Missouri lineman Max Copeland runs down dream, earns scholarship
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/29...eam-earns.html
Hard-rocking Montana native has gone from walk-on to starter.
BY TEREZ A. PAYLOR
The Kansas City Star
COLUMBIA -- The man with long, stringy blonde hair trudged up the stairs at the Mizzou Athletics Training Complex, his mind racing with every step.
Max Copeland was about to meet his position coach, Josh Henson, who cryptically ushered him down the hall to head coach Gary Pinkel.
Considering he’d already spent three-plus years paying his own way to play football at Mizzou, Copeland tried not to get his hopes up.
“I’m thinking ‘Oh, oh,’ ” Copeland says with a laugh.
The memory of what happened next still makes Copeland — a hard-rock fan who fires himself up for practice by shouting phrases like “Rock ’n’ roll!” and “If it ain’t heavy, it ain’t metal!” — choke up a bit.
“He told me ‘We’re going to put you on scholarship,’ ” Copeland says, his husky voice now turning a bit emotional. “It was surreal, man. I’ve had that dream 500 times before, and it was coming true.”
The first thing Copeland did was call his parents, Michael and Joanne, back home in Billings, Mont. They understood the gamble he had taken and the doubters he had faced to chase his dream, turning down a scholarship offer at Montana and willing himself into a 290-pound starting guard in the Southeastern Conference.
“In Billings, Montana, if you got a good offer, you went to Missoula — that’s just what you did,” Max says. “But I don’t want someone telling me what my path is. I’m going to tell you what my path is.
“That’s what rock ’n’ roll is about, man. It’s about forging your own path, taking the road less travelled and doing it because of who you are, not because it’s who people are telling you to be.
“It’s about bucking the system, man, you know?”
Whether Max Copeland is in the locker room or on his way to class, he always has his headphones on, cranked up to the max, blasting heavy-metal bands such as Motörhead, Black Label Society and Black Sabbath.
“The soundtrack to my life,” he says. “You’ve got to get yourself in a trance, get ready to bang heads, man.”
Copeland reinforces his hard-rocking persona with a variety of glares and catchphrases that make him seem more like a professional wrestler than a physics major.
“I always call him ‘Max the Action Figure’ because he has like 12 sayings that he just says over and over again,” senior guard Jack Meiners says.
Michael and Joanne say that at his core, Max is the same kid who was raised on classical music, played the piano and bass, wore short hair and was student body vice president his senior year at Billings West High School.
There is no doubt, however, that their son releases the more aggressive side of his personality through football. Since he was a boy, Max dreamed about playing for Missouri, his father’s alma mater.
But that dream seemed like a long shot in 2006, when Max, a high school sophomore, visited Columbia for Missouri’s 26-10 loss to Oklahoma and got a chance to walk on the field during warm ups.
“Tyler Luellen was on the field, and he just seemed enormous,” Michael Copeland says of the former Missouri offensive lineman. “Max was standing close to him and you could just see his eyes get big. After that, he never, ever missed a workout.”
Still, Max did not start until his senior year, when he played tight end and earned a scholarship offer from the University of Montana, a Division I-AA power at the time.
There was just one problem; Max, a free spirit, didn’t want to go there.
“I felt like I’d be selling my soul,” Max says.
Sensing Max’s desire to be in Columbia, Michael overnighted Max’s highlight tape to Missouri’s coaching staff a few days before Signing Day 2009. The staff, which knew of Max because of his performance at one of its camps, offered him a chance to be a preferred walk-on.
Max was elated; he thought it was an easy decision.
His parents were less sure — by picking Missouri, their oldest son would go to school 1,200 miles away with no guarantee of ever playing in a game. For this, they would also pay out-of-state tuition.
“Common sense is saying ‘Gosh, take the scholarship,’ ” Michael says.
Max convinced his parents his heart was in Columbia, but Montana’s coaches tried to convince him that he would never play a down there.
“The University of Montana was pretty upset when he didn’t go,” says Paul Klaboe, Max’s high school coach. “If I was his father, I know I would have tried to talk him into going into Montana.”
Max, however, became even more resolute. Days before he left for college, he brought his mother to tears with another reason why he was leaving.
“He said ‘This is not about me, this is bigger than me,’ ” Joanne recalls. “Mom and dad, I’m doing this for all the kids out there that people tell ‘You’re not gonna make it, you’re not good enough.’ ”
Max told them he would consider his college career a success if he contributed on special teams as a senior. But the rebel inside him wanted more: He not only wanted to earn a scholarship, he also wanted to start on the offensive line.
So Max Copeland, who weighed all of 220 pounds as a high school senior, set about rebuilding his body.
Jack Meiners is one of only two Missouri offensive linemen to grade out at the SEC standard in every weightlifting category. The other? Max Copeland.
“This summer, when the lifting groups were finished, there were two offensive linemen that were in there for another 45 minutes after everybody else left,” co-offensive line coach Josh Henson says. “That was Jack Meiners and Max Copeland. That says it all.”
Copeland, who is now listed at 6 feet 3 and 290 pounds, has been meticulous in his eating and lifting habits for the better part of four years.
“Once it became real that I would have an opportunity to pursue this dream, you’re done having fun, man,” Copeland says. “You’ve got a serious shot to do something that hundreds of thousands of kids across this country can only dream about. … I know I’ll get a return on my investment once I get on that field on Saturday nights.”
Meiners says that Copeland, whose metabolism makes it difficult for him to maintain his playing weight, eats healthy food and chugs weight-gain drinks “like its nobody’s business.”
“He’s constantly eating,” Meiners says. “Like before we lift — I’m not kidding — he’d get like a Ziploc bag full of (scrambled) eggs — probably eight eggs in there — and he would just eat them out of the bag, cold. I don’t know how he does it. It would make me throw up.”
Copeland’s hard work paid off early in camp, when injuries plagued Missouri’s offensive line and Copeland, still a walk-on, kept making an impression on Henson.
“You wouldn’t sit there and say that he’s the most talented guy,” Henson says. “But he plays at a high level because he knows his assignment, he’s good at technique, he’s busted his tail in the weight room to get stronger, he plays with great enthusiasm and he plays hard. He outperforms people based on those things.”
Eventually Pinkel had seen enough. He watched as Copeland’s eyes lit up with the news.
“It’s nice not feeling a like a burden to my family,” Copeland says. “They deserve it, just as much as I do.”
On Monday, Copeland was listed at the top of Missouri’s depth chart at right guard, meaning he will start Saturday’s season opener against Southeastern Louisiana at Memorial Stadium. It was the second significant goal he’d achieved within two weeks, though he now says it matters little.
“Complacency man, that’s the last thing I need right now,” Copeland says.
Besides, the regular right guard, Meiners, could return as early as the Georgia game, meaning coaches will choose between Copeland and true freshman Evan Boehm, a four-star recruit, to start at left guard. The competition never really ends.
Then, there’s also this: Pinkel says walk-ons who receive scholarships for the first time always sign a one-year contract. That means Copeland’s scholarship will be up before his senior year, though Pinkel says it’s not uncommon for players who work hard in the weight room, do things the right way and give great effort to earn a renewal.
“For him, he’s about everybody else,” Pinkel says. “He’s a great visual aide for what it means to be a great teammate.”
For now though, Copeland isn’t even thinking about next year. He’s just trying to get through Saturday, when he knows he will be tempted to wake up early, blast his heavy metal music and down caffeine, just like he did in high school — the last time he started a game.
“I can’t do that because I’ll be exhausted by kickoff,” Copeland says. “My intensity, I consider that a pretty big edge for me. … I need to make sure that I maximize that so I don’t burn too hot, too quick. It’s important that I kind of temperate it a little bit, that way there’s no wasted energy.”
But don’t bet on Copeland completely shrugging off his old pregame routine. His willingness to do the unorthodox has worked out pretty well; this is no time to lose what makes him unique.
“I’ll come up with some loose guidelines,” Copeland says, “because if they start to seem like rules, I’ll resist the hell out of them.”