re: Marcus Depree vs. Nico Iamaleava

I was fortunate to be at the OU's home games during Dupree's freshman season and also at the Cotton Bowl

He was incredible, bouncing off tacklers, fending off blockers and outrunning everyone who tried to catch him from behind such that you almost felt sorry for the defense.

Two guys could bring him down if they high-lowed him.

It was like he was going to score from anywhere on the field every time he touched the ball.

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Then you need to be warned that Morris' book spends a lot of time juxtaposing Dupree's recruitment as a young Black Superstar high school player with the atmosphere there in Philadelphia from two decades before when the three civil rights workers were murdered there.

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And THAT is exactly why I never read it. I assumed his book on Dupree would spend about 10% of the time talking about football and 90% of the time demonizing the south and white men over things people who are now long dead and gone did. In other words the standard Morris recipe.

The Marcus Dupree story is a sad cautionary tale of what could have been.

Nico’s story is pure comedy, like watching video of someone step on a rake and get popped in the face or the nuts by the handle.

He played on artificial turf at Oklahoma. Injured his knee on grass in Denver

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Dupree's knees screwed him over more than anything.

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Being constantly out of shape didn't help either.

I believe Dupree still hold the fiesta bowl record for rushing yards and he did it as a freshman. Switzer said if he was in shape he would have singly handily won the game and rushed for 300 plus yards . He kept having to check himself out of the game . Switzer hated having to be a dick to Marcus but he knew if he let a lazy freshman slide he would lose his team . Turns out he did the right thing because they won the 1985 title with his class . The story about his brother even had me tearing up.

Dupree's undiagnosed depression also didn't do him any favors.

I'd compare him to Jermaine Burton. He left UGA because we don't throw the ball as much as Bama.

2022 Georgia - 296 YPG passing

2022 Bama- 282 YPG passing

Bad decisions.

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It had nothing to do with being lazy. Dupree suffered from depression and no one knew anything about it at the time. If Dupree were a freshman in today's time it would be quickly noticed and he would have readily available help and medications to treat it. But unfortunately, he came up in a time when we didn't know a lot about the impact of depression on the mind and body.

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This is true... One of the my closer friends was Dupree's counselor at he health center at OU. He said this was evident and that Marcus was horribly homesick.

Also, on the Peavy hit. Marcus was concussed. These days Marcus would have been taken to the hospital from the field. In those days... he ended up on a plane back to Mississippi (Switzer allowed players to go home after the Texas game because OU didn't have school on Monday after that game in those days).

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I think he meant, "y'all didn't throw the ball enough to me". He wouldn't care how much y'all threw the ball in total as long as he got his. That's kind of how WR's operate. They're divas.

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Nah. You had a Heisman winner and we didn't throw the ball that much with Stetson in 2021. He and Pickens wanted JT as QB.

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Aren't you glad Kirby didn't listen to him and Pickens? LOL!

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Yeah, but in truth it took Kirby and Monken almost too long to come around. I'm glad Stetson loved UGA the way he did. If he didn't, that certainly wouldn't have happened.

They embellished Rudy's story. They wouldn't need to embellish Stetson's to make a good two hour movie. They likely would have to cut some real stuff out to get it down to the length a studio would want.

The only time he got to work with the ones in spring, fall. and throughout the season, he ends up in NYC for the Heisman ceremony, we're 15-0. He also averages more than 300 passing yards a game and passes and rushes for a combined 13 touchdowns in the SECCG and two CFP games.