NASHVILLE - Joseph McVay has been around Vanderbilt football long enough to know opportunity doesn’t just land in your lap. The wide receiver has played in 17 games over his first two seasons in Nashville, and his career numbers still sit at three catches for 86 yards and two touchdowns. Now, heading into camp, he’s trying to turn all of that work into something more regular on the field.
The biggest change, according to Vanderbilt wide receivers coach Alex Bailey, has come between McVay’s ears.
“Mentally,” Bailey said after Friday’s practice on where he has seen McVay improve the most going into camp. “His mindset, his approach, his day-to-day approach.
He’s a guy that made the decision in his mind that he was going to go out there and get better on his own. He wasn’t going to wait for anybody.
He is not going to leave it to chance.”
Bailey said McVay used to be more vulnerable to the swings that come with football, riding the emotional highs and lows of games. That has changed, and the coaching staff views him as a player who has grown up.
McVay said the people around him have played a major part in that. Teammates and coaches, including head coach Clark Lea, have offered guidance on how to grow as a player and as a person, and McVay said that support has mattered.
“It was just about stepping into the mindset of playing free. Don’t think a lot and just play free. Just don't think about everything out there,” McVay said on the biggest advice he has gotten from his coaches.
Even with that progress, McVay is not looking to coast. He said the area he wants to sharpen most during camp is still his mental game, because he doesn’t want to lose the progress he has already made or forget the advice he has received.
For him, the goal is to quiet the overthinking and play with more pace. The faster he can get out of his own head, the faster he believes he can play.
“I feel like I still think I want to clear that up so I can be out there and play as fast as I can. And the faster I play, the better,” McVay said.
Bailey said that kind of attitude is exactly what has changed with McVay. He described a more mature player who understands that practice is about improving, not avoiding mistakes, and that errors can be turned into lessons.
“I think of him being more of a mature player and understanding, ‘Hey, when I’m out here in practice, I’m out here to get better. And if I make a mistake, that’s fine.
I can learn from that mistake and build off of it and get better,’” Bailey said. “He made that decision on his own.
He has goals for himself. He wants to play.
You’re going to see him play because he’s been working hard.”