Coby Had an Unforgettable Month Before He Encountered a Forgettable Play
He was a combination of Richard Newton and Salvon Ahmed. A Washington running back with power and speed.
Vince Coby had NFL written all over him.
A third-stringer and a junior from Tacoma, he took over as the Huskies' top tailback when the players ahead of him, Joe Steele and Kyle Stevens, went down on consecutive Saturdays in 1979 with knee injuries. He made the most of his opportunity.
Coby came off the bench at California and provided 97 yards and 3 touchdowns. He made his first career start against USC and ran for 103 yards, dazzling the Husky Stadium crowd with a 52-yard run. He churned out 112 yards and a score against Washington State in the Apple Cup. He was the starter against Texas in the Sun Bowl. In his abbreviated stint, he finished with 422 yards and 6 TDs rushing.
"I could go 50 at any time," he said. "I just didn't get a chance to show that to the world."
At 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, he was a good-sized runner. A third-place state finisher in the 100-meter dash as a high school sprinter, he could get out and go.
He was competitive and impatient, too. As a sophomore, he met with coach Don James to discuss limited playing time, warned beforehand to not to use the word "I" during their conversation, rather "we." Coby slipped up and his short-statured but highly imposing coach let him know it.
"By the time he was finished with me, he was 7-foot-1 and I was 3 years old," he said.
Forty years ago, Coby entered spring football as the Huskies' No. 1 running back. He felt confident, in total control with the ball in his hands, that pro football wasn't far off.
Yet similar to Steele and Stevens before him, Coby was not immune to football's unforgiving side. In a Tuesday practice in 1980, his world changed as a running back.
On a pitch play called 28 sweep, he was running behind a wall of blockers when he took a hit from Huskies defensive back Ken Gardner that destroyed his left knee and required immediate surgery.
"I didn't see Kenny coming and the next thing I knew I was lying on the carpet," Coby said. "I didn't think I could get hurt because the game had slowed down so much for me."
He sat out the following season in recovery, missing a Washington-Michigan Rose Bowl. He came back in 1981 as one of four co-captains and became the starting fullback and mostly a blocker for another Pasadena trip. All along, he struggled with that knee.
"My senior year was a not a fun year for me," Coby said. "My knee swelled up every week. I'd have it drained every Thursday or Friday. I'd feel good for a half and it would blow back up."
In the 1982 Rose Bowl against Iowa, where a little-known UW freshman named Jacque Robinson ran for 142 yards and two scores in a 28-0 victory, Coby received a final football reward.
With the Huskies ahead 7-0 and halftime approaching, he scored on a 1-yard run with 19 seconds left to provide his team with a cushion. It felt good to reach the end zone on a big platform.
"It was one of those triumphant moments for me with all that I'd overcome," he said.
Coby gave pro football a shot with the New England Patriots, but he was waived in training camp. He worked for Marriott in sales and for Boeing as a supply chain analyst, and he retired last year from the aerospace company.
Like so many others in his position, he can't help but wonder what might have been for him as a pro football player had he stayed healthy.
"Life changes on a dime and you have to adapt," Coby said. "You don't see it coming. I wanted that dream career."