\u00a0<\/p>\n When you rank running backs at Oklahoma, and limit your number to the top ten, then only the ones on or after 1961, you have two problems that surface.\u00a0 First, you have more than ten players that could make a case to be included and justified. \u00a0Second, in placing them in a ranking order, there are just too many categories that are so significant you cannot, without going to a personal opinion, discount them.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n That brings me to my number nine pick, the fabulous Marcus Dupree.\u00a0 With Marcus, you undoubtedly have a superior physical talent, in the\u00a0class of my number ten pick Joe Don Looney, and\u00a0future picks Adrian Peterson and Samaje Perine.\u00a0 Add to the fact that Dupree came to the OU campus as a raw eighteen year old from Philadelphia, Mississippi,\u00a0with a\u00a0body that still had a layer of baby fat.\u00a0\u00a0His life experiences that\u00a0had not wandered\u00a0out of the city limits of the small Mississippi town and with this talent\u00a0you had someone in need of a directional guidance counselor.<\/p>\n Unlimited talent that needed to be developed both physically and spiritually, Head Coach Barry Switzer\u00a0first big failure as a father figure for a kid in conflict ended badly on the field for Dupree.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was the best player on the field.\u00a0<\/span>Earl Campbell<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>was the only other guy I ever saw who was like that\u2014physically ready, as a true freshman, to be the best player on a great college team. Maybe even ready for the NFL at that age.\u201d<\/p>\n Coach Switzer was off on his assessment on Marcus when he arrived as the quote above was not the gospel.\u00a0 He was not physically ready, and the style of runner he was proved that.\u00a0\u00a0As of Earl Campbell as Barry mentioned, a runner\u00a0of that style takes a beating and we have only to look at Campbell in a wheel chair to understand that.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And to think he could have gone to the NFL at that age was preposterous.\u00a0 As he wasn\u2019t ready physically, his mental make-up would have been the end of the young man.\u00a0 Many a high school kid has gone directly to professional ball be it basketball or baseball, and the mental aspect ruins any hope of a successful career in the sport. Coach Switzer, as much as he was trying to compliment Dupree, did him a disservice.\u00a0 Marcus Dupree was destined for failure at OU day one on campus with the situation he had to endure.<\/p>\n Over thirty years later, the Marcus Dupree experiment in Norman, turned out for the better.\u00a0 Today\u00a0the\u00a0big man is looked upon as\u00a0a solid member of the Sooner family and a legend of\u00a0significant proportion.<\/p>\n In the final analysis, Marcus figured it out, life that is, and is a now millionaire businessman with a fulfilling existence.\u00a0 The one thing we all must remind ourselves about Marcus Dupree is that he was, and is, a very intelligent man.\u00a0 Growing into a successful person often happens later in life, and Mr. Dupree is a prime example.\u00a0 He was a smart young man\u00a0in his two years in Norman, abet\u00a0with an\u00a0immature mindset that needed\u00a0more from the head coach and the program than\u00a0what it was given.<\/p>\n In some aspects of my picking and choosing, as I have already mentioned, some players have gifts that others do not have.\u00a0\u00a0 Watching this kid that looked somewhat out of shape run over opposing defensive players, or sprinting past them like they were standing still, was a sight never to be forgotten.\u00a0 In a game at Kansas I watch Marcus run over a defensive back like a fast tank taking the high ground.\u00a0 Marcus, as was Jo Don twenty years earlier, was always the best player on the field, and the fastest.\u00a0 His speed was deceiving, as you couldn\u2019t put together his body look\u00a0running over, around, and finally, past the last defender.\u00a0 Some\u00a0players mature at different ages, and Marcus in his two years at OU, was still in the process of growing that body into a man, (unlike Samaje Perine, who came to OU, also as a young true freshman, but with a mature and older defined body that could pass for a thirty year old NFL veteran running back).<\/p>\n Dupree was literally\u00a0run into the ground in the bowl game against Arizona State by Coach Switzer.\u00a0 Coach\u00a0knew that he was ten to\u00a0fifteen pounds heavier coming back from\u00a0the Christmas break, yet used him to pound the Sun Devil\u2019s line repeatedly in the first half of that game.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Was it an oversight by Coach to do that, or was he going to prove a point to the young man.\u00a0 Marcus was then chastised by his head coach\u00a0for not being able to go for a complete game, discouraging the young man to finally leave Norman during the sophomore season.\u00a0 Do not under-estimate the harm that Marcus had to\u00a0feel from that humiliation he took away from that bowl game.<\/p>\n Switzer\u2019s words after the Arizona State game might have been truthful, but not necessary and he threw the young star under the bus as we today say.<\/p>\n He told Marcus directly,\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIf you\u2019d have been in shape, you\u2019d have rushed for 400 yards, and we\u2019d have won the game.\u201d\u00a0 <\/sup><\/p>\n This was after a performance that saw Dupree rush for 249 yards, a Fiesta Bowl record that still stands today, thirty-two years later.\u00a0 To be fair to Coach Switzer, he understands his actions regarding that game and how it shaped the short term mentality of Marcus. One must wonder how his treatment of Dupree affected his association with another Sooner great of his, Brian Bosworth.\u00a0 Switzer had a part in the creation of the \u201cBoz\u201d but that is another story.\u00a0 Barry\u2019s second big failure in directing a young man I would say.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n One thing people must realize, is that Marcus tried to run over people as a back, and he took severe punishment in games, especially the second meeting with the Texas Longhorns in his sophomore and last year at OU. That game was the end for him at OU.\u00a0 He was not protected as he should have been while at OU, in that he was not of the Steve Owens mold.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t designed to carry the ball thirty times a games. He wasn\u2019t the best conditioned athlete and that was not his fault.\u00a0 His physical maturity\u00a0took time which Coach and OU didn\u2019t give.\u00a0 \u00a0Mistakes were made and Sooner fans were denied the pleasure of watching an all-time great college player take it to the house in a final third or fourth season as a Sooner.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n![\"7a_marcusdupree_451610642\"](\"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/7a_marcusdupree_451610642-1024x512.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n9.\u00a0\u00a0Marcus Dupree\u00a0(1982-1983) All-American 1982<\/span><\/h5>\n
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