Tulsa World: OU Held Parker For OSU, 1998

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OU Held Parker For OSU, 1998

By Bill Connors
Published: 11/2/1997
Last Modified: 2/27/2007 9:25 AM

BY WITHHOLDING De'Mond Parker from the Nebraska game on
Saturday at Lincoln, Oklahoma assured an inevitable nightmare of
being worse than most football observers could envision. But giving
Parker a chance to heal was a sound and self-serving decision.
Having a fit Parker will give the Sooners a chance to defeat
Oklahoma State next week in the game OU must win to salvage a
measure of respect and prolong the possibility of having a 6-6
record. Also, it enhances the prospect that Parker will return to
OU for his junior season.
By missing most of last week's loss to Kansas State and the
blowout at Nebraska, Parker did not have the opportunity to run
against the best defenses on OU's schedule, and the only credible
defenses the Sooners have faced this year.
Parker is a gifted back and, in compiling harvests against
the soft defenses of Louisville, Texas, Baylor and Syracuse, he
looked like a budding superstar with an an NFL future. But he had a
mediocre game against Northwestern and was contained by California
and Kansas. He needed to have a big game against a first-class
defense to become the hot prospect and attract the kind of money
that he said it would take for him to enter the 1998 draft.
With a strong finish against OSU, Texas A&M and Texas Tech,
Parker would no doubt be selected if he entered the draft. But not
as high as he wants to be. If he seeks advice from NFL people,
Parker will probably be encouraged to return to OU for at least his
junior year.
Dick Garmaker, consensus basketball All-American at Minnesota
in 1955 and a Tulsa resident since 1991, will be inducted into the
Gophers' Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday. The 6-3 Garmaker was a
four-time NBA all-star during a six-year career with the Lakers
(Minnesota) and Knicks. He retired at 29 when he was the Knicks'
No. 3 scorer with a 15.6 scoring average.
""NBA salaries were pretty low then and I could make more
money in the petroleum business than by playing,'' Garmaker said.
""I moved to Tulsa six years ago to go into business with my son
after he graduated from Wyoming.''
NFL historians finally confirmed that Barry Sanders became
the league's first running back to score in the same game on two
runs of 80 or more yards. Sanders had touchdown runs of 80 and 82
yards against Tampa Bay three weeks ago.
Whatever the NBA's motive in selecting two women as referees,
an argument can be made that they are more competent than at least
two of the all-male officiating crews of last year.
Considering both teams' inability to pass, catch, run and block,
Kansas State's 13-2 victory over Texas Tech on Saturday was the
sorriest offensive execution in memory by two supposedly good teams
in November on a dry field.
A Missouri fan thinks the home run pass the Tigers completed
against Oklahoma State with time running out last week at
Stillwater to force overtime, and set up a victory in the second
overtime, was a payback for a similar play the Cowboys used to
defeat Missouri on the same field in 1972.
In the game 25 years ago, OSU faced fourth-and-28 but Missouri, like
the 1997 Cowboys, elected to play man-to-man coverage and quarterback Brent
Blackman completed a 54-yard touchdown pass to Steve Pettes to win the game.
Besides scholarship restrictions that dilute depth and make
injuries more difficult to overcome, a less spotlighted factor in
the parity in college football is the rule requiring players to
have one day off a week and limiting to 20 the hours a player may
spend in practice and meetings on his sports in a week. The rule is
admirable. But it penalizes well-instructed teams.
It is especially handicapping to teams that adopt
sophisticated pro-type offenses. NFL players get one day off per
week. But they are more mature than college players, have prolonged
training camps and offseason mini-camps. And, they spend four full
days and part of a fifth day every week studying film and scouting
reports, in meetings and in practice.
A former college coach who is now an NFL scout thinks
colleges would be better served to use simplified offenses. But
Florida-type passing is in vogue and a lot of teams, without
Florida's talent or weather or understanding of the offense, are
using it. That partly explains why the No. 15 team is on any
Saturday not much, if any, better than the No. 51 team.
The World Series provided a platform for Cleveland shortstop
Omar Vizquel to demonstrate to the nation that his exquisite
fielding talents make the 30-year-old native of Venezuela, who made
only 10 errors in winning his fourth straight Gold Glove, the
American League's Ozzie Smith.
Meanwhile, second baseman Bret Boone of Cincinnati must yearn
to have such a platform to show off his skills to Gold Glove
voters. Boone set a National League record for second basemen this
year, when he made only two errors and had a fielding percentage of
.997.
But Boone was snubbed in the Gold Glove voting in favor of
Houston's Craig Biggio. Biggio, who made 18 errors and was sixth in
fielding among NL second basemen, said he was shocked to be
selected.
Amid speculation he might jump ship in Florida to manage the
White Sox, Jim Leyland told Chicago writers that if he manages in
1998 it will be with the Marlins.
By Bill Connors

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