It’s no telling what will get Fields going

Darryl Fields expected to have a bad game last Friday.

His paternal step-grandfather passed away unexpectedly the Monday before the game. The next day, Christopher Yeager, 16, a friend of Fields’ from Kingston, died in a two-vehicle accident near his hometown. The day after, his cousin and teammate Jamelle Davis, lost his grandmother to cancer.

“I told him I was going to dedicate this game to his grandma,” Fields said. “All week long, I didn’t know what was going to happen next.”

It wasn’t anything he expected, but the three who left him so soon would have loved what transpired the following Friday night. Fields ran eight times for a career high 297 yards, helping Madill beat Lone Grove 49-0.

“It didn’t seem like I was into the game when I was playing, but I guess I was,” Fields said. “I didn’t feel anything like I usually feel during a game. I felt like I was going through the motions.”

He only had to go through them eight times on the ground. He added a reception for 32 yards.
Maybe something got into him, and he didn’t realize it.

“I think he approaches every game business-like,” Madill coach Kerry Roberts said. “Very rarely do you see him play with emotion. Against Bethany and Purcell, he was really jacked up.”

Bethany and Purcell are perennial powers in District 3A-2, but the Wildcats (8-0, 5-0) are rising to such status as well. In fact, a win tonight over Marlow will wrap up its district championship since a 10-1 season in 1990.

Roberts said the Wildcats last week played their best game since blasting Purcell 35-7 to open up district play. A year ago, Madill barely beat Lone Grove 26-25 en route to a third-place district finish.

“Everything clicked that night,” Fields said of last Friday.

That’s usually the case for this 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior who won the 200- and 400-meter state championships in Class 4A last spring. Fields is second in rushing yards among 3A players this season with 1,176 — just 141 behind Elgin’s Kwame Tate — but his 22 touchdowns lead the state. Fields averages 12.38 yards per carry — and that’s with only 95 carries.

He’s received offers from Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Texas Tech, Kansas, Kansas State, Colorado, Arkansas, SMU and Rice. TCU scouts will visit Madill tonight, and Fields — who hasn’t decided where he’s going — is visiting Oklahoma this weekend, Roberts said.

And to think this is only his second season playing running back. He was a wide receiver as a sophomore.

“A kid that size who’s got his speed, you owe it as a coach to try to give him 15-20 yards a game,” Roberts said. “It was a work in progress as a junior. He’s one of those kids who practiced to get better. Some kids practice because they have to.”

Roberts also said Fields added some jukes to his running for this season, which has allowed him to be more than a straight-ahead ball carrier.

But Fields isn’t afraid to be touched, either.

“If there’s contact, he’s initiating,” Roberts said.

That speaks well for someone who also is a solid linebacker. Fields has 43 tackles and four sacks on the season.

Fields has no preference where he wants to play on the field.

“I just like the game of football,” he said. “Wherever they need me, I’ll play. If I can help out the team playing on the offensive line, I’ll play.”

I.C. Murrell
221-6527