No one knew Coy Eakin’s feet were different sizes until he stepped foot on campus at Texas Tech and the Red Raider equipment staff measured them to find his left foot is a size 14 and his right foot a size 12. When Joey McGuire first heard about this, he thought his staff was pranking him. 

“I told Coy, ‘hey man, you know we can get you different size cleats for each of your feet,” McGuire said with a laugh. “He just said, ‘coach, it is fine. I just order socks off Amazon that our thicker to fill up the (right) shoe.'” 

Eakin has been West Texas Tough since birth. His dad, Mark, was a national champion in rodeo during college and is now the long-time director of Rodeo Activities and head coach at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas. The Eakins are born on a horse. Most of us crawl to walk. They walk to ride. Eakin was riding by the time he could walk. In fact, a horse is why Eakin’s feet are different sizes. 

A 10-year-old Eakin had roped a calf while practicing with his dad when the rope caught his foot over the rope. When the young Eakin tried to dismount, the horse spooked, which caused the rope to tighten around Eakin’s leg and trap him. As the horse spun around in a panic, it stepped on Eakin’s leg, fracturing the fibula and tibia on his right leg. 

There’s a simple unwritten rule in rodeo: If you can crawl or walk, get up and get out of the arena. Eakin tried. He told his dad he was fine despite the snapped leg and mustered up the courage to stand up and take one step. He clearly wasn’t fine. 

The injury was too severe for the normal prescription of “rubbing some dirt on it” to suffice. Luckily, the doctors were able to set his leg without any rods, but Eakin was in a cast nearly up to his waist for almost a year. During that time, Eakin grew. Well, most of him did. That right foot was left out of the equation. 

“He’s always been a tough kid,” Mark said. “The funny part was that when he was on the ground, he looked up at me and asked, ‘Will I still be fast?' I told him we would be, and we had a good chuckle about it.” 

Eakin is the only one in his family that likes to run more than ride. His grandfather was a bareback rider. His grandma still barrel races. He has three uncles and all of them rodeo, as do each of his first cousins. And while Eakin doesn’t mind the saddle, he prefers to use his mis-sized feet. 

A common punishment dished out by Mark when Eakin’s older sister, Caitlin, was growing up was to make her run to the stop sign and back. That didn’t work on Eakin. He loved running to the stop sign and back. Mark used to make his rodeo team run 4.5 miles if they missed a meeting. His youngest son tagged along for fun. “The team always asked what Coy did wrong and I would always say, ‘nothing, he just never wanted to get beat at school in a race,'” he remembered.  

Mark moved back to Stephenville to take charge of the Tarleton rodeo department in 2008 when Eakin was 5 years old. The family knew early he loved sports, especially football. He’d put out cones and run his own drills in elementary school. Mark first enrolled his son at Hico, but the family moved him over to Stephenville after Eakin won his first track race by 50 meters. 

“We knew we had to put him in a position to excel,” Mark said. “Stephenville had a great football program and that was his passion.” 

Eakin was a quarterback through his ninth-grade season when Sterling Doty took over as head coach at Stephenville. He knew the Eakin family because his dad was Mark’s rodeo coach at Tarleton. He had heard about the youngest Eakin, who dominated the middle school and freshman football fields in the area as a tall, speedy quarterback.  

The quarterback position at Stephenville wasn't open, however, as Eakin headed into his sophomore season in 2019, so he played wide receiver and defensive back. The spot was open heading into his junior season in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic shut down offseason training, which caused Doty to roll with a senior who had more experience at the position. Eakin was a good teammate and went back to starring at wide receiver. 

After waiting his turn for two seasons, Eakin was ready to start at quarterback for Stephenville as a senior. His father grew up dreaming of gold belt buckles and the perfect ride. Eakin grew up dreaming of Friday Night Lights and touchdown passes. Doty let his star receiver compete at quarterback, but he ultimately picked junior Ryder Lambert over Eakin to play quarterback because he thought the team was more complete with Lambert throwing to Eakin. Eakin disagreed. 

“Him and I had an intense back and forth meeting when I told him of my decision,” Doty said. “It wasn’t disrespectful on his part, but I let him voice his passion for what he wanted to do and that’s to be the quarterback at Stephenville High School.” 

Eakin didn’t sulk. He rubbed some dirt on the wounds and walked into the arena. His senior season ended with 93 catches for 2,140 yards and 31 touchdowns as a senior. He scored once for every three touches. He caught 9 passes for 187 yards and three touchdowns, adding another on the ground, in the Class 4A Division I state championship game win over Austin LBJ. 

But while Eakin was setting records, he wasn’t receiving FBS offers. He entered the state championship game with offers from Tarleton, Lamar, and Incarnate Word. At halftime of the state championship game, Western Kentucky assistant coach Ben Arbuckle texted Doty to tell him that Eakin had a scholarship.

Former WKU offensive coordinator Zach Kittley was recently hired at Texas Tech by former high school head coach Joey McGuire, who watched Eakin’s historic performance at AT&T Stadium. The two invited Eakin for an unofficial visit as early signing period approached. The problem was scholarships. The COVID exemption meant there wasn’t much space for the newly appointed McGuire, and he didn’t want to run off players he hadn’t seen play yet.

The Eakin family visited Washington State and TCU, where the new staff in Fort Worth wanted him to play defense. Eakin wanted to play at Texas Tech, but he also knew he needed an offer first. So, the family drove to Lubbock for a visit on the last weekend of official visits before the dead period. He left without an offer but with a promise that if a scholarship opened, Eakin would be the first to know. 

“We didn’t even make it all the way home before coach McGuire called to say they had a scholarship and that they wanted Coy to play for the Red Raiders,” Mark said. “It was meant to be. That was one excited kid.”

Eakin proved his toughness to his teammates by overcoming two broken collarbones in his first two seasons as a Red Raider. He enters the Week 6 contest against Arizona second on the team in receptions (17) and yards (307) while leading the squad with five touchdown receptions. No one in the Eakin family is surprised that the kid who didn’t hold an FBS offer until he dominated a state championship game forced his way into the starting lineup for the Red Raiders. But they sure are proud. 

“Coy took his own route and I respect the hell out of him for it,” Mark said. “Everyone else in our family does rodeo, but he had a different passion and he doesn’t have a Plan B. He wants to be a professional football player. 

“He’s still a good roper, though. He’s picked it up a few times on Christmas break or when he’s home in the spring. I think he could go win events right now, but maybe he’ll pick it up later in life and rodeo.”