Patrick perseveres
‘Only the strong survive'
Talented tailback, just like the Sooners, finds a way despite plenty of difficult times

By Jenni Carlson

Published: December 2, 2006

NORMAN — The tattoo on Allen Patrick's right forearm is neither his first nor his newest.

Of his 15 tattoos, though, none is more telling. It shows a crucified Jesus Christ hanging on a cross, and it reads, "Only the strong survive."

For the Oklahoma tailback, it merges his faith and his mentality.

Patrick sees it this way: God gave him talent, not a promise life would be easy.

"Just coming up from where I was from ... that's how things were looking," Patrick said. "They looked pretty tough."

He glanced at his right arm. "Only the strong survive."

It is his story.

His team's, too. There is no better player than Patrick to represent these Sooners. In a season rife with setbacks and struggles — a quarterback dismissed, a replay botched, a superstar injured — OU persevered. The Sooners won their last seven games, overcoming a 3-2 start and playing themselves into the Big 12 championship game tonight in Kansas City. A conference crown and a Fiesta Bowl spot await the winner.

The Sooners found a way.

So did Patrick.

A reserve and special teams force his first year and half as a Sooner, he got the chance to shine when Adrian Peterson was injured. Patrick replaced him in the backfield, and no one has done more to give OU a chance at its fourth Big 12 title in seven years.

But even though he showed similar promise growing up in Conway, S.C., few there predicted this for Patrick. He always struggled with academics, missing several opportunities with colleges who wanted him toplay football. There were doubters, even among his friends and teammates.

There were plenty of reasons for Patrick to give up.

"He was the only one that could stop himself from being successful," said Carlton Terry, who coaches running backs at Conway High and remains one of Patrick's closest advisors. "Any obstacle that came in front of him, he could tackle."

Any opportunity, he could run with it.

There were two things everyone in Conway, S.C., knew about Allen Patrick.

He had a tough time with school, but boy, could he play football.

"A stud," said Eric Huggins, then a teammate at Conway High, now a reserve receiver at OU. "He played everything."

Being a Conway standout is rare because the high school's football team is among the most successful in South Carolina. The Tigers advanced to the state title game this season, their fourth appearance in six years.

The program has sent players to South Carolina, Clemson and Virginia Tech to name a few, and at least half a dozen alums are playing Division-I ball now.

Folks in Conway, which is nestled near the coast in the far northeast corner of the state, wondered whether Patrick would ever join those ranks.

"They thought that he had the playing skills," Huggins remembered, "but they never thought he was going to have the grades."

Held back in third grade, Patrick slowly made up that lost academic year. He eventually rejoined his class in eighth grade, but having done so mid-year, he remained a semester behind and started high school that long after his classmates.

His football skills, on the other hand, were advanced beyond his years.

His sophomore season he became a defensive force, recording 62 tackles, recovering three fumbles and intercepting one pass.

Then a few months before what was looking like a promising junior season, Patrick was dismissed from the team. Conway coach Chuck Jordan said he did so because of a "personal decision on behalf of the team."

The story long told around town was that the team was scrimmaging in a summer jamboree when Patrick stormed off the field refusing to play.

Playing defense with mostly second-teamers, he became frustrated they were giving up one touchdown after another. With lots of eyes on Conway, Patrick's actions reflected poorly on the team.

Jordan, an old-school guy, took none too kindly to it and booted Patrick.

Keith Pompey, who covered high school sports for the Sun News in nearby Myrtle Beach, said this was no scare tactic. It was no suspension disguised as a dismissal, a decision that would be reversed when Patrick learned his lesson.

Jordan was serious. Patrick was done.

If not for Terry, the running back coach, Patrick might have been.

"He basically begged Chuck to get him back on the team," said Pompey, who now works for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Carlton said, "There was a point in time when he was on the fence. He needed some direction. Even though he was a great athlete, he needed football more than football needed him."It offer needed structure and positive reinforcement, and eventually Terry convinced Jordan to give Patrick another chance.

He took advantage of it, leading Conway to the state championship game.

The linebacker earned Toast of the Coast defensive player of the year honors while also replacing an injured starter at tailback and rushing for 1,144 yards in the last seven games of the season.

Patrick made great strides in the classroom, too. Conway High determined he would have enough credits to graduate after seven semesters.

He had a choice: return for an eighth semester — and a fourth football season — or head to college?

Having done everything except win a state title, Patrick opted for college and committed to South Carolina. When he failed to qualify academically, the Gamecocks placed him at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas.

Patrick stayed two days.

"I didn't know nobody," he said. "I pretty much didn't know my surroundings.

"I was pretty much lost."

Coffeyville was no Conway. Near the Oklahoma border in the southeast corner of Kansas, Coffeyville had a small population of blacks, about one in 10, where Conway was about four in 10. Patrick decided to go back to Conway, return to high school and play another season.

Again, he led Conway to the state title game, earned tons of honors and committed to an in-state school. This time it was Division I-AA South Carolina State, where he planned to enroll as a partial qualifier.

Then less than a month before Patrick was supposed to report, South Carolina State informed him that he'd failed to fulfill the academic requirements to be admitted. Jordan and Carlton said they asked the school repeatedly if Patrick needed any additional classes and had been told he was in the clear. Had they known there was a problem, Patrick could've taken a class and filled the need in the spring or summer.

Once they found out, it was too late.

Patrick's only option was junior college, and he chose another one in Kansas, Independence Community College. A buddy from Conway, Melvin Singleton, was headed there, and that provided Patrick the Conway link he'd lacked at Coffeyville.

Without Singleton, would he have stuck it out?

"Tell you the truth, no," Patrick said. "I don't think I would've made it. We kept each other together."

They roomed together and challenged each other in everything from video games to homework. They were the same way on the practice field and in the weight room, once staying until almost midnight trying to best each other.

"Although Melvin had Allen by almost 50 pounds, those two competed ... like there was no tomorrow," Independence coach David Ward said, adding that the two players became the best of friends. "But on the field, you never would have guessed it."

One afternoon during spring practice, Patrick was blitzing off the edge.

The quarterback changed the play to go away from him, snapped the ball and handed off to Singleton. Patrick tracked him all the way across the field, shedding the tight end, then weaving his way through would-be tacklers.

Patrick hit Singleton near the sideline and sent him 5 yards out of bounds. Ward looked at one of his assistants.

"Hey, coach," he said. "I think Allen just got a scholarship to Oklahoma."

Kevin Wilson, now the Sooners' offensive coordinator, was there recruiting.

"He was just a heat-seeking, screaming missile," Wilson remembered. "I remember talking to the defensive coaches at the time and saying, ‘I can't swear the kid's a safety or a corner, and I didn't see him cover, but he just ran around fast and was like a blur.' "

Within a couple days, the Sooners offered a scholarship.

Allen committed just as quickly.

Perhaps that tattoo on Allen Patrick's forearm has meaning he could've never imagined.

He is a Sooner savior, after all.

Since Peterson busted his collarbone, Patrick has 126 carries for 608 yards and three touchdowns. Not bad for a guy who had 24 carries for 79 in the six games before that. Not bad either for a guy who missed a couple games during that stretch because of his own injury.

In four games as a starter, Patrick is averaging 152.0 yards a game.

"Most teams, if he was the starter, you could see this guy having a 1,200- to 1,500-yard year," said Wilson, who converted Patrick from defensive back midway through last season when injuries depleted the Sooners' running backs. "If he would play 12 games, he would definitely be a 1,000-plus yard rusher."

Patrick may have an opportunity to prove as much next season. Because of a broken leg early in his second season at Independence, he received a medical hardship and will have three seasons as a Sooner.

To think, this is the same kid who couldn't seem to catch a break if it hit him in the numbers.

Then again, Patrick realized along the way that such luck was not only opportunity but also preparation. He had to do his part. He had to latch onto every chance and not allow any more to pass.

"I decided to fight through everything and try to keep my life rolling in the right direction," he said. "It seemed like to me, my whole life I've always had downfalls. I have my opportunity, and I'm just trying to run with it right now."

And all those folks who thought they'd be seeing Patrick back in Conway were right; he's been on SportsCenter a bunch of times.

"Everybody had their opinion on how my life was going to work out," he said. "So far, I've been proving them wrong."