Coy Eakin embracing new roles entering his third season

As spring football gets underway, several players are figuring out their roles and how they fit into the team, especially one with a highly rated class of transfers who have come into Lubbock.

For Coy Eakin, the goals remain the same, but his roles look a little different coming into his third season with the Red Raiders - one of them being a new number change.

It was revealed Monday afternoon that Coy Eakin was the newest offensive player to now wear No. 3 in honor of the late Luke Siegel. Luke was the son of former Texas Tech tennis coach, Tim Siegel. After suffering a traumatic brain injury during a golf cart accident, he became an inspiration for the team during his years of rehab. Luke passed away in 2021, but Texas Tech continues to honor his memory by awarding the number 3 jersey (Luke's favorite number) to whoever best exemplifies his fighting spirit.

Head coach Joey McGuire has explained that whoever wears this jersey best represents "The Brand," and picking Eakin was not a hard decision to make after the last recipient of the number for offense, Josh Kelly, declared for the NFL Draft.

"I think he's one of the toughest kids I've ever been around," McGuire said Monday evening. "I kind of went up to him and I said, 'Hey, I want you to think about wearing the number three this year. It's the only number we really talk about significance in the program and I want you to think about it, because I think you'd be a great representation of what that number stands for.'

I walked away from him, and before I could get probably two feet he goes 'Coach I'm in, I'm in, I want to do it.' I couldn't think of anybody that represented that number more than Coy on the offensive side of the ball."

"It's an honor," Eakin said Monday. "I was like 'dude let's do it,' I was excited."

Eakin will join linebacker Bryce Ramirez in wearing No. 3. This will be Ramirez's second year with the decorated number, as both he and Eakin continue to exemplify what it means to wear that number and be a leader on and off the field.

"The way I see 'The Brand' is just someone that shows up day in, day out. Does the right thing when no one's watching, things like that," Eakin said. "Works their tail off, I feel like I do that. I know the coaches think I do that for sure."

Along with changing his jersey number, some changes have also been made to transition Eakin from the X wide receiver position into the slot.

"There's more freedom... It's awesome. I mean outside, especially no matter what offense you're in you kind of got inside, outside, release, and that's about it," Eakin said when asked about the biggest adjustment to playing in the slot. "But slot, you can mess with anything. So I'm pretty excited because you can turn a five yard hitch into a touchdown any play of the game."

With the addition of the Miami (OH) transfer Reggie Virgil, Virgil will move into the X wide receiver position, and Coy will transition into the slot. In addition to Virgil, Tyson Turner and Leyton Stone will also play the X.

"I talked about it with (Zach) Kittley a little bit... and then Leftwich came in and they got Reggie. I was like 'this is a no brainer' let's do it."

The history of successful Texas Tech slot receivers is no secret. With names like Wes Welker, Danny Amendola, and Jakeem Grant, the opportunities for Eakin to join the list of greats will be enhanced during the new season.

Now entering his third season at Texas Tech, Eakin is ready to embrace the new roles he's been given and continue leading his team throughout the spring and into the fall. Now that he's no longer one of the "young guys," following the example of his past and even current teammates is the goal for becoming one of this team's biggest leaders.

"You've got to take it with a little bit of grain of salt," Eakin said when asked about stepping into a leadership role this season. "You got to learn from others, things like that... I learned from the older guys, and took in what was good... and then definitely build off the other leaders in the room like JRod (Jacob Rodriguez), Behren (Morton), Bryce (Ramirez), kind of how they handle stuff, and then following in their footsteps.

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