PLaw
2/12/2008, 09:05 PM
Check the comment below by Switzer. Do you think the 55 still eats on Stoops?
BOOMER
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++
Imagine this: Marcus Allen in Sooner colors
12:13 AM CST on Sunday, February 10, 2008
Chuck Carlton, Dallas Morning News
For some schools, it's all about the position
BYU became a quarterback showcase under LaVell Edwards. Penn State, also known as Linebacker U., produces Butkus Award candidates like clockwork.
But few schools were ever identified with one spot on the field quite as much as Southern California and its tailbacks from the 1960s through the early '80s. During that span, USC produced four Heisman winners in addition to three runners-up.
No Trojan produced more yards in a season than Marcus Allen, the latest winner of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Doak Walker Legends Award. Allen will be honored along with 2007 Doak Walker winner Darren McFadden of Arkansas at Friday's awards banquet.
Had history taken a slightly different turn, Allen might have become a different icon of that era – as a Wishbone quarterback at Oklahoma.
Really.
Allen was converted from a defensive back as a senior at San Diego's Lincoln High School to quarterback and soon became a star. Barry Switzer, who could sniff talent halfway across a continent, immediately saw the possibilities.
He put on a full scale recruiting press. Switzer even got former Sooner great Joe Washington, a first-round pick of the San Diego Chargers, for star power. On Allen's visit to Oklahoma, Switzer realized it wasn't going to happen.
"Marcus, you're too pretty to play for me," he remembers telling Allen in typical Switzer fashion. "You'll go to USC like all those pretty boys and make movies and win awards."
Switzer was right, although he came close to a recruiting coup.
"I visited Oklahoma and really liked it," Allen told the Washington Post in 1981. "I guess [with] my dad being from Texas I could fit in with that kind of atmosphere, I have some of it in my blood."
In the end, the years spent watching the Trojans and stars like O.J. Simpson were too much for Oklahoma to overcome.
Allen waited for two years at USC, spending his sophomore year as a blocking fullback for Heisman winner Charles White.
As a junior, Allen became the newest beneficiary of the Student Body Right running game, running for 1,563 yards in just 10 games.
Entering 1981, Allen needed a defining game for his eventual Heisman win, and it came Sept. 26 against the Sooners in Los Angeles. The No. 1 Trojans faced second-ranked Oklahoma. It wasn't a vintage Switzer team, the ranking notwithstanding. More than half the defensive starters were sophomores or freshmen.
Still, the Sooners led late before the Trojans' final drive delivered a 28-24 victory. Allen finished with 208 yards on 39 carries on the big stage.
The loss still eats at Switzer.
"He put 200 on us. If we could have handled him, we could have won the game," Switzer said in a phone interview last week. "He had deceiving speed. He wasn't a blazer. He had great vision. He could see the crack, make a couple people miss. He was a very patient runner."
Including the Fiesta Bowl loss to Penn State, Allen rushed for 2,427 yards. John Robinson, Allen's coach at Southern Cal, called him "the greatest player I ever saw."
Switzer still thinks Allen would have been perfect in crimson and cream.
"He ran for 2,000 yards, didn't he?" Switzer asked. "I think he could have played quarterback for us."
After college, Allen put together a 16-year career good enough to merit selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The totals are a testament to his versatility: 12,243 yards rushing, 5,411 yards receiving, 145 touchdowns.
His run around and through what seemed like the entire Washington defense in Super Bow XVIII remains one of the game's great individual efforts.
Through the years, the relationship between Switzer and Allen continued.
Every time Switzer saw him, on an NFL field or at a function, he had the same greeting.
"You were too pretty to play for me," Switzer said.
BOOMER
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++
Imagine this: Marcus Allen in Sooner colors
12:13 AM CST on Sunday, February 10, 2008
Chuck Carlton, Dallas Morning News
For some schools, it's all about the position
BYU became a quarterback showcase under LaVell Edwards. Penn State, also known as Linebacker U., produces Butkus Award candidates like clockwork.
But few schools were ever identified with one spot on the field quite as much as Southern California and its tailbacks from the 1960s through the early '80s. During that span, USC produced four Heisman winners in addition to three runners-up.
No Trojan produced more yards in a season than Marcus Allen, the latest winner of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Doak Walker Legends Award. Allen will be honored along with 2007 Doak Walker winner Darren McFadden of Arkansas at Friday's awards banquet.
Had history taken a slightly different turn, Allen might have become a different icon of that era – as a Wishbone quarterback at Oklahoma.
Really.
Allen was converted from a defensive back as a senior at San Diego's Lincoln High School to quarterback and soon became a star. Barry Switzer, who could sniff talent halfway across a continent, immediately saw the possibilities.
He put on a full scale recruiting press. Switzer even got former Sooner great Joe Washington, a first-round pick of the San Diego Chargers, for star power. On Allen's visit to Oklahoma, Switzer realized it wasn't going to happen.
"Marcus, you're too pretty to play for me," he remembers telling Allen in typical Switzer fashion. "You'll go to USC like all those pretty boys and make movies and win awards."
Switzer was right, although he came close to a recruiting coup.
"I visited Oklahoma and really liked it," Allen told the Washington Post in 1981. "I guess [with] my dad being from Texas I could fit in with that kind of atmosphere, I have some of it in my blood."
In the end, the years spent watching the Trojans and stars like O.J. Simpson were too much for Oklahoma to overcome.
Allen waited for two years at USC, spending his sophomore year as a blocking fullback for Heisman winner Charles White.
As a junior, Allen became the newest beneficiary of the Student Body Right running game, running for 1,563 yards in just 10 games.
Entering 1981, Allen needed a defining game for his eventual Heisman win, and it came Sept. 26 against the Sooners in Los Angeles. The No. 1 Trojans faced second-ranked Oklahoma. It wasn't a vintage Switzer team, the ranking notwithstanding. More than half the defensive starters were sophomores or freshmen.
Still, the Sooners led late before the Trojans' final drive delivered a 28-24 victory. Allen finished with 208 yards on 39 carries on the big stage.
The loss still eats at Switzer.
"He put 200 on us. If we could have handled him, we could have won the game," Switzer said in a phone interview last week. "He had deceiving speed. He wasn't a blazer. He had great vision. He could see the crack, make a couple people miss. He was a very patient runner."
Including the Fiesta Bowl loss to Penn State, Allen rushed for 2,427 yards. John Robinson, Allen's coach at Southern Cal, called him "the greatest player I ever saw."
Switzer still thinks Allen would have been perfect in crimson and cream.
"He ran for 2,000 yards, didn't he?" Switzer asked. "I think he could have played quarterback for us."
After college, Allen put together a 16-year career good enough to merit selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The totals are a testament to his versatility: 12,243 yards rushing, 5,411 yards receiving, 145 touchdowns.
His run around and through what seemed like the entire Washington defense in Super Bow XVIII remains one of the game's great individual efforts.
Through the years, the relationship between Switzer and Allen continued.
Every time Switzer saw him, on an NFL field or at a function, he had the same greeting.
"You were too pretty to play for me," Switzer said.