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Eager Beaver Simonton ready to display talents
By Tom Rinaldi, CNNSI.com CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Only one Pac-10 player has ever rushed for a thousand yards in each of his freshman, sophomore, and junior seasons. Do you know who he is, or even where he plays? Was it Anthony Davis? Nope. Was it Marcus Allen? Uh-uh. Was it O.J. Simpson? Wrong again. Ever hear of Oregon State's Ken Simonton? "I had an uncle who until last year thought I was a [Oregon] Duck," Simontob said. "It was like, 'I go to Oregon State.' Everybody was like, 'Okay.' They were just glad to hear you were going somewhere. Not many people really knew where I was going and the history that followed the program. I hid behind it for a little while." Oregon State is out of hiding and into the BCS.
The Beavers have won 10 games for the first time, and one of the biggest reasons is one of their smallest players, 5-foot-7 junior tailback Ken Simonton. But the history of a program that had suffered 28 losing straight seasons didn't deter Simonton. It inspired him. "It took guys, underrated guys like myself and Darnell Robinson and Jonathan Smith and all these other hungry guys who wanted to be a part of something," he says. "It took special people to turn this around and I think I'm definitely part of that." While it's easy to see Simonton's statistics -- the 18 touchdowns, the 1,474 yards rushing -- it's tougher to see how he got to Corvallis. Largely unrecruited, Simonton arrived from California as one of a very small minority of African-American students on a campus of 17,000 mostly white students. It took courage to come to Corvallis. "It took even more guts to stay here," Simonton admits. "It wasn't an easy place. Just being away from home, 18 years old, being in this environment which is totally different. To have to constantly humble yourself to deal with a lot of misunderstanding around you...it wasn't an easy place." Simonton doesn't make an easy target for opposing linemen, who often don't see him until he's through the hole. As for whether the rest of the country sees him enough? "As a running back, I'm not complete in my own eyes," Simonton said. "Right now I really don't care if people are paying attention yet. Because I'm a mechanic in the workshop right now, still tuning up the gears, tightening things down. When I do bring it out of the shop, I'll get all the attention I want. I'll demand, I'll take it. I'm not worried if they're not paying attention. So when I do come out, it's going to be like...wow." "Wow" is what people are starting to say already.
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