Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 56

'I 101) I wwwdfwcom TA COLLEGES I HOCKEY I MOTORSPORTS Star-Telegram Wednesday October 17 2001 Slocum quick to defend QB Good as advertised RIOT Jason White after auaMMl two winning relief efforts is ready to start his first game as quarterback for the defending national champions By MIKE JONES STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER NORMAN Okla The evidence of the past two weeks is undisputable for those who might have doubted the veracity of statements coming out of the Oklahoma football camp since last spring that very little separated the talents of quarterbacks Nate Hybl and Jason White know it takes awhile to believe Sooners quarterbacks tutor Chuck Long conceded smiling And so six games into the season the No 2 team in the country has shifted gears without a blink at perhaps the most important position on the roster After consecutive clutch performances against Texas and Kansas White has replaced Ilybl as starter for game against Baylor lie when we said all along how much confidence we had in head coach Bob Stoops said have any gap to close Whether the change is due to injury or not for us to ponder the situation that has occurred preparation has been outstanding throughout the season As the number two or number three player you never know when be asked to be on the field to help us win a game And better be ready to take advantage or letting down 110 players and coaches It also defines you whether you remain in that position or we go to someone else Jason is a shining example of fulfilling that The idea that White would not have been ready to answer the call is totally foreign to the son of a cement worker accustomed to working 12-hour days difficult at all to maintain an said the 6-foot-2 220-pound White who one recruiting publication rated one of the top 20 quarterback prospects in the country coming out of nearby Tuttle (Okla) High School in 1998 one play away and if not ready you get THE ASSOCIATED PRESSDONNA MCWILLIAMS Oklahoma coaches have said all along not much difference in the Sooners' top two quarterbacks and Jason White has proved them right with two clutch performances Wfl Some Texas fans are on quarterback Mark Farris but Aggies coach RC Slocum says he thinks they're being unfair some special drills and try to put more of an emphasis on it because it just continue to happen Wq need to find ways to hoc onto the football in thos According to Babers two kinds of quarterbacks exist Those who fumble after being sacked and those who 1 like those guys who get blindsided and lose the Babers said Briefly Offensive coordinator Dino Babers is that the injury affecting right tackle Andre Brooks (ligament sprain of the right knee) could be lingering problem Thd injury limited play) ing time significantly Satur-t day The coaching staff remains pleased with thq play of left tackle Jami High: tower the first offensive lineman to play as a tru freshman for the Aggie since 1996 Hightower is playing at an extremely high level for a freshman Babers said because of something that happened in game that everybody could see still very excited about Jami Hightower and where going to be down thd Hightower committed the mistake in protection that allowed quarterback Mark Farris to be sacked which resulted in costly fourth-quarter fumble Sophomore Sean West- streak of 17 consecutive starts at left cornerback could be in jeopardy trying to get better at that coach RC Slocum said Weston sophomore Jonte Buhl and true freshman Byron Jones will be evaluated during practice this week Johnny Paul (817)390-7760 By JOHNNY PAUL STAR TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER COLLEGE STATION The voice on the telephone argued in vain until Texas coach RC Slocum put a stop to it mercifully and politely know if any of heard my radio show Monday night but I had a caller who apparently have a Slocum said yesterday was going on and finally I had to say see He had all these examples of the bad things that happen to Mark Farris I see it that way at The caller blamed Farris the junior quarterback and his late fourth-quarter fumble for a 31-21 loss to No 14 Colorado at Folsom Field on Saturday Blitzing linebacker Kory Mossoni forced the fumble with a blind-side sack after Farris had marched the Aggies to the 35-yard line with five consecutive completions Joey Johnson scooped the loose ball from the turf and rumbled 52 yards for the decisive touchdown with 58 seconds remaining gets hit from the blind side and just hard to fault him on said Slocum who acknowledged that a breakdown in pass protection allowed unimpeded charge could say maybe been How unlucky? Three of this six sacks have resulted in lost fumbles and two of those were returned for touchdowns Another was recovered at the 1-yard line and resulted in a touchdown hard to work on because what you actually want to do is do it in practice and yet you get the guy offensive coordinator Dino Babers said going to do He'is far from a finished product offensive coordinator Mark Mangino pointed out still has a lot of things he has to work he said play vs KU was far from flawless and not just talking about the three turnover aspect There are a lot of flaws in his game that he has to improve on But he will now that he has the opportunity to get the No 1 repetitions in To bury a trite phrase there is no quarterback controversy on this team offensive tackle Frank Romero said said from Day One that we had confidence in both of them And there have been a six-month battle for the position if both great quarterbacks one could start anywhere why when we changed quarterbacks it was just like somebody on the offensive line or one of the receivers getting hurt We just expected Jason to step up He Mike Jones (817) 390-7760 jonzstar-telegramcom injury first because you wabt to stick with the No 1 guy let him play through it But Jason has never thought that way He thought of himself as a starter and prepared like it and it has paid off He had great command from the moment when he came out into one of the biggest games of the year against White and Hybl have comparative arm strength But White has shown greater ability to run and the option has suddenly become something else opposing teams must consider in their defensive game plaa When questioned White initially said that Hybl has good scrambling ability But White conceded that his mobility which enabled him to gain 117 yards rushing in addition to throwing four touchdown passes in last 38-10 victory over Kansas is a factor just means more time other teams have to prepare for other White said yeah I think running ability is a a chance to play again I was never going to give up I was going to keep pushing just to make Nate a better player It happened that he had an injury and I had an opportunity coaches have made the decision they have and hopefully we can keep winning excited to get a chance to lead the team from the beginning of a Long is a College Football Hall of Fame member from his days as a quarterback at Iowa (1982-85) when he was the Davey Award winner and the runner-up to Bo Jackson for the 1985 Ilcis-man Trophy He knows the picture backup quarterbacks sometimes see want your quarterback to be The Quarterback because how you develop chemistry on your he said No 2 guy generally feels more than any other guy on the team that buried down deep basically takes injury or poor performance to get in there and usually the NHL ROUNDU Brahmas falter in OT loss A 3 goals lift Penguins By JEFF BO WERMAN SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM BOSSIER CITY La Forward Dan Wildfong scored just over one minute into overtime to give the I Bossicr-Shreveport FT1 1 TOT Mudbugs a 3-2 pre-ITUriTTT season victory against Fort Worth Brahmas in Cl 1L action Tuesday night The Brahmas fell to 0-2 in the exhibition season despite firing 38 shots on goal to the 30 Mark Gowan took the loss in net for Fort Worth The Brahmas scored first when forward Jeff Bateman one of two players assigned to the Brahmas by the Stars scored early in the first period off an assist from lincmate Ben Gorewich The defending WPIIL champion Mudbugs evened the score late in the period when Tim Hill slipped the puck past Kory Cooper the starting goaltcnder Fort Worth forged ahead again early in the second period when right wing Jason Clarke found the back of the net for the Brahmas TMS Continued from ID THE ASSOCIATED PRESSDAVID DUPREY Buffalo's Martin Biron made 20 saves Tuesday night but couldn't stop this shot by Patric Kjellberg in the Sabres' 3-3 tie with the Predators FROM WIRE REPORTS PlTFSBURGI 1 Pittsburgh rookie Toby Petersen had three goals in his first game on Mario line and the previously winlcss Penguins won coach Rick debut beating the Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Tuesday night Robert Lang had two goals one short-handed and the other on a power play as the Penguins scored four goals on nine shots in the second period three set up by Lemieux for his first points of the season The 0-4 start tied the 1983-84 team for the worst in franchise history Coach Ivan IUinka was fired after a 4-1 loss Sunday in Buffalo Red Wings 4 Blue Jackets 3 DETROIT Sergei Fedorov had a goal and an assist and Detroit held off a third-period rally by Columbus Trailing 4-1 with a little more than eight minutes remaining Columbus (0-2-4) got goals from Tyler Wright and Deron Quint to get back into the game with 6:27 left But defense limited Columbus to four shots on goal for the rest of the game Avalanche 2 Lightning 1 DENVER Stcphanc Yelle and Joe Sakic scored goals as Colorado ended a two-game losing streak by stopping Tampa Bay Patrick Roy made 19 saves for Colorado and Tampa Nikolai Khabibulin turned away 23 shots After a scoreless first period in which Colorado outshot Tampa Bay 11-4 Yelle put the Avalanche ahead at 10:32 of the second It was his first tlement voided the remainder of the contract freeing CART to stage a street race in downtown Denver on Labor Day weekend beginning in 2002 if it desires CART has yet to release its 2002 schedule I Icitzler called off the Firestone Firchawk 600 approximately two hours before the scheduled start Twenty-one of 25 drivers reported symptoms of disorientation including dizziness resulting from vertical and lateral gravitational loads generated through the 15-mile 24-degree banked turns at sustained speeds exceeding 230 mph Led by pole-sitter Kenny speed of 233447 mph 17 of 25 starters qualified at 230 mph or better during time trials on April 28 Gossage said on race day that 57000 tickets ranging from $20 to $100 had been sold and a crowd of 65000 was anticipated were disappointed to not be able to showcase our racing to all the fans who came out at Texas Motor Speedway and we again apologize to our fans for any inconvenience caused by our decision to not race" I Icitzler said in his statement Iowever under the circumstances we bplicvc it was absolutely the proper choice" John SturbiMBU) 390-7408 sturbPstar-telegram com contacted on Tuesday But when questioned during the weekly Indy Racing League teleconference on Oct 9 Gossage said stance had not changed love to resolve Gos-sage said CART needs to do is return the money from a race they stage and pay in full for all our expenses and net profits for the race as planned entitled to the net profit for some sponsorship we had to refund and tickets we had to refund We budged off that During the same IRL conference call Gossage was questioned about the status of talks between CART and SMI over a proposed race at 15-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway be any action taken about Las Vegas until the issues in Texas are resolved" Gossage said on Oct 9 "We want to resolve it because we want to get on with our business" TMS had two years remaining on its contract with CART for races that were scheduled on Labor Day weekend in 2002 and 2003 Hie set goal in 19 regular-season games dating to Feb 1 fourth goal of the season made it 2-0 early in the third period Thrashers 3 Flyers 3 ATLANTA John LeClair scored two third-period goals to help Philadelphia tie Atlanta LeClair scored his second goal of the period and fourth of the season with 3:15 left beating Atlanta goal-tender Damian Rhodes from in close Tony Ilrkac had put Atlanta ahead 3-2 with his first goal of the season with 7:35 remaining in the third Maple Leafs 4 Oilers 1 EDMONTON Alberta Toronto scored three times in the second period including short-handed goals by Sliayne Corson and Jonas Iloglund on the way to a victory over Edmonton Predators 3 Sabres 3 BUFFALO NY Richard Smchlik scored with 5:34 remaining as Buffalo rallied from a two-Jal deficit to defeat Nashville N- goal came 1:32 after Slava power-play goal cut the Predators lead to 3-2 Chris Gratton also scored for the Sabres Wild 3 Sharks 3 ST PAUL Minn Gary power-play goal with 2:32 left in regulation helped San Jose tie Minnesota The Sharks trailed 3-1 but Sutcr and Mark Smith scored to help San Jose avoid its first regulation loss Marian Gaborik had a goal and two assists for the Wild who remain the only unbeaten team in the Western Conference at 3-0-3 Briefly Calgary center Marc Savard will be out of the Haines' lineup for six weeks with a sprained right knee Pittsburgh Penguins forward Alexei Kovalev had arthroscopic knee surgery Tuesday to repair lingering damage from a five-year-old injury lie will be out indefinitely Chicago Blackhawks assistant coach Denis Savard charged inl( August with drunken driving pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of reckless driving and was fined $2500.