UOP’s Kopp Has Rare Perspective on Life

Troy Kopp has a very practical view of the world. He doesn’t take much for granted.

So despite setting a host of NCAA and school records this season, the University of the Pacific’s sophomore quarterback isn’t letting himself get too caught up in his accomplishments. Kopp has seen enough lows in his life to give him some perspective on the highs.

“I try not to set a lot of lofty goals,” he said. “I just try to keep modest goals and be realistic. I’m trying to improve as a team player and as a quarterback. Every day, my goal is to improve.”

Kopp won’t be able to top recent performances by much. He threw for more than 500 yards in back-to-back games and totaled 1,884 yards in four consecutive games this year. He has set the school single-season record for touchdown passes with 25, with one game left against Utah State on Saturday.

But the 19-year-old certainly has come a long way in his two years at UOP, particularly given his background. Though a record-setting passer at Mission Viejo High School in Orange County, Kopp spent three years shuttling among the houses of various teammates because his family was virtually homeless.

When Kopp was 13, his father, Gary, lost his job as a district shoe salesman and had to sell the family’s three-bedroom house. That summer, Gary, his wife, Judy, and sons Troy, Travis and Trevor lived in a state park, sleeping in a tent or in the family van.

At the end of the summer, Judy Kopp and Troy’s brothers went to Wisconsin to stay with relatives, while Gary remained to look for work. Troy, then a high school sophomore, moved in with a friend.

In the next three years, Kopp lived with three families. And while most of his classmates in affluent Mission Viejo were cruising around in BMWs, Kopp was bumming rides to school.

“What really struck me is that another coach came in for an early class one day and found out that Troy was showering in the locker room before class,” said Ron Drake, Kopp’s baseball coach and an assistant football coach at Mission Viejo. “We wondered, ‘What’s going on?’

“It turned out he was living with his family in a hotel eight miles from school, and he had to depend on other kids to give him rides to school.”

Said UOP coach Walt Harris: “It’s a tremendous credit to Troy. He was the only one in that situation -- there were no others he could relate to. At least if you’re poor in the ghetto, there are people you can identify with.”

According to Kopp, so much attention has been focused on his family’s plight of late that he no longer feels comfortable discussing it. He was featured recently in Sports Illustrated and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications.

“I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me,” Kopp said. “I don’t want recognition for that. I’m kind of tired of reading about it. It’s getting stretched -- now I’ve even got movie producers calling up.”

Kopp believes he should be earning notice for his performance on the field. And well he should. The 6-foot-2, 200-pounder is the only player in NCAA history to throw for more than 500 yards in consecutive games. Kopp also set an NCAA record for passing yardage in consecutive games, with 1,079 yards against Cal State Fullerton and New Mexico State, then set marks for passing yardage in three consecutive games and four consecutive games.

And this is a kid who wasn’t recruited strongly out of high school. The only coach to show much interest in Kopp was Harris, who was an assistant at Tennessee when Kopp was a senior at Mission Viejo. Then Harris accepted the job at Pacific.

“There’s kind of an unwritten rule that you’re not supposed to recruit the same guy when you move to another school, and I had a lot of respect for Tennessee, so I stopped recruiting Troy,” Harris said. “Then we found out Tennessee wasn’t interested in Troy, so we jumped back in there. We hung with him when everyone else fell off.”

Said Kopp: “Tennessee just dumped me. I was frustrated; I didn’t know if it was just one of those years or maybe it was me.

“But I feel very lucky now, looking back on it. I couldn’t ask for more than to have this type of education and play in this type of offense.”

Fullerton coach Gene Murphy was among those who overlooked Kopp, though he was right there in Orange County. Kopp passed for 515 yards and seven touchdowns against in Titans in a 67-37 road victory Oct. 13.

“It was uncanny the way Kopp threw the ball that day,” Murphy said. “That was a career game. And he probably could have had more yards; they ran the ball more the second half.

“People here are on me for not recruiting him, but we don’t have the wherewithal to recruit every quarterback in captivity.”

UOP’s offense has been a blessing for Kopp. The run-and-shoot, with four receivers, makes liberal use of his accurate arm. In addition, Kopp has gotten good protection.

“The thing that makes everything successful is the scheme,” Harris said. “A quarterback in this system is going to throw 40 to 80 times per game, and Troy has a lot of ability. He’s got a strong, quick arm, he reads defenses well, and he’s got guys who know how to get open. But when Troy plays well, the offensive line is the reason.”

Kopp almost didn’t make it this far into the season. He injured his left (non-throwing) shoulder in the season opener against Tennessee and missed two games. When he returned, Kopp discovered that he had to regain the starting role from Kris King. He was on the brink of quitting, but Harris talked him out of it.

“I had to come back and get the job back, and I didn’t understand why,” Kopp said. “We had a slight rupture there before the Long Beach State game, but coach Harris told me to just keep working.

“He said, ‘All your life, you go through tough times, and it’s how you get through them that shows what kind of person you are.’ ”

Kopp, of course, had had his share of tough times. What he HADN’T had was discipline. As a result, he and Harris also clashed during his freshman year, when Kopp started nine of 12 games.

“The discipline type of thing set me back, because I’d never had it at home,” Kopp said. “I have a short fuse, but I’m trying to improve at that. I still have a lot to do as far as maturing.”

Harris takes some of the blame for his difficulties with Kopp last year.

“It’s hard on a guy coming right into college football and starting,” Harris said. “And I’d never even worked with a redshirt freshman quarterback, much less a true freshman. Here’s a guy 18 years old right out of high school playing against Pitt and Auburn. Troy had to get it all at once, on-the-job training.”

After an up-and-down freshman season, Kopp was faced with a dilemma.

Out of high school, the two-sport star had been selected in the 58th round of the major-league baseball draft as a catcher. Despite not playing baseball at UOP his freshman year, Kopp was drafted by the Montreal Expos again last year, this time in the 12th round.

The Expos offered a $10,000 bonus, pretty tempting for someone in Kopp’s situation.

“I kind of wanted to get on with my life and start working, start making some money,” Kopp said. “But they just didn’t invest enough money to give me the confidence that they really wanted me. It was really disappointing, but I’m glad I’m here now. It’s definitely worked out.”

Harris and Drake dissuaded Kopp from leaving UOP.

“I said, ‘Troy, from what I’ve seen you do, I’m not sure that you can’t be an NFL player,’ ” Harris said. “I told him, ‘Why put all your eggs in one basket? Play baseball here in the spring and you can still get your degree.”

Said Drake: “That’s the only time I’ve told a kid flat out not to do something. I felt strongly that he wanted to go for the wrong reasons.”

Now, finally, things appear to be working out for Kopp, though his family is still not entirely settled. His father is in Wisconsin working, his mother and brother Trevor are in San Clemente, and Travis is living with a family in Mission Viejo.

“I never really thought about the tough times,” Kopp said. “I just kind of expected to make it through. A lot of families and coaches and friends helped me.”

For now, Kopp’s biggest challenge might be dealing with the wealth of attention he’s receiving. As he continues to rack up passing records, much of his free time seems to be spent giving interviews rather than studying.

“I talked to Troy about not trying to live up to what other people want you to be and about this journey through the media blitz and its pitfalls,” Harris said. “It’s been unbelievable. He’s trying to prepare for a game, and there are all these distractions and he’s slipping a bit in school. But for a young man who doesn’t have the background a lot of other kids have, Troy has done very well.”

Kopp admits, “It’s been kind of hard to concentrate; I really felt lost for a while. It’s hard to study with all of these new wild things. But coach Harris just told me to fight through it.”

Fighting through adversity is something that Kopp can do very well.

Said Harris: “The fact that Troy’s on this team and going to college is a golldang awesome accomplishment. This young man has some tremendous drive and a positive attitude. He’s a survivor.”