This 2007 Stanford Football training camp represented something important for
Matt Kopa: getting his chance. The redshirt sophomore nose tackle last
fall was hampered by a hyperextended elbow suffered during the final scrimmage
of the preseason, and this spring he suffered a torn PCL.
In Stanford's new 4-3 defense, the 6'6" 282-pound athlete has added depth in
the interior of the defensive line, but that changed Thursday when Kopa moved to
offense. The position switch was precipitated by a short conversation
Wednesday night, when head coach Jim Harbaugh approached the big man about a big
move.
"Coach Harbaugh asked me to play tackle. I said, 'Yeah, whatever is
best for the team,'" Kopa recalls. "I can contribute a lot more at
offensive tackle right now than working at D-tackle."
"Matt is doing a great job in the defensive tackle rotation," Harbaugh
explains. "But you keep looking at him, and you keep seeing an offensive
tackle."
Though the interior defensive line positions have been considered thin for
Stanford in recent years, the outlook at offensive tackle presented during this
fall camp may be more grim. A combination of injuries and slow development
trajectories have the Cardinal coaches looking at Kopa to fill a need:
"Depth at tackle right away," Harbaugh answers. "The freshmen are
coming along very slowly, so right now and going forward we need depth at
tackle... And what's best for the team is best for Matt Kopa. You
can just look at the guy, and that's an offensive tackle. We didn't have
him in the spring - he got hurt very early. But the football eye says that
he should be playing tackle."
Kopa's heart said that he should play defense - at least, that was his ardent
feeling on the matter when being recruited out of high school. Being asked
to abandon that passion and instead play offense could have made Thursday a day
Kopa conducted with a heavy heart.
"I feel like it's a great thing," he retorts. "I feel like whatever is
best for the team, and wherever I can get more playing time, I feel great about
it. It's been a while, but I feel like once I get things down, I can start
hitting. That's going to be good."
For now, it will be some slow sledding for Kopa, who is three years removed
from playing offensive tackle. The 6'6" redshirt sophomore lined up
Thursday at right tackle, and he saw some repetitions in team periods. He
spent more time, however, talking with and listening to offensive line coach
Chris Dalman.
"It was a lot of learning. Not a lot of physical stuff," Kopa
describes. "I'm trying to learn and get the motions back down. It's
been a while... Today I pretty much focused on stepping back into a pass
rush. I feel like once I get my movements down and my technique down, that
will really help me in the future."
The timing of this switch is not ideal for the former nose tackle.
Stanford is just over two weeks away from its season opener versus UCLA, and
Kopa was part of the interior defensive line rotation. In other words, he
had prospects of seeing the field on defense. Tackling his new position,
Kopa must now expect a long road ahead before he could reasonably be ready to
play on Saturdays at right tackle.
"I definitely don't feel discouraged at all," he maintains. "This is
going to be great for the team. I feel like it's a great move. Once
I get the hang of things, this is definitely going to help the team."
"I can be a huge contributor," Kopa adds. "If this is what Coach
Harbaugh wants, then I want to give it to him."
Are you fully subscribed to The Bootleg?
If not, then you are missing out on all the top Cardinal coverage we provide
daily on our website, as well as our full-length feature articles in our glossy
magazine. Sign up today for the biggest and best in Stanford sports coverage
with TheBootleg.com (sign-up)
and The Bootleg Magazine (sign-up)!