Dotson's OU debut is his second chance
By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
8/31/2006
Third-year sophomore was declared ineligible prior to 2005 season.
NORMAN -- The news hit Oklahoma defensive end Alonzo Dotson harder than any offensive lineman's fist to the chinstrap ever did.
"It was right before (2005) preseason camp. I didn't have enough hours toward my major, so I couldn't play," he said. "I was torn up. You work while being behind players like Dan Cody and Jonathan Jackson. Then they leave the torch to you. And then to have that happen. . . . Shoot, it hurt."
Dotson had a choice. He could bury the pain and plow forward, three years at OU down but two still to go. Or he could let the pain bury him.
Dotson's decision crystallizes Saturday night at 6 p.m., when he joins the Sooners' defensive end rotation in their opener against UAB.
"I pushed through it and moved on," he said. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
The key was not letting what happened take Dotson's football life. That wasn't easy at first.
He watched two seasons go by -- '03 while redshirting and '04 behind Cody and Jackson -- and then saw all the work he had done as an understudy, and all the promise he had shown in the spring of '04, circle the drain when he was declared ineligible.
"Most guys would just give up after being told they can't play after all that time," OU linebacker Rufus Alexander said.
Watching the Sooners' '05 opener against TCU from his living room didn't ease Dotson's pain any. But then something happened -- suddenly, his teammates hurt worse than he did.
"After the loss to TCU, I said, 'There's no point in me being down, too,' " Dotson said. " 'I gotta help turn a negative, a big negative, into a positive.' "
That meant chalk talks with starting ends C.J. Ah You and Calvin Thibodeaux.
" 'Zo' was probably one of our biggest critics," Ah You said. "He helped us a lot. You get a better look from the outside."
It meant checking his pride at the door and joining the scout team.
"Helping the offense get better," Dotson said.
It meant pumping weight-room iron while everyone else was in meetings or on road trips.
It meant coming to grips with position coach Chris Wilson.
"We sat down and talked about what his aspirations were, and let's focus on those," Wilson said. "We couldn't go back and beat him up twice. That was already done. We just moved forward and stayed as positive as we could and got him back on board."
At some point during the year, Dotson proved he indeed was back on board.
"We started seeing him make better grades," Wilson said. "He was consistently at the right places at the right times. He studied film. He became more of a leader.
"There comes a point as an adult that you have to form some expectations for you, instead of other people forming them for you. Alonzo reached that point and grew up a little bit."
It is a lesson as much about life as football that will be hammered home Saturday night at Owen Field.
"Sometimes it takes those things where you have full control over everything that occurred," Wilson said. "It gave Alonzo a chance to learn."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guerin Emig 581-8355
[email protected].