Game 8 Player Spotlight: Patrick Macon
NEXT GAME: USF (3-4, 1-2) at East Carolina (3-4, 0-3)
DAY/TIME: Saturday/3:45 p.m.
LOCATION: Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, Greenville, N.C.
TV/RADIO: ESPNU/USF Radio Network:
Over the Air: WDAE 95.3 FM/620 AM &
Digital: Bulls Unlimited
SERIES: USF leads, 8-1, and has won four straight
GAME NOTES: USF |
ECU
By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA, OCT. 25, 2019 – From leading younger players to leaving it all on the field, senior linebacker
Patrick Macon is doing everything he can to make a lasting impression as a Bull.
"I want to be memorable," he said.
So far, so good for the graduate student transfer who is tops on the team with 55 tackles and ranks sixth in The American with 7.9 stops per game heading into USF's conference clash with East Carolina.
Macon also is second on the squad with 8.0 tackles for loss and needed just one game to get halfway to that total. USF's starting middle linebacker used his high motor to wreak havoc against Wisconsin (now No. 13), finishing the season opener with 15 tackles (10 solo) along with four tackles for loss, a sack and forced fumble in his first FBS game.
"It's built in me, every time I go out on the field, just giving it my all," he said. "I play with a lot of passion in the game."
Macon's all-out style is understandable, considering how long of a journey he's taken to finally get an opportunity to produce at the Division I level.
After earning all-state honors out of Millington Central High School, the Memphis, Tenn., native took his talents more than 1,500 miles away from home to play for Arizona Western College. Despite an initial "culture shock," Macon said he adjusted quickly and recorded a very respectable 82 tackles (four sacks) as a freshman.
"It was a real fun experience," he said. "It helped me grow as a person and even more as a man, making my decisions. On top of that, it made me a better football player."
Macon proved it as a sophomore with stats linebackers dream of – 122 tackles, 27.5 tackles for loss, nine sacks and nine forced fumbles. The huge 2016 season made Macon the National Junior College Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Year and presented him with very appealing scholarship offers.
"To be honest, I wasn't the most athletic and I also wasn't the smoothest on the team," said Macon, who was teammates at Arizona Western with numerous eventual D-I players, including current Oakland Raiders cornerback Keisean Nixon. "But I would say, I put in the most work that season and that helped me build my confidence up."
Macon's self-belief was tested during two years at Oklahoma State that didn't include a single game appearance. The four-star recruit redshirted in 2017 and missed the entire next season due to a freak injury in fall camp. One play after an offensive lineman stepped on his foot, Macon prepared to go one-on-one with a running back, planted that foot and suffered a fifth-metatarsal fracture.
"It was kind of devastating, but it taught me a lesson," he said.
Despite not getting to suit up for the Cowboys, Macon did learn a lot in school and left Oklahoma State with a degree in business management. The aspiring business owner then found all he was looking for at USF.
"I just felt like Coach Strong came at the right time for me," Macon said. "He showed me that he genuinely cared about my future after football. He just told me to come here, work hard and I'll earn my spot."
Sure enough, Macon impressed during fall camp and found himself in a starting role. Following his dazzling debut against Wisconsin, Macon has kept making things happen, leading the team in tackles two more times and posting his second double-digit outing with 13 stops at Navy last Saturday.
Aside from standout individual performances, Macon is proving he's the complete package as a likeable leader that USF's younger players gladly follow.
"He's seen a lot of different defenses and been around a lot of different personalities," defensive coordinator
Brian Jean-Mary said. "He does well meshing with everybody but still getting his point across."
Macon's main motto for a young team like USF is a combination of important things he's learned on the way to Tampa.
"Do your school work, your football work and respect your coaches," he said.
From Playing the Violin to Making Noise With His Pads
Macon looks like a big, tough guy at 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds, and plays that way. Off the field, however, he's a humble, funny gentleman who makes his mom, Tanya, proud by being very polite to others.
"I look intimidating, so a lot of people don't just come up to me," said the self-proclaimed people person. "I have to introduce myself and talk to them."
Spend a few minutes chatting with the 22-year-old and you'll see why there's much more than meets the eye. For instance, Macon might tell you that around the age he started playing football (7), he also began reading sheet music in school.
"I had to learn to play an instrument. My mom was like, 'You're gonna learn to play the violin,'" Macon said. "I'm like, 'Out of all the instruments, you want me to play that? OK, I'll play the violin.'"
Macon said he kept playing his violin all the through sixth grade and still could play today if he "focused back in on it."
By high school, Macon was busy making noise with his pads on the football field while learning a position that paved the way for college scholarships. Years after Macon's father got him interested in the sport, Patrick Sr. came up with a winning idea for his son.
"Why don't you try linebacker?... You could be the quarterback of the defense and you can also showcase what you can really do," said Macon of his father's suggestion.
In the years leading up to his freshman season, Macon had already tried out his talents on offense as a quarterback, running back and tight end. He also was playing fullback early in his high school career in the Wing-T offense, but linebacker was ultimately the right role for the playmaker with lots of potential.
Macon knew his future could be bright as a linebacker during his freshman year when he picked off a screen pass on a blitz and "went to the crib" for a touchdown. As Bulls fans now know, Macon has turned into a ferocious tackler who takes no plays off.
"My dad instilled that in me. He said, 'You just gotta set the tone when you go out there. If you go out there and you just lollygag, people aren't going to take you seriously,'" Macon said. "That's very, very true. If you don't set the tone and be the hammer, you basically are the nail most of the time."
More Info on Macon
'BLESSED' BULL: Macon said his father, Patrick Sr., was a very talented high school football player in Memphis who had a lot of college offers. "I think he was projected to go to LSU when he was coming out of high school, but I came in the picture," Macon said. "My dad being a great dad he is, he stayed home and took care of his family." Patrick Sr. and Macon's mother, Tanya, ended up providing a very happy childhood for Macon and his two younger brothers, Preston and Pierre. "I tell everybody I'm blessed because I have both my parents around," Macon said. "I was able to learn certain things that other people weren't able to learn early in their life."- THE KARATE KIDS: Growing up, Macon and his younger brothers had their "own little circus act" that consisted of the three doing front and back flips. "We watched 'Karate Kid' and were like, 'I bet we could do that," Macon said. "We made it a competition, just brothers being brothers. We watched a lot of 'Karate Kid.'"
- FROM FOOTBALL TO BUSINESS: Macon said he wants to keep playing football "until I can't go anymore." Once the pads have been hung up, the current entrepreneurship major who is taking night classes wants own his own business and he's "leaning towards a gym." "I'm just building towards my second degree," he said. "It's just showing me the ropes of how to start a business and when I start it, how to maintain and keep it by bringing up the revenue."
ABOUT USF FOOTBALL
Having completed just its 22nd season of football, and 19th at the FBS level, the USF football program has earned 10 bowl appearances, including a current run of four straight, and owns a record of 6-3 in bowl games. The Bulls have appeared in the national top 25 rankings in each of the past three seasons, including a program record run of 20 straight weeks in the top 25, and in 2018 reached the program's 150th win faster than any FBS program in state of Florida history. USF has posted a pair of 10-plus win seasons in the last three years, including a program-record 11 wins (11-2) in 2016, and logged 15 winning seasons overall. Since first taking the field in 1997, the USF program has reached as high as No. 2 in the national rankings (2007), seen 30 players selected in the NFL Draft, 14 named All-American and 29 earn first-team all-conference selection.
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