HE’S IN A HUSHED RUSH : Oklahoma State’s Sanders Making a Quiet Run for Heisman as Junior

Stillwater was stirring. It started with a subtle gust that might have been the draft from an 18-wheeler over on I-35, but then, week by week, it gathered speed until it was a cyclone sweeping across the Oklahoma plains.

Soon, it had a name: Barry Sanders.

Then, it had credentials: National Collegiate Athletic Assn. records for touchdowns, 31, and points, 188, in a single season, and a solid shot at Marcus Allen’s rushing record.

Now, it has a crusade: the Heisman Trophy.

The Oklahoma State running back has come out of nowhere, as Heisman candidates go, to offer Middle America’s alternative to the survivor of Saturday’s showdown between Troy Aikman of UCLA and Rodney Peete of USC, if indeed there is such a showdown. Peete has the measles and his status is doubtful.

Whatever happens at the Rose Bowl Saturday, however, Sanders and the Cowboys will be far from that spotlight. They will be at Ames, Iowa, rolling through Iowa State like a threshing machine, if they maintain their amazing momentum.

A quick study of the Cowboys’ results is misleading--that is, they look like Oklahoma State basketball scores from Coach Hank Iba’s good old days: 52-20, 52-15, 56-35, 41-21, 49-21, 45-27, 63-24.

They have lost twice, but even Nebraska, which won, 63-42, and Oklahoma, a 31-28 winner, couldn’t shut down their offense.

At their current pace, the Cowboys, averaging 47.6 points, will break the NCAA Division I-A record of 45.2 set by Bud Wilkinson’s ’56 Sooners, and leading the way will be Sanders, who might already be an honorary colonel if he were playing for Kentucky.

Trouble is, he would have refused the commission. Barry Sanders is so humble it hurts.

“I’m just a regular old guy,” he said this week from Stillwater. “That’s why I guess it’s so hard for me to deal with a lot of publicity. It’s such a team sport, it’s hard when everybody comes to me like I’m doing everything.”

Well, isn’t he?

Only two players have rushed for more yards in a season: Allen, with 2,342 at USC in ‘81, and Mike Rozier, with 2,148 at Nebraska in ’83.

Each won the Heisman.

Sanders, with 2,003 yards and 2 games remaining, not only is odds-on to pass both but also seems a cinch to top the oldest record in the NCAA books: an average of 246.3 all-purpose yards set in 1937 by Colorado’s Byron (Whizzer) White, en route to the U.S. Supreme Court.

With yardage from pass receiving and punt and kickoff returns, Sanders is averaging 283.4. Paul Palmer set the yardage record of 2,633 at Temple in ’86. Sanders has 2,550, averaging 8.25 yards every time he touches the ball.

Sanders doesn’t keep a tally on his sleeve, but around Stillwater he’d have to be an eggplant not to know where he stands for the rushing record.

“Someone told me I’m in third place, right? I’m not even going to think about it. Like the last game against Kansas, I was asking Coach if I could come out of the game.”

Sure enough, Bill Shimek, who coaches the Cowboys’ running backs, got a phone call in the press box during the third quarter of that 63-24 romp. Barry Sanders on the line.

“Coach, can you let somebody else play?”

“Well, let’s check that score. Um, we need to get us another touchdown.”

Sanders wasn’t conned.

“They wanted me to stay in so I could get more yards,” he said.

Finally, with 12 minutes to play, they called him off, settling for 312 yards and 5 touchdowns--a 6th was nullified by a penalty.

“I didn’t really care about it,” Sanders said. “It was (backup tailback) Mitch Nash’s last game here at OSU, and Gerald Hudson, Vernon Brown and those guys, they practice just as much as I do and they deserve to play. When we’re ahead like that, they should be able to get in and get some playing time.”

But Shimek and the others know it’s hard to win a Heisman sitting on the bench. Some say Sanders won’t win it, anyway, because he had no buildup after playing in the shadow of All-American Thurman Thomas last season, hasn’t been on national TV and is still only a junior who must wait his turn.

To paraphrase Shimek, horsefeathers.

“I had one about 10 years ago at (Oklahoma) named Sims,” Shimek said. “Billy won it when he was a junior, and he wasn’t even picked on the preseason All-Big Eight team. It’s been done before. It should be performance that counts.”

Besides, this may be Sanders’ best shot. Fullback Garrett Limbrick, who leads most plays, and the entire offensive line are seniors.

Oklahoma State has little other motivation remaining this season. The Cowboys won’t go to the Orange Bowl as Big Eight champions--that’s the private preserve of the Sooners and Cornhuskers--and an invitation to meet Wyoming in San Diego’s Holiday Bowl seems secure.

So, with a new poster just out, they’ve started a big, belated push for Sanders for the Heisman.

“I’ve said all along it doesn’t really mean that much to me because this is a team effort,” Sanders said. “Those guys--the offensive line and Garrett--they do such a wonderful job and I just happen to be the end result. It’s an honor to be a candidate. I feel kind of bad that they single one man out.”

Ron Holt, sports editor of the Stillwater News Press, said Sanders may be a better pro prospect than Thomas, who was the Buffalo Bills’ top draft choice (on the second round) this year.

“He has more moves and spins than Thurman had,” Holt said. “Each week I think I’ve seen ‘em all, then he does something else.”

Heisman voters might find Sanders difficult to ignore if he gets the rushing record, but he will have to do it this week. The Cowboys’ final game is against Texas Tech at Tokyo Dec. 4, after the balloting.

Does that mean he’ll be shooting for 340 yards against Iowa State?

“We don’t go into a game saying, ‘We’re gonna get the young man X amount of yards,’ ” Shimek said. “It’s never mentioned.”

On the other hand, Shimek isn’t going to tell the offensive line not to block.

“It means a lot to those guys,” Sanders said. “That’s one reason I’d be glad to get it, so they can look back and say, ‘I was a part of that.’ ”

Sanders, 5 feet 8 inches and quiet, might not impress anyone until he gets on a football field.

“His size is to his advantage,” Shimek said. “He weighs 195 or 200, and in the weight room he squats as much as our offensive linemen--over 600 pounds. You can’t arm-tackle him. It’s all compact.”

Shimek recalled finding Sanders at North High School in Wichita, Kan.

“George Walstad, our defensive line coach, was lookin’ at film on the linemen and he kept seein’ Barry runnin’ back kickoffs and punts and playin’ wingback. He came in and said, ‘Shimek, come look at this guy.’ Hell, they just didn’t tackle him very often.

“George says, ‘Bill, he’s not but about 5-7 or 8,’ and I remembered the old statement that Joe Washington and Greg Pruitt made at OU. They always said, ‘They open them holes up sideways, not tall.’ With their great acceleration, once somethin’ opens up, they can hit it an’ git it.”

Despite his stature, Sanders has never been seriously injured. “I’ve been blessed,” he said.

He doesn’t fumble much and has lost only 1 this season.

“I guess the guys have been blocking so well that I haven’t been hit that hard,” he said.

Sanders isn’t concerned that the current fuss will change him as much as it will change how he is perceived.

“It’s just a game. You shouldn’t equate how well you do with what you’re worth as a person. So many people have misconceptions that because I’m on TV and I’m doing so well, I’m better than (other people) and I deserve this and that.

“My father enjoys every bit of it. My mom, she’s kind of like me. It doesn’t really matter to her as long as I’m healthy and I’m staying a Christian. All those other things don’t really matter to her.”