Adios, Adrian

By Doug Tucker - Associated Press Sports Writer     Oct 17, 2006

Oklahoma University's Adrian Peterson dives into the end zone to complete a 53-yard touchdown run against Iowa State. Peterson broke his collarbone on the play Saturday and likely will miss the rest of the season. The junior is expected to declare for the NFL Draft following this season, meaning he may have played his last down with the Sooners.

? He’s the closest thing to Barry Sanders that Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy says he ever has seen. Iowa State’s Dan McCarney called him “truly an amazing football player.”

To Texas coach Mack Brown, he’s one of the best running backs ever.

Now Adrian Peterson is probably finished as a college football player. Nevertheless, the coaches he had bedeviled with his speed, power and shiftiness were full of praise after the Oklahoma star broke his collarbone Saturday.

“I grew up in this state. I watched Billy Sims, (Elvis) Peacock, all those guys,” Gundy said on the Big 12 coaches’ Monday conference call.

“He’s the closest I’ve seen to Barry Sanders. I really hated to see that he got hurt. He’s an amazing runner. I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of him in the future on Sunday.”

Oklahoma State's Adarius Bowman breaks loose for 54-yard touchdown reception against Kansas. Bowman's 300-yard, four-TD performance Saturday led to his being named Monday the Big 12 Conference offensive player of the week.

Peterson was at the end of a 53-yard touchdown run in No. 20 Oklahoma’s 34-9 victory over Iowa State on Saturday when he was hurt. The best-case scenario is that the talented junior, the first Oklahoma back to amass 3,000 yards rushing in his first two seasons, might get back in time for a bowl game.

“He’s as good as any I’ve seen, including Heisman Trophy winners,” McCarney said. “He is truly an amazing football player. He had two runs in that game, I don’t know if we’d had 14 or 15 guys on the field we’d have stopped him. Hopefully, he’ll go on and have a great career.”

The Sooners are determined to plow on without him.

“I feel strongly as a team we’ll overcome it,” said Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops.

Three possible replacements are juniors Allen Patrick and Jacob Gutierrez and freshman Mossis Madu.

“We’re playing better offensively in some many areas, we’ll be able to overcome the loss and do well,” Stoops said. “No one in our program feels it will hold us back. We’re just disappointed for him personally.”

It seems difficult to believe the loss of such a high-quality back will not weaken the Sooners.

“Adrian is one of best backs to ever play game, a tenacious runner,” Brown said. “We hate it for him.”

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NOT SO FAST, COL. SANDERS:

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach indicated he wasn’t sure of what he thought about recently enacted federal legislation aimed at curtailing online gambling.

“That’s so far off my radar screen, I don’t have an opinion,” Leach said.

Does he think wagering on college football hurts the game in any aspect?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, In Georgia, they used to have chicken fighting in this little town on Sunday. Did wagering hurt the integrity of chicken fighting? I don’t know. I don’t know if it does or not. You don’t want any corrupting influence, somebody trying to impact the game for their own benefit. But providing that doesn’t happen, I don’t know that it hurts the game at all. If anything, it might generate some interest.”

Then he had a question for the reporter who raised the subject.

“Are you going to go to the chicken fights and see if there’s any integrity as a result of wagering?”

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HARD TIMES:

First Oklahoma quarterback Rhett Bomar gets kicked off the squad. Then comes some horrible officiating, including a series of comedic errors at Oregon that even prompted an apology from the head of the Pac-10 Conference. Now Peterson’s gone down, possibly for the season.

Has Stoops ever had so many things go wrong in one season?

“Probably not,” he said. “But that’s part of the game. Our players have had good attitudes and we have as coaches. We’ll work through this.”

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PLAYERS OF THE WEEK:

Oklahoma State wide receiver Adarius Bowman was named Big 12 offensive player of the week. Texas defensive end Tim Crowder and Colorado safety Ryan Walters shared defensive player of the week honors while Colorado place kicker Mason Crosby was given the nod as special teams player of the week.

Bowman, a junior, set a Big 12 record with 300 yards receiving on 13 catches in Oklahoma State’s 42-32 victory at Kansas. Bowman had four TD catches over a 16-minute span, scoring from 54, 25, 55 and 64 yards.

In Texas’ 63-21 victory over Baylor, Crowder had seven tackles, including four for losses, three sacks, two forced fumbles and batted-down a pass.

Walters had four tackles and two interceptions in leading Colorado past Texas Tech 30-6 for its first victory of the year. Both of his interceptions ended Texas Tech drives in Colorado territory.

While Walters was anchoring the Buff defense, Crosby was making his effort count for something. He connected on a pair of field goals from beyond 50 yards, including a 56-yarder that ranks as the second-longest in the nation this season. With his 53-yarder in the third-quarter, Crosby became the second player in the country to make two from 50-plus this year.

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EXTRA POINTS: The Big 12’s game of the week may be a preview of the conference championship showdown scheduled in December for Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium. No. 5 Texas will be at No. 17 Nebraska. Those two could easily be the South and North division winners by the time the regular season comes to an end.

“This should be an exciting week for our kids to prepare,” Brown said.

He’s most worried about the Huskers’ greatly improved rushing game.

“They’re rushing for 207 yards a game, No. 11 in the country,” he said. “They’re 21st against the run.”

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