McMillin: Can’t Keep a Good Man Down
Any football player, or athlete for that matter, who has been bumped from the starting lineup should follow the example of Barrett McMillin.
McMillin is a fifth-year senior guard who started seven games in 2007 and 11 last year. When the depth chart was released at the conclusion of spring practice, he was still listed as the starter at right guard. But preseason wasn’t even a week old before Joe Looney, a talented sophomore, was running with the first team and McMillin had been relegated to second team.
McMillin had two choices. He could sulk and let his attitude affect both his performance and his relationship with his coaches or he could show up at practice every day bent on playing his way onto the field. Fortunately for both himself and the team, he took the latter course. He didn’t start either of the first two games, but he did play a considerable amount in a nice guard rotation with Looney and senior Jeff Griffin. Coach Jim Grobe made a point in this week’s press conference of praising McMillin and the way he had dealt with his demotion. So it wasn’t a big surprise when the depth chart for the Elon game was released listing McMillin as the starting right guard. Griffin has bumped down to right tackle, and is expected to start in place of senior Joe Birdsong.
This is a fun-loving team playing for Wake Forest, largely because of positive, upbeat players like McMillin who rarely miss an opportunity to have a rip-roaring good time. I’ve written about the pre-practice antics of the offensive line, led by McMillin and another original character, senior center Trey Bailey.
But the hardest I’ve ever laughed at any of his shenanigans was in preseason of last year, after the first of two practices that day. I was walking back toward Wingate Road and my car, trailing linebackers Aaron Curry and Stanley Arnoux and another defensive player who, if I remember correctly, was defensive end Antonio Wilson. When they got to the cross walk there in front of the Pruitt Football Center, McMillin was coming down Wingate road in his white car filled with two or three of his cohorts in the offensive line. McMillin stopped, and motioned Curry, Arnoux and Wilson across, before suddenly gunning the motor and flying across the speed bump so hard you could see McMillin’s head almost hit the roof. The defensive players made a mad dash for the safety of the far sidewalk.
Now, truth be told, McMillin never came close to hitting anybody. He stopped well short of the crosswalk, but he was roaring with laughter as were his mates. I’ve kidded him about it since, how “Offensive Guard Runs Down All-American Linebacker” would have been one of the great scoops of my career. His reaction was what I expected.
He laughed.