Football, Fast Friends, and Small Towns by Steve Love

Author:Steve Love
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hawk Bookworks

Jones understood what Davis was trying to do. Growing up a Sooner fan, Davis would never have considered booing his QB hero, Bobby Warmack. Even if he made a mistake and lost a game, Warmack could do no wrong in Davis’s eyes. As a Warmack successor and predecessor of Hybl and Jones, Davis understood that, despite all the success an Oklahoma quarterback might have, there comes a day, as there did for Jones against Kansas State early in his senior season, when his mistakes—in this case, interceptions—lead to a loss. “I connect with those guys that are struggling in that type of position,” Davis said. “I tell them my story. You may be getting a little bit of heat . . . but it’s been that way forever.”

Though it may have felt to Davis as if he were struggling before that fateful 1975 loss to Kansas, he and his teammates had had the most remarkable run of success since Bud Wilkinson’s mid-’50s teams looked as if they might never lose again. Jack Mildren may have returned OU to an equivalent level in 1971, but it was Davis’s teams that put the stars back in the eyes of the Sooner faithful, blinding them to the possibility their heroes could be fallible. The misjudgment was almost understandable.

Davis, far down the recognition pecking order, given the multitude of All-Big Eight and All-America players who populated his teams, nevertheless played best in the biggest games. This fact sometimes would be overlooked in heaping hosannas on running backs or the defense, as in the 27–0 shutout of Nebraska in the next-to-last game in the Sooners’ first of two seasons without a bowl. On that launching pad for the 1974 season, Davis carried the ball 18 times for 114 yards, 46 for a touchdown coming on a quarterback sneak. Go for a yard, get 46!

I always thought Barry Switzer failed to publicly recognize Davis in the way he did Joe Washington. In Bootlegger’s Boy, Switzer affirmed the sense he had given me. When it came to the 1974 team he believed his best of the best, “it all started with Little Joe Washington” despite an acknowledgment that Washington “didn’t have the strength or great speed” but was instead “just a pure runner.” No one who ever saw Washington’s silver cleats flashing across Owen Field would dispute Switzer’s analysis. To me, however, Davis was similar—pure leader and master wishbone conductor, without whom none of his teams would have been as memorable. The best Switzer could say about Davis? He provided quarterback continuity.

This was the equivalent of Switzer’s estimation of my contributions to our team during an annual coaches-media pre-season golf outing. Someone must have decided to punish Barry by assigning me to his foursome. I forget the exact manner of scoring. Best ball, alternate shot, who knows? Whatever the choice, the intent was to reduce the damage a less-skillful player could do. I could hold my own on and around the greens but was no big-hitter (like Scott Hill).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.