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 Friday, December 13, 2002
Roberson and Hybl show their leadership skills
By Jack Arute
Special to ABC Sports Online
Every once and a while, while covering a college football game, you get a chance to watch a player or team come of age right before your eyes. On Saturday, we were treated to watching two players -- on opposite sides of the ball -- do just that. In each case, their metamorphosis bodes well for their teams.
While Oklahoma built a three-touchdown lead before holding on to beat Kansas State 38-37, both the Sooners and Kansas State discovered their next great quarterback.
|  | | Ell Roberson provided Kansas State a spark with his running ability.and strong arm. |
After falling behind 35-14 midway through the third quarter, Kansas State rallied behind the play of quarterback Ell Roberson, eventually pulling within the final margin with seven seconds remaining. But Roberson's final pass, from midfield, was knocked down at about the 5-yard line as time ran out. Roberson's stats (115 rushing yards,12-of-32, 257 yards, 1 INT) are just part of the story.
Roberson entered the game with mediocre reviews. Wildcat followers looked at the 6-foot sophomore as a player loaded with potential. He studied at the side of last year's K-State signal caller Jonathan Beasley, but even his coaches thought that Ell was still processing the nuances of K-State's playbook.
Then came his second half against Oklahoma.
Roberson took command. You could see his posture change in the team huddle. When a play failed, he showed disappointment that had an angry edge. The anger was not directed at teammates; instead, it was an emotion that he fashioned into a steely determination to keep challenging Oklahoma's defense.
The rally pulled Kansas State back into the game. When it was capped off by a
57-yard touchdown pass, followed by a 2-point conversion, making it 38-35 with 2:02 left, you realized that Ell Roberson had become a team leader.
Under most circumstances, Roberson's performance would satisfy our hunger for transformations, but while Ell was taking command of his team, his Oklahoma counterpart was quietly adding toughness to his game.
Nate Hybl took a 3-0 record as Sooner QB into this game. His stats were good and the rust from not having played since high school back in 1998 was gone. So was the preseason battle he had with Jason White for the honor of succeeding Josh Heupel.
"We told Nate that once he won the starter's job it was his to keep," remarked Sooner QB coach Chuck Long. "We wanted him to know that he was our leader."
|  | | Nate Hybl completed 36-of-48 passes for 347 yards last week against Tulsa. |
It took a bone crushing, brain rattling hit in this game to see Hybl's leadership earn the medal of toughness. After throwing a TD pass late in the third quarter, Hybl wandered off the field with fuzzy vision and bells ringing. You could see that he was woozy and certainly deserving of relief under center during the next series.
But, after doctors and trainers swarmed over him to test for a possible concussion, Hybl started down a road that did not afford a couple of plays, let alone a couple of days for recovery. Nate wandered off to the side of the bench. He struggled to regain his faculties.
Away from the prying eyes of medical personnel that could easily end his time in the game with one word to head coach Bob Stoops, Hybl flexed, blinked his eyes and struggled with himself. It reminded me of what a boxer does after absorbing a knockdown punch.
In the next series, Nate was still lethargic. Once back on the sidelines, he continued his recovery struggle. In front of teammates and coaches, Hybl put in an Oscar caliber performance. He quickly dismissed any notion of coming out of the game.
A long drive by Kansas State, coupled with the timeout as the game switched from the third to the fourth quarter, provided just enough time for a clear-headed Hybl to emerge.
"Normally, you don't like to see your defense on the field for as long as it was during that time," added Long. "But it helped Nate.
"He showed his teammates and all of us what a leader he is by fighting through that wooziness. We knew that he had that kind of toughness."
Antoine Savage may have garnered most of the headlines in OU's win. He caught two long touchdown passes and threw for another on a razzle-dazzle fake punt, but from my vantage point, Hybl's road to toughness was the story that will become part of Sooner folklore.
Jack Arute writes a column every Monday for ABC Sports Online.
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Nate Hybl hangs in the pocket and finds Antwone Savage for a 75-yard touchdown (Courtesy: ABC Sports).