Marshall University Athletics
BOGACZYK: McKelvey Heads for Encore in 'The Trop'
12/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
By JACK BOGACZYK
HERDZONE.COM COLUMNIST
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Tropicana Field clock showed 5:16 to go in regulation. Marshall had just taken a 13-10 lead in the 2011 Beef 'O' Brady's St. Petersburg Bowl on Tyler Warner's 39-yard field goal.
It was the Herd's first lead of the game - in Doc Holliday's first bowl as a head coach - and Justin Haig's kickoff went to the FIU 13, where Panthers standout return man T.Y. Hilton gathered in the ball.
Hilton - now with the Indianapolis Colts - was averaging 30.5 yards per return ââ'¬Â¦ the same neighborhood the Herd's Deandre Reaves runs in this season. But only 19 yards into his runback, at the FIU 32, Hilton was downed by a Marshall rookie.
It was Evan McKelvey. It was McKelvey's only tackle of the game. It was only his third tackle in the true freshman safety's season. It was four years ago.
Three plays later, Hilton caught a Wes Carroll pass, but McKelvey's older brother - star safety Omar Brown - forced a fumble that was recovered by Herd cornerback Rashad Jackson. Marshall took the ball and drove for the clinching score on a Rakeem Cato-to-Aaron Dobson pass - a 20-10 final.
"That was a helluva game," Holliday said a couple of days ago.
And when Marshall heads indoors to "The Trop" again on Dec. 26 for the eighth St. Petersburg Bowl - this time against Connecticut - McKelvey will be the only Herd player who also played in that "Beef Bowl."
"That's so long ago," McKelvey said after a recent Herd pre-bowl practice. "I kind of remember it somewhat. I do remember telling my brother I'd do something. All game, he was on me, 'Go make a play.'
"Well, the only thing I played was special teams, the kickoff unit, that's it. So, I didn't have a lot of chances, and every time I went 100 percent. I lined up next to my brother and he'd tell me every time, 'Run down there and make a play.' I guess I finally did."
A whole lot has happened to McKelvey since then, when he wore jersey No. 30 because his brother wore the 31 that McKelvey sports these days. He's now a 6-foot-2, 220-pound inside linebacker. McKelvey has missed the greater parts of the 2012 and 2014 seasons after ACL tears and surgery. He gained an extra year of eligibility from the NCAA due to medical hardship. He graduated last summer with his degree in marketing and management.
And this redshirt senior season - bouncing back with a new determination from his second injury last October and then surgery - McKelvey is the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year after leading the Herd defense with 113 tackles (9 for loss), and adding 9 pass breakups, an interception, forcing a fumble and recovering another.
But back to that earlier St. Pete Bowl ââ'¬Â¦
"T.Y. Hilton, he was probably one of the best returners in the country, so making a tackle on him was a big-time thing to me, especially as a freshman," McKelvey said, smiling. "My brother, he still doesn't give me any props for tackling T.Y. Hilton. That's OK, but that's just my brother. But I can't wait to tell him about (winning C-USA Defensive Player of the Year). He'll be glad to hear the good news.
"It seems like it was just yesterday, that bowl game. It seems so fresh, even though it was like, four or five years, whatever, so long ago, I still can think about going to that same bowl, going out to the beach and having fun. I still remember my freshman year like it was yesterday. I'm never going to forget that."
The only other player on the Herd 2015 roster who was on the 2011 team is starting redshirt senior cornerback Keith Baxter, who, like McKelvey, played in six games that season. But Baxter didn't play in the bowl game.
That tackle of Hilton was 245 hits ago for McKelvey, 24. He takes a career total of 248 against UConn, when he will make his 25th career start in an injury-torn career. He also said the C-USA Defensive award is special to him after teammate and linebacker room-mate Neville Hewitt - a Miami Dolphins' rookie - won it a year earlier.
In that 2011 St. Pete Bowl season, McKelvey's brother was an all-conference first team selection for the Herd. This season, McKelvey matched that, but what he cherished most is the fact he's been part of Marshall teams that have reached four bowls in five seasons, letting one bid slip away in double overtime in a 5-7 season-ending loss at East Carolina in 2012.
"Go back to 2011; we came to the program back then and we weren't a great team at first," said McKelvey, whose five Marshall teams are 44-21 heading into the Dec. 26 bowl game. "But we had a mindset that we were going to turn the program around, and maybe that bowl game was the first big step for us.
"It started off by players taking leadership and taking coaching. It started by the older guys teaching the younger players and the older guys improving at the same time. Now, it's kind of like we've gotten to where we want it to be, and we need to keep it going.
"We came a long way from where we were. Take this team -- defense, offense, special teams - we're a team now. We weren't always a team, but last year and this season, I feel like we're a real team now. These guys will be my brothers later on down the road. I call them up anytime, so these people I'm never going to forget. We did something together."
Last season, after McKelvey was lost to the Herd in a Week 5 win at Old Dominion, teammates gave him a tribute by alternating to wear his No. 31. He appreciated that, but he appreciated more the fact he could get back on the field and make a statement in his last season.
"Winning this surprised me, but I worked hard for it," McKelvey said of his C-USA Defensive Player honor. "I've been wanting a special award like this for a long time, and coming off what I've been through and everything, to win the conference Defensive Player of the Year means a lot to me. And it means we have a good defense. It really means more coming off last year, when I got hurt and couldn't play.
"I've got to give credit to my coaches and teammates for encouraging me, and mostly to Dr. (John) Jasko (one of the Marshall team physicians and an orthopedic surgeon). He's the man who worked on me, and he tells me what I can do, what I can't do, and without him - twice - I wouldn't even be doing this. He always asks me if my knee's right.
"I just tried to do everything right. I'd been through it before, so I knew what to expect. And I just felt like I had a lot to prove this time, so when I could come back out, that's exactly the attitude I took."
Now, McKelvey takes it to "The Trop" one more time, for a last time in a Herd uniform. On the field where he made one of his first collegiate tackles, he'll make his last.
He's come full circle.
