says. "Try and block him. I really feel for anybody who has to go against him."
Everyone who has spent significant time with Jones on the field feels this way, and that's why Campbell was so dumbfounded when college coaches would pass on Cody. "He's a different animal," Campbell said. "He can dominate at that level. That's what I tried to tell everybody."
Campbell even went over the college coaches' heads, telling an NFL scout buddy to take a look at Cody. The scout said some team might take a flier on Cody on the draft's second day. Campbell argued that Cody is a top-five pick. That same scout attended the Alabama-Clemson game. That night, Campbell received a text message from the scout: "Cuz, you were right."
Alabama coaches didn't shy away from Cody. "They wanted me bad," Cody said. "They said they felt like I was the missing part of the defense." They just wanted that piece to be a little smaller. Preseason reports had Cody's weight hovering near 400 again, but Bama coach Nick Saban had decreed Cody needed to weigh about 365 to have the stamina to be effective. Saban believes Cody can follow in the footsteps of Keith Traylor and Ted Washington, giant run-stuffers who had long and lucrative NFL careers.
'Bama's mountain of a nosetackle: 365-pound Terrence Cody
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