snuffy
10-30-2008, 08:01 AM
Pokes’ Hunter has that Sanders look
Their off-the-field mannerisms are strikingly similar
http://www.newsok.com/pokes-hunter-has-that-sanders-look/article/3317007/?custom_click=lead_story_title
BY ANDREA COHEN
Published: October 30, 2008
STILLWATER — When Mike Gundy hears their names in the same sentence, he gets nervous.
Sure, his sophomore running back, Kendall Hunter, is performing well. He leads the Big 12 in rushing by 118 yards and is fourth in the country in rushing yards. But like many college football fans, Gundy considers his former teammate, Barry Sanders, the best of all time.
"You’re not trying to compare those two, are ya?” Gundy asks. "It’s not fair.”
It might be an unfair comparison on the field, but there’s no denying how similar the two are on the sideline. Both are small, brutally quiet and always on the verge of a nap.
"Very similar,” Gundy concedes. "Off the field.”
OSU running backs coach Curtis Luper was Sanders’ teammate for two years, and he’s been Hunter’s position coach for two years. He said the similarities are uncanny at times.
"Barry would go to sleep at halftime,” Luper said. "You’d have to wake him up. I remember several times Thurman (Thomas) would say, ‘Hey don’t forget to wake B up.’ We’d kinda laugh, and he’d do it. (Hunter), he’s capable of falling asleep at halftime, during the first quarter, at any point in time. He says he has a sleeping disorder.”
Hunter said that as a kid he watched Sanders playing for Detroit and that he was one of his favorites – "How he shifted and how it seemed like nobody could catch him because he’s strong and shifty.”
The two haven’t yet been introduced.
"I’ve seen him,” Hunter said. "Last year, when we played Florida Atlantic, I seen him on the screen. I knew he was somewhere around.”
Hunter surveyed the sideline looking for Sanders as much as he could — "But we were playing the game,” he said.
Gundy has a guess about how a meeting between the two would go.
"There would be zero words exchanged if those two ever talked,” he said. "They’d just kinda sit there and stare at each other.”
Hunter gets a kick out of that, giving a hearty laugh when he hears about Gundy’s prediction.
"I would speak to him,” Hunter said. "Out of respect. I’d come up with something to ask him if he was here.”
But the way things are going with Hunter at the moment, Gundy doesn’t think he needs much advice, even from Sanders.
"I’d say leave him alone, I guess,” Gundy said. "He’s playing pretty good right now.”
Their off-the-field mannerisms are strikingly similar
http://www.newsok.com/pokes-hunter-has-that-sanders-look/article/3317007/?custom_click=lead_story_title
BY ANDREA COHEN
Published: October 30, 2008
STILLWATER — When Mike Gundy hears their names in the same sentence, he gets nervous.
Sure, his sophomore running back, Kendall Hunter, is performing well. He leads the Big 12 in rushing by 118 yards and is fourth in the country in rushing yards. But like many college football fans, Gundy considers his former teammate, Barry Sanders, the best of all time.
"You’re not trying to compare those two, are ya?” Gundy asks. "It’s not fair.”
It might be an unfair comparison on the field, but there’s no denying how similar the two are on the sideline. Both are small, brutally quiet and always on the verge of a nap.
"Very similar,” Gundy concedes. "Off the field.”
OSU running backs coach Curtis Luper was Sanders’ teammate for two years, and he’s been Hunter’s position coach for two years. He said the similarities are uncanny at times.
"Barry would go to sleep at halftime,” Luper said. "You’d have to wake him up. I remember several times Thurman (Thomas) would say, ‘Hey don’t forget to wake B up.’ We’d kinda laugh, and he’d do it. (Hunter), he’s capable of falling asleep at halftime, during the first quarter, at any point in time. He says he has a sleeping disorder.”
Hunter said that as a kid he watched Sanders playing for Detroit and that he was one of his favorites – "How he shifted and how it seemed like nobody could catch him because he’s strong and shifty.”
The two haven’t yet been introduced.
"I’ve seen him,” Hunter said. "Last year, when we played Florida Atlantic, I seen him on the screen. I knew he was somewhere around.”
Hunter surveyed the sideline looking for Sanders as much as he could — "But we were playing the game,” he said.
Gundy has a guess about how a meeting between the two would go.
"There would be zero words exchanged if those two ever talked,” he said. "They’d just kinda sit there and stare at each other.”
Hunter gets a kick out of that, giving a hearty laugh when he hears about Gundy’s prediction.
"I would speak to him,” Hunter said. "Out of respect. I’d come up with something to ask him if he was here.”
But the way things are going with Hunter at the moment, Gundy doesn’t think he needs much advice, even from Sanders.
"I’d say leave him alone, I guess,” Gundy said. "He’s playing pretty good right now.”