Coy Cronk Wastes No Time Becoming One Of Indiana's Best
Nobody on the Indiana football team has Dan Feeney’s credentials.
The fifth-year senior offensive lineman is a two-time All-American. He earned First-Team honors from the Associated Press All-American Team, a First-Team nod by the Big Ten and is a projected first round NFL Draft pick by the likes of CBS Sports. Few, if any, mess with Dan Feeney.
Coy Cronk messes with Dan Feeney.
“Feeney gets picked on a lot by Coy,” redshirt junior quarterback Richard Lagow said, smirking.
Only a freshman, Cronk has solidified himself as one of Indiana’s most trusted offensive linemen at the left tackle spot. The Lafayette, Indiana, native started all 12 games for the Hoosiers after coming out of high school ranked No. 55 among offensive tackles nationally by Rivals.com.
“I don’t know that anybody would have projected that,” IU head coach Tom Allen said of Cronk’s first season. “We thought he was going to be a good player for sure, but that’s a tough position to be a true freshman. You’re just not usually physically ready to play on the line of scrimmage in the Big Ten at that age.”
Cronk, by his own admittance, began the year feeling a little overwhelmed by catching up with the college game. Former IU head coach Kevin Wilson compared him favorably to the likes of former IU All-American Jason Spriggs, who also started as a true freshman but back when that was more a result of not having bodies to use.
Despite being surrounded by fifth-year seniors like Feeney, Dimitric Camiel and Jacob Bailey, Cronk has fit in with the bunch. He’s not intimidated by his age, never afraid to pick on his older teammates like Feeney.
“He’ll come right at you,” Lagow said. “He’ll come at Feeney. He’ll come at anybody.”
Most of the time, the jabs come at dinner. Cronk and Lagow go out to eat about once a week just to hang out. Sometimes guys like Feeney, Bailey or someone else older on the team will tag along. Three Amigos and Texas Roadhouse are two of the favorite spots lately.
It’s been at those dinners where Lagow said he’s seen Cronk come out of his shell the most. The two of them and whoever else is with them on any given day will use their dinner conversations to unwind, talking about anything and everything that doesn’t normally have to do with football.
“It’s really just kind of a flavor of the week sort of thing,” Cronk said. “Sometimes it’s directly on the game. Sometimes it’s about school. The past couple of weeks have been about finals and that sort of stuff, so it varies from dinner to dinner.”
It’s unusual, in some places, for a young guy like Cronk to have gotten as adjusted to hanging out with the older guys as he has. He’s still a thorn in their sides sometimes between the jokes and whatever—it’s not like Feeney can beat him up—but he’s earned the respect of the veterans on the team with his play.
Not enough where Lagow says he’ll pay for Cronk’s dinner quite yet. But it’s getting there.
“I just take it as a pretty great honor,” Cronk said. “I take a lot of pride in keeping Rich safe. Going out to eat with Dan and those types of guys, they’ve been doing it for so long. Just having the opportunity to get with them outside of the field and just pick their brains and see; What do they struggle with? What are some of the challenges I can expect? Or how did they get through their freshman year so successfully? Any time with them outside of the field has helped me a lot.”
Cronk has used their advice throughout the season. If he hadn’t, he might not have survived this long playing as well as he has. Just recently, he was named to the BTN.com Freshman All-Big Ten team.
Indiana’s developed a rotation of producing All-American offensive linemen in recent years with Spriggs and Feeney. It may not be long before Cronk joins them.
He’s done the right things so far.
“It’s a tremendous thing on his part to be able to accomplish (what he has),” Allen said. “I think that he’s got a tremendously bright future for sure, and I think he’s a pretty special player. He hasn’t gotten too caught up in himself. He’s just kind of goes to work every day. You wouldn’t even know that he’s kind of done something so unprecedented. So he’s pretty special.”