Embattled Coker gets a fresh start at Hampton

HAMPTON, Va. - At Michael Swett's high school track meets in Nashville the buzz would slowly build.

"LaMarcus is running! LaMarcus is running!"

Like everyone else, Swett would amble over to watch the speedy kid from Antioch High School blow away the competition in the 100 meters. Once, Swett said, "He came from last place to first place. He was fast."

Coker's speed took him to the University of Tennessee, where news of his athletic exploits continued to filter down to Swett at Montgomery Bell Academy. But Swett, now a junior linebacker at Hampton University, never imagined Coker would one day be his teammate.

In 2006, while Swett was making five tackles as a freshman, Coker led Tennessee and SEC freshmen with 696 rushing yards and scored five touchdowns. But trouble overshadowed Coker's talent in his sophomore season, when he gained 169 yards in seven games before being suspended and eventually dismissed from UT, reportedly after testing positive for marijuana for the fourth time.

"I have regrets that he screwed it up," UT coach Phillip Fulmer told the Knoxville News Sentinel in November of 2007.

So does Coker, but he's not dwelling on them at Hampton, where he's one of many I-A transfers. The list also includes ex-UT safety Ricardo Kemp.

"We're Hampton Pirates," Coker said. "We're proud to be here. I'm focusing on Chattanooga."

That's where the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) national title game is played each year, and it's where Hampton wants to be after missing the playoffs last season for the first time in three years.

The Pirates (5-1, 4-0 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) play at South Carolina State (5-2, 3-0) on Saturday in a game that will anoint the conference front-runner.

It's a big game, but it's a far cry from, say, Nov. 25, 2006, when Coker had 90 yards and a touchdown as Tennessee beat Kentucky 17-12 in front of 104,382 at Neyland Stadium.

The distance isn't lost on Coker.

Comfort level at Hampton

While he says he can watch Tennessee games now as a fan, "I got sad when I watched them play Auburn (on Sept. 27), because Auburn and Tennessee were my top two schools coming out of high school," Coker said. "So I got real emotional when I watched that game."

Seventeen thousand-seat Armstrong Stadium, nestled between a VA National Cemetery and the Chesapeake Bay, is "not Neyland Stadium," Coker said, "(but) with it being smaller, everything is more personal. When you walk off the field, you have a guy that you know who works in the cafeteria walk up to you and say, 'We're so happy to have you here.' It feels like I'm walking out of Neyland Stadium."

That comfort level took a little while to reach, for both Coker and his new teammates.

"It's not the way he is now, but when he came here, I guess he was used to everything being given to him at Tennessee," Swett said. "... I talked to him when we first got here, told him my name, told him I was from Nashville. ... He was the type of guy - 'Nice to meet you, OK,' and then just keep on going with my business. But he's a good guy now. He relies on me, I rely on him, and that's how teammates are."

"Just like anybody, you've got to give them a chance, get to know them," sophomore quarterback Herb Bynes said. "As we got to know Coker, Coker started to open up more. He's just been like one of us, like he's been here before."

While Bynes is passing for 245 yards a game, the Pirates, led by Coker's 64 yards a game, are rushing for just 126 - second-to-last in the nine-team MEAC. But Coker has shown flashes of the his playmaking potential.

In Hampton's 35-17 win against Norfolk State on Oct. 18, Coker caught a screen pass on the right sideline. He turned upfield, shook off a tackler, and dashed 80 yards for a touchdown.

Hampton coach Jerry Holmes has been equally impressed with what he's seen from Coker off the field.

"From the reports I'm getting, he's where he's supposed to be - going to class and not hanging out where he don't need to be hanging out," Holmes said. "We knew he could play football before he ever got here from our conversations with the people at Tennessee. We just more or less worried about the other things, and they seem to be going well."

'That's my daddy'

Coker said his schedule at Hampton consists of "going to practice, going to class, going home."

"At UT, it was like a different stage, and I put myself out there to be susceptible to those things," he said. "Here, I went at the situation differently. I try to stay away from everything and everybody, really, and do what I came here for."

Coker also tries to make time for his 3-year-old daughter, Kennedi, who lives in Tennessee with her mother. Kennedi was in the stands at Southern Illinois, when the Pirates suffered their lone loss, 37-31, on Sept. 6.

"When we make the Chattanooga trip, that's two hours away from home," Coker said. "That'll be the next game she probably comes to. ... When she used to come to my games at Tennessee, she really didn't know which one was me, but she knew that I was one of the people with the orange jerseys on. So she would just point at anybody in an orange jersey and say, 'That's my daddy.'"

As Kennedi grew older, Coker realized he needed to be a more responsible role model. His coach has seen that responsibility manifested in Coker's on-field attitude.

"He volunteers for everything," Holmes said. "He wants to be on the punt return team and try to block punts. He wants to run down there on kickoffs. He wants to be on kickoff returns. He's enjoying it. He's enjoying playing football here."

His teammates take note of what it means to have their star running back lobbying to get in some extra hits on kick coverage.

"One, he's crazy," Bynes said. "Two, he's a team player. And three, he just wants to do everything he can to help the team win. That's something that we respect about him."

"Respect" didn't crop up often on UT message boards after the Vols dismissed Coker. "Waste" and "shame" and "good riddance" were more popular words.

Now, he hears things like this from Swett: "He means a lot to the team. He's just one of those guys that we really rely on. Whenever we need a third-and-1 or a screen pass, he's there to run it for a touchdown. ... He will make it happen."

"One of the quotes I live by is, 'Adversity introduces a man to himself,' " Coker said. "That whole (Tennessee) situation, it really let me know who I was. I definitely could have (given) up and quit, and just stayed at home and got a job and took care of my daughter. But I didn't. I came 12 hours away from home, still trying to play football, still trying to get a degree."

" ... I feel like I'm redeeming myself every day - every day when I get up and go to class, every day when I go practice, every day when I show people that I can do the right thing."