STARKVILLE — Denico Autry remembers playing backyard football when he was in third grade.
“Sometimes it was really hard to bring the big guys down,” Autry said. “That is what I remember most about getting started playing.
“Then I got older, I got bigger and well let’s just say it got a little bit easier then.”
Indeed, Autry got older and got wiser. He also got bigger and stronger. He also got faster and hungrier.
It all added up to a deadly combination for his opponents.
“The thing with Denico is his speed,” East Mississippi Community College head football coach Buddy Stephens said. “He has tremendous speed and then he adds an incredible amount of instinct to that.
“He is great with his feet and can make the initial move as quick as anyone. Mississippi State is going to be really happy with the type of player they got.”
The soft-spoken Autry carried a big stick at Albemarle (N.C.) High School.
A two-way starter a defensive end and tight end, Autry earned defensive player of the year honors in his conference also earned a berth in a national all-star game.
Those awards came after a 104-tackle senior season.
From there, the playing career moved to Scooba and the campus of EMCC.
In some ways, the smallness of the rural town of Albemarle helped prepare Autry for life away from home.
Still, there was the unknown.
“Quite honestly, I did not know what to expect,” Autry said. “I learned a lot about myself at EMCC. I did some growing up.
“Coach Stephens and the coaches there were really great to me. They put me in a position to be successful. They held high standards for me and were not going to back down from them.”
Autry was defensive line leader on a relatively unsung unit. While national offensive player of the year candidate Bo Wallace was posting video game numbers, Autry and the remainder of the EMCC defensive unit were along for the ride.
Almost any EMCC highlight tape showed Autry making big play after big play.
This was not lost on Mississippi State University defensive coordinator Chris Wilson.
“I expect Denico Autry to never leave the field,” Wilson said. “That’s our expectation and that’s why he came here. Hopefully that will be his plan once camp is all said and done.”
As success began to sprout at EMCC, national recruiting interest followed.
Autry chose MSU over offers from University of Alabama, Auburn University, University of Florida and Florida State University, among others.
“I really liked the coaches here,” said Autry, who entered fall camp as a projected starter at defensive end. “Being in the state, I knew what they had going on here.
“If you are a junior college player, you want to go somewhere where you can play right away. It has been an adjustment period but I really like the way things have fallen into place.”
MSU head coach Dan Mullen has had good success with recent junior college signees. He sees that type of potential and upside in the 6-foot-5, 255-pound Autry.
“I’m hoping he’s a starter,” Mullen said. “If you look at the guys, most junior college guys we’ve recruited in the last couple of years since I’ve been here, back with Pernell (McPhee) and Heath Hutchins, Leon Berry, Vick Ballard, Chris White. You’re looking at guys we all brought in to play immediately or play a lot or start. And that’s one of the things we look for with junior college players.
“I look at a guy like Denico. I think he has a great work ethic and he has ability. We brought him in here to be the starter, not a situational guy.”
For Autry, that has been his plan as well, since early enrollment in January to go through spring drills.
“The speed of the game is so much different,” Autry said. “You expect a change and it is even greater than you think.
“I know it is a work (in progress) and my job is to get better every day.”
Autry got better each day at EMCC. The Lions had a very atypical 5-5 season during Autry’s freshman year. Things turned around rapidly a year later when Autry earned All-American honors, as the Lions won a school-record 12 games and the program’s first national championship.
“When I entered school there, I took it as a personal challenge because I was playing in the best junior college league in the nation. People underestimate how good the junior college football is in this state.
“Now, I am playing in the best senior college league in the nation. It’s another big challenge.”
Wilson is eager to watch the prized recruit make that jump.
“He’s a very humble guy and I think it is a confidence thing for him right now,” Wilson said. “But we sure think he can perform at the level of the Southeastern Conference elite and he knows that he can be very valuable to us right away as a junior college player otherwise he would not have been recruited so heavily.”
The feeling is mutual.
“The defense is great,” Autry said. “I don’t think people realize the talent on this team. There are some great players here.
“Everybody is working together as one. That is when a team wins championships.”
Autry learned those championship lessons starting back in third grade.
“The players I was playing against then have all grown up, too,” Autry said. “Thank goodness, I can put some of them down now.”
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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