Missouri’s Top Prep Football Star Is Favorably Compared to Dorsett

For Missouri’s Woody Widenhofer, who is hoping to rebound from a 1-10 college football coaching debut, efforts to recruit Tony VanZant carry with them deja vu .

“I recruited and had Tony Dorsett visit the University of Minnesota when I was an assistant there, so I spent a lot of time with Tony Dorsett,” Widenhofer said. “They had a very similar style. (They are) the same type of runners--great acceleration, great vision, ability to make people miss.”

VanZant’s elusivness, which enabled him to gain 6,138 yards and score 91 touchdowns during his prep career, is now being worked on college recruiters. VanZant said he will make his selection Feb. 12.

VanZant, Parade magazine’s high school Player of the Year, has received bids from more than 300 schools. More than 100 of them have gone so far as to contact his coach at suburban Hazelood Central. Less than three weeks from the deadline, five of them remained in contention.

“Sometimes there are people coming in at every hour of the day,” VanZant said. “I just want to be alone sometimes, to just sit down and rest.”

And to think about his future.

“I have a dream of the Heisman Trophy and making it to the pros someday,” he said.

VanZant’s special talents, likened by his coach to those of pro stars Eric Dickerson and Herschel Walker, were first noticed when he joined Hazelwood Central’s varsity for the final game of his freshman year. He won the game by returning a punt for a touchdown.

During his sophomore and junior years, he rushed for 3,410 yards and 54 touchdowns. Last fall, he added 2,728 and 36 touchdowns to the total, capping his prep career by leading the Hawks to the state Class 5A title and even tossing a touchdown pass in the championship game.

“He’s got the great acceleration (so) that when he does get a little crease in the offensive line he (can) explode,” Hazelwood Central Coach John Hotfelder said.

Hotfelder said VanZant has “all the attributes of a great running back.”

“He’s got good hands, which means that he can come out of the backfield and catch passes,” Hotfelder said. “He’s been able to hold onto the ball, at least in high school, without fumbling too much.”

By the end of VanZant’s sophomore year, he was being praised by none less than Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne.

The Cornhuskers were one of the five finalists on VanZant’s list. The others, in addition to Missouri, were Arkansas, Michigan and Arizona State. His early campus visits were to Oklahoma State and Michigan.

His talent is probably needed most at Missouri. Widenhofer will tell you that.

“You find out one thing,” he said. “You win with people, and you’ve got to go out and recruit them. I’ve talked to him an awful lot and watched him play . . . I think it would be really tough for him to leave.”

Pressure for VanZant, 18, to attend his home-state university is also being exerted by those in his north St. Louis County hometown.

“He lives in the city of Black Jack, and they honored him for all of his accomplishments,” Hotfelder said. “In the proclamation, the mayor said, ‘We hope that you will continue your education and stay at the University of Missouri.’ ”

Hotfelder said the approaching deadline for VanZant to make a decision is “starting to wear on him a little bit.”

“There are a lot of things happening,” Hotfelder said. “It’s a big decision for a young man to make. We’re just all hoping and pulling for him, that he makes a good decision.”

Widenhofer, if all else remains equal, hopes VanZant decides similarly to what Dorsett did 13 years ago when the Dallas Cowboys star left his hometown Aliquippa, Pa., Hopewell High.

“Dorsett stayed in Pennsylvania and went to Pitt when Pitt’s program was really absolutely nothing. In four years, he won the Heisman Trophy and they won the national championship,” Widenhofer said. “Dorsett was 165 pounds; VanZant’s 190. Tony VanZant’s 6-foot-2, Dorsett was 5-10. I think he (VanZant) can be as good as he wants to be.”