Millard not sweating his homecoming
Published: 10/20/2010 10:31 PM
Last Modified: 10/20/2010 10:31 PM
Trey Millard is headed home.
He probably won't be treated very nicely, since he left Columbia, Mo., to play fullback for Oklahoma. Or since Saturday night's OU-Missouri game might be the biggest at Faurot Field in a very long time.
Millard was reminded of those facts this week. He handled them with the kind of aplomb that has helped him make such a big impact as a freshman.
"I'm not too worried it," Millard said of Mizzou's fans. "They're not on the field with me."
Nothing personal, Zou-keepers, but this is business as usual.
"We want to be 7-0 and stay in the hunt to be national champion," Millard went on. "There's no real personal vendetta against them or anything. That's my home town. It's exciting. It's going to be a big stage.
"But it's just another game."
Well, it is and it isn't.
It's not often a guy goes on the road and sees more family members in the stands than he does at home games. Millard should have a pretty big cheering section Saturday night.
It's unusual for a freshman to play his first conference road game on a field he's very familiar with. Millard, a 1,400-yard rusher for Columbia Rock Bridge, played crosstown rival Hickman four times at Faurot.
In fact, he went to a lot of Mizzou games as a kid. "I was somewhat of a fan," he said, "but not a huge one."
When it came time to recruit their hometown star, the Tigers played the local-boy-makes-good card. They came after him to play linebacker at first, then enticed him with the flexed-out tight end position where Chase Coffman and Martin Rucker excelled recently.
"It just wasn't for me," Millard said.
In fact, he said plan B if OU didn't work out was Iowa.
But the Sooners came through.
"To me, our style of play and him wanting to be a fullback led him here as much as anything," offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said. " It's no different than a guy wanting to play basketball at a certain place because they need a point guard. We had a need, and it really fit his style of play. That was the attraction, not an elaborate or great job of recruiting."
It will be interesting to see how the story is received Saturday night. And how Millard will cope.
"The only comment I shared with him was, 'You have a routine that's worked. Let's don't change what you do,'" Wilson said. "He's a mature kid, so I'm sure he'll do it in a good way."
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
