Falcons’ fastest player quick to bug teammates

AIR FORCE ACADEMY» Little brothers are built to annoy. Therefore, little brothers must master the art of the swift getaway.

It makes perfect sense, then, that Tim McVey acts as the little brother within Air Force’s football team, because no one escapes faster.

“He’s a prankster,” linebacker Grant Ross said. “If something happens to you, like someone kneed you in the back of the knee or bit you on the arm and you’re trying to figure out who did it, it’s usually Timmy. He’s a rascal.” Wait a sec: Bit you on the arm? “Yes, he does that,” outside linebacker Haji Dunn said. “He even poked me in the belly button the other day. He’s a little bully. A fun little bully. A little brother.”

Timmy Turbo, as his big brothers in the Air Force locker room call him, can get away with this thanks to his 4.4-second speed in the 40-yard dash. In an informal survey of the team, McVey emerged as the consensus choice as the Falcons’ fastest player.

It was this speed that allowed the 5-foot-9, 190-pound McVey to emerge seemingly out of nowhere last year. Buried at No. 5 on the depth chart at tailback, his season until late November consisted only of a foreshadowing 150 yards and three touchdowns on 10 carries late in blowout victories over Morgan State and Hawaii. But when injuries parted the path in front of him, he sprinted into the opening.

For the final four games of the season he averaged 138 yards of offense and scored 10 touchdowns. He also added 82 yards on three kickoff returns. Had he averaged that all-purpose yardage output for the season, he would have finished second in program history behind Chad Hall’s 2,683 yards in 2007.

Not bad for a fifth-string sophomore tailback who until then had served primarily as a team prankster.

“When you’re a smaller guy, you have to have at least something going for you,” said McVey, whose actual older brother, Scott, played linebacker at Ohio State. “You need something.”

McVey worked on his running form as a track standout in his four years at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, although he rarely enjoyed it and found himself hurt more often in track than in football.

His lack of excitement over track seems logical. In track, you run next to opponents. In football, you run away from them. The latter is clearly the better match for his personality.

McVey’s success came as no surprise to his teammates. Again, this makes sense. No one is quicker to identify the potential of a little brother than the big brothers who must work to keep them in line.

“I’ve always said Timmy was the hardest back to tackle because he’s so shifty and he’s low to the ground,” said Ross, who considers himself to be McVey’s “archnemesis” on the team. “It’s kind of deceiving. … All of us that went to the prep knew what he was capable of.

“With him, it was just a matter of time.”