WISHFUL SOONER : Holieway’s Knee Healing, but He Still Has Some Scars--Both Physical and Mental

Jamelle Holieway sits on the edge of the couch in his Inglewood home, his eyes fixed on a vision only he can see.

“I was going to the left side,” Holieway says. “I faked the ball to the fullback. I saw the free safety coming inside out and when I did, I tried to plant and cut back. My foot got caught on the (artificial) turf and it just wouldn’t go any further.

“Actually, I didn’t know what to think. I thought I might have twisted something. I just thought I could get up and walk it off because it felt like something that had happened before. I tried to walk it off and it wouldn’t go.”

As he talks, Holieway’s tightly muscled body suggests that the memory is not really his. He looks too strong, too athletic. But the 6-inch scar on his left knee says otherwise. The vision is his, and it is real.

The career of a player Oklahoma football Coach Barry Switzer called the best option quarterback ever is at a crossroads. A serious knee injury has left Holieway hoping for the best.

Last Nov. 7, Holieway was in his familiar position as Oklahoma quarterback. The Sooners won that day, but Holieway lost.

Late in the 29-10 home victory over Oklahoma State, Holieway took the center snap and headed down the path to his bad dream.

“I thought it could happen,” Holieway said. “I was always thinking, like, ‘Damn, I hope I don’t get hurt.’ ”

Hoping didn’t help that day. Holieway’s foot caught and his left knee blew out.

Three days later, surgeons Tom and David Fletcher did a reconstructive operation in Oklahoma City. During a preliminary arthroscope, the extent of the injury was determined--torn cartilage and ligaments.

“They said, ‘If you wake up with a cast, we had to do surgery,’ ” Holieway said. “ ‘If you wake up with just a little splint on, that means you just got ‘scoped and you’re liable to play against Nebraska in two weeks.’

“They put me out and it wasn’t nothing. Next thing you know, I wake up and I got this big . . . cast on my leg.”

Suddenly, Holieway’s junior season was over. And his football career was in jeopardy. Clive Brewster, a physical therapist and head of rehabilitation at Kerlan and Jobe Orthopedics at Centinela Hospital Medical Center, said that 10 years ago chances of recovery from such an injury would have been “slim or none.”

“It’s a very serious injury,” Brewster said. “It’s really a career-ending injury. I’ve seen a lot of guys make it back, but other guys don’t.”

Holieway said the surgeons originally told him he wouldn’t play again. He did not take that gently. It made him want to prove them wrong.

“Now people will see what I’m really all about,” Holieway said. “The best competitors like to compete, and to me this is just a game, an inner game. It’s an inner soul game. Can I beat my knee back?”

It’s a new experience for Holieway. Starting in his days in Pop Warner football, through his career at Banning High School and for most of his three seasons at Oklahoma, Holieway suffered nothing more than the usual bumps and bruises.

He used his flash-and-dash moves to become the leader of Oklahoma’s vaunted rushing attack after someone else’s injury put him in charge of the Sooner wishbone.

In the fourth game of Holieway’s freshman year, regular quarterback Troy Aikman suffered a broken leg against Miami. Switzer sent in Holieway. He stayed in. Aikman ultimately transferred to UCLA.

Three seasons and 27 games later, Oklahoma had 26 more victories and a national championship. Holieway’s quickness made up for his 5-foot 9-inch, 180-pound size.

“Just give me the ball in the open field and I can do my thing,” Holieway said. “In the open field I can feel people beside me, behind me, make this cut, make that cut. When I do my thing, they’re in trouble. Real trouble.”

Trouble for opponents meant 2,532 yards rushing and 27 touchdowns by Holieway. He also threw for 1,606 yards and 16 more touchdowns.

“He’s the best we’ve ever had,” Switzer said. “And Oklahoma has run the wishbone better than anyone in the history of the game.”

Holieway fully understands the trouble he causes opponents when he slips and darts down the line with the ball. Early last season, he summed up his strength as an option quarterback this way: “Fakin’ be the baddest part of my game.”

Holieway, however, wasn’t faking Nov. 7. He was hurting. Nearly eight months later, he hopes a strenuous rehabilitation program will return him to the field to put the hurt on someone else.

Since May 13, Holieway has been working closely with Brewster at the hospital. A two-hour program is followed, Monday through Friday. So far, so good.

“It seems to be going really well, no problems,” Brewster said. “We tested his strength and the knee is (at) 95% (strength) of his other leg. That’s really good at this stage. He’s a hard worker. He’s ahead of schedule.”

Holieway’s daily schedule includes a session on a machine to strengthen the thigh muscles and the hamstrings. Then, it’s weightlifting on another machine. A 3- or 4-mile run follows, with a ride on a stationary bike. An ice-down ends the workout.

The rehabilitation program can get tedious, but Holieway has found some relief from the grind. He works out with Phil Freeman of Santa Monica, a wide receiver with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“It helps out because we can relate,” Holieway said. “We have the same injury.”

Holieway has also begun doing agility drills. They consist of running from side to side and making sharp cuts--the type of movements common to a wishbone quarterback. Brewster said the drills have posed no new problems.

The real test, however, lies ahead. How will Holieway react to a linebacker diving at his leg?

“I ain’t thought about it, I’ve had nightmares about it,” Holieway said. “It’s going to be something to experience.

“My buddy Phil (Freeman) was telling me he broke his leg. He said once you get that real good hit and you pop up and it pops up with you, then everything is going to fall into place and you’re going to be rolling. You’re going to go out there like it’s never been hurt and just play.”

That, according to Switzer, is exactly the attitude Holieway needs for a successful return. The rapid-fire action of the wishbone doesn’t leave time for second-guessing or self-doubt.

“He’s playing a position where he’s just going to have to forget it,” Switzer said.

Switzer is optimistic about his quarterback’s return, but he also is cautious.

“Jamelle’s status will be determined by how well he comes back,” Switzer said. “He can’t be less than 100%. Our offense requires a different type of ability than a normal offense. Jamelle’s running ability, his ability to stop, cut and move are the keys. He’s going to have to be healthy.”

Switzer has guaranteed Holieway his starting spot if he indeed returns with skills intact. Freshman Charles Thompson replaced Holieway last season but is expected to be back on the sideline as a sophomore.

“Jamelle’s our No. 1 quarterback starting out,” Switzer said. “But he’s going to have to perform. If Charles ends up performing better, then he could be our man. But I think Jamelle Holieway is the best player. He’s gotten the job done for three years.

“I think he’ll come back. I have confidence in him. He’s a tough player.”

Holieway said: “If I come back and cut and maneuver like I’ve done in the past, then the job is mine. Coach has already assured me that. I really didn’t have any doubts or questions about it. It’s just like before. I’ve just got to go out and do my thing and everything will fall into place.”

The doubting occurred earlier, according to USC fullback Leroy Holt, a friend of Holieway since their days at Banning High.

“When it first happened, he thought there was no way he could make it back,” Holt said. “He thought his career was over. He had to find some motivation. I said, ‘You got to stand up, be a man and dig deeper than you ever have.’ ”

That’s not so easy with a cast from toe to hip. A fresh scar and weakened muscles can dampen even the most optimistic feelings.

“A lot of guys get frustrated and depressed,” Brewster said. “I tell them there’s going to be a depressing period. It’s something they’re going to have to deal with. I say, ‘Tomorrow is going to come regardless of what you do, so why not work hard and go after it?’ ”

Before he could go after recovery, though, Holieway had to try to understand the misfortune. On the series of plays preceding the injury, Holieway fumbled deep in enemy territory as the Sooners were driving for the game-clinching touchdown.

“It was one of those freaks,” Switzer said.

Holieway said: “If I wouldn’t have fumbled, we would have scored and Coach would have taken me out because the game would have been out of reach. But I had to fumble. Then I had to get hurt.”

A few nights of sleep helped Holieway come to grips with his situation. But he still fretted about having to watch on the sideline.

“The part that really hurt was when the team came out for the Nebraska game,” Holieway said. “I cried because I couldn’t help my team do nothing. I was helpless. All I could do was sit there and be a cheerleader. And I hate being a cheerleader. I want to get in.

“When (my teammates) came out of the locker room at Nebraska and walked down the ramp, it brought a frightening feeling through my body. A feeling like I can’t be there.”

Once the football season ended so did most of those feelings. But not all.

Holieway has played football most of his life. The months away from the game have caused him to realize just how much he misses it, how much he has been counting on it. For Holieway, football is not just a game--it’s a ticket to what he sees as a better life.

“The knee is the most important thing in my life right now,” Holieway said. “The knee is either going to make me or break me. The knee can make me millions of dollars or it can make me thousands of dollars. So, it’s like, ‘Hurry up knee. Knee get back.’ I don’t necessarily like working 9 to 5.”

He isn’t daunted by the knowledge that option quarterbacks constitute an endangered species in the National Football League. He pictures himself as a running back.

“Oh, my God, I don’t want to redshirt,” Holieway said. “That’s another year of Norman (Okla.). Even though Norman is a great place to live. It really is. Don’t get me wrong.

“But I just want to get out of school. I want to make money. I want to go play professional football or get into a legitimate business. College players can’t work during the season, so you can’t make no money.

“And I’m the type of guy who likes the glamorous things in life, the clothes, the whole bit. I’ve always been an exciting, different, flamboyant kind of person.

“I got to look good. It’s just the way me and my friends are. If you’re not up to par with us, you’re lacking. You can’t be lacking on national TV. And I can’t have a lot of things in college because I can’t work.”

Switzer has seen his quarterback chew up the opposition. He doesn’t picture Holieway punching a time card soon.

“He’ll be a running back,” Switzer said. “He’s too talented of a runner not to be taken by somebody.”

Even if Holieway’s dreams of a fat NFL bonus never come true, he still has a reason to continue his comeback. On Sept. 24, Oklahoma play USC at the Coliseum.

“That’s all he talks about,” Holt said.

For Holieway, a triumphant return to the Coliseum means a chance to play in front of friends and family, and a chance to show everyone he truly is back.

“I’ve been looking forward to this game since 1985, when I first came out of high school,” Holieway said. “I have this pictured in my head and it has really given me an incentive to work hard. This game means so much to me.

“Tell all those USC fans that the score will be 27-7 in favor of Oklahoma with Leroy Holt scoring the only SC touchdown and Jamelle scoring at least two. I predict he’ll rush for over 100 and I’ll rush for over 100.”

There is very little doubt now in Holieway’s mind that he’ll be back.

“I love sports,” he said. “God gave me a gift and the talent to play football and I want to use it. This is just a little minor setback he’s put in my path to see how I’m going to do. I’m going forward.