Vernand Morency in 2004. Tulsa World file
By my count, Joseph Randle (who declared Thursday that he was going to make himself eligible for the NFL draft) will become the fourth Oklahoma State running back to turn pro before his senior season.
How did the others fare?
Barry Sanders: There was no such thing as leaving school early to enter the NFL draft before Sanders did it following his NCAA-record setting Heisman Trophy season in 1988. He blazed trails, on and off the field.
Did Sanders do the right thing? He was the third overall pick behind Troy Aikman and Tony Mandarich (you can bet the Packers would like a do-over on that one). If Sanders hadn’t chosen to retire early, would be the NFL’s all-time leading rusher. Leaving school was the right decision and -- remember this -- OSU’s Gerald Hudson led the nation in rushing the season after Sanders departed.
Reggie White: After a redshirt freshman season in which he got just 19 carries and a sophomore season in which he got 38 carries, White exploded out of the gates during his junior season by rushing for 187 yards in an opener against Tulsa. It was one of six 100-yard games during a season in which he ran for 1,047 yards and was the Big 12’s fourth-leading rusher.
White declared for the draft at season’s end. He was undrafted and his NFL career consisted of five games with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Vernand Morency: After spending four seasons in professional baseball, Morency enrolled at OSU. He collected four 100-yard games during the 2002-03 seasons, when Tatum Bell was the Cowboys’ go-to runner. Then Morency had a break-out season in 2004, when he ran for 100 or more yards in nine games.
Morency left to school to become a third-round pick of the Houston Texans in the 2005 draft. He played in 40 career games with the Texans and Packers, finishing with 171 career carries and 726 career yards.
The Morency story had a happy ending. Post-football, he is chairman and CEO of Morency Enterprises, a minority-owned business which provides construction, real estate and information technology services to governmental and private sector clients throughout the District of Columbia.
I cut-and-pasted his bio from the Morency Enterprise’s Internet site:
“Vernand Morency grew up in Miami, Florida where his parents, who emigrated from Haiti, operated a successful real estate business, and he became involved in their business at an early age. This experience contributed to his disciplined work ethic that later translated into winning careers in both professional baseball and football. Mr. Morency brings the tenacity that he earned as one of the select few individuals to play two professional sports. From 1998 until 2002 Mr. Morency was a centerfielder for the Colorado Rockies and from 2005 until 2007 he was a running back for the Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers. It is Vernand Morency’s drive and steadfast commitment to hard work -- the key ingredients to his athletic and professional successes – that serve as the foundation of Morency Enterprises.
“Mr. Morency has always had a passion for construction and development and, in 2006, he participated in a syndicate group led by T. Boone Pickens that developed the $250+ million Boone Pickens Stadium at Oklahoma State University. In 2007 and 2008, Mr. Morency was selected to participate in the prestigious NFL Business Management and Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Mr. Morency leveraged his experiences at Wharton into a business that owns and manages multifamily properties throughout the United States.”
Here’s what you should hope for Randle, regardless of how his NFL career goes: Be as prepared for life after football as Morency seemed to be.
