BOISE STATE BACK GETTING HIGH MARKS TAFT HIGH ALUM LEADS UNDEFEATED BRONCOS INTO LIBERTY BOWL TODAY.Byline: Matthew Kredell Staff Writer Lee Marks starred in football at a prominent area high school, displaying speed, agility, heart and character. He had everything a college could want - except size. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , no college wanted him. It took a favorable recommendation from a family friend who had a connection to an assistant coach to get the Taft of Woodland Hills product an offer from Boise State. As it turned out, the 5-foot-7, 179-pound Marks wasn't settling just to be a member of the Broncos. A shifty shift·y adj. shift·i·er, shift·i·est 1. Having, displaying, or suggestive of deceitful character; evasive or untrustworthy. 2. running back for a team ranked No. 10 in the nation, Marks will start today on national television in the Liberty Bowl for Boise State. ``For all the coaches who didn't want to take a chance on me, I guess they might wish they would have,'' Marks said. ``But I think Boise State is a great place for me. I wouldn't trade it if you said I could go to USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. . I just love it here.'' And why not? With 22 consecutive victories, Boise State is the only Division I football team with a longer current winning streak Noun 1. winning streak - a streak of wins streak, run - an unbroken series of events; "had a streak of bad luck"; "Nicklaus had a run of birdies" than the Trojans (21). In high school, Marks was part of the lone Taft team to win a City Section title in 1998. As a senior in 2000, he totaled about 1,500 yards and 20 touchdowns despite playing most of the season with a cast on his broken hand. Yet, when it came time to be recruited, Marks was overlooked by the Pacific-10 Conference The Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) is a college athletic conference which operates in the western United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I. Membership Full members colleges that most area prep players hope to attend. It took a coach from an opposing high school to get Boise State interested in Marks. Angelo Gasca, the coach of Venice High, was leading his team against Taft when he noticed a man in a Venice jacket walking to the Taft side. Gasca shouted, ``Hey, you're going the wrong way.'' It was Marks' father, Lee Sr. The elder Lee is a Venice alumnus ALUMNUS, civil law. A child which one has nursed; a foster child. Dig. 40, 2, 14. . They struck up a conversation and found out that Lee Sr. worked with Gasca's brother-in-law. Impressed with the way the younger Marks had played, Gasca offered to help him get recruited. Gasca called up his friend Kenny Lawler, then the defensive backs coach Defensive Backs Coach is a coach in charge of the safeties and cornerbacks in American Football. This position is very common in the NFL and college football programs. Some common titles are: Safeties Coach, Cornerbacks Coach, Secondary Coach, Secondary/Safeties Coach, at Boise State. ``I said 'You should take a chance on this kid, he's special,' '' Gasca told Lawler. `` `Everyone's turned off him because he's not very tall.' Kenny took a look at him and said he really liked him, and that they're going to take him. I said, `I guarantee you won't be sorry.' '' They aren't. Marks leads Boise State with 902 yards rushing, averaging 5.2 yards per carry. Pretty good for a guy who was running with the scout team In sports, the scout team, also referred to as a practice team or practice squad, is a group of players on a team whose task is to emulate future opponents for the featured (or starting) players. two years ago. Marks entered Boise State as a defensive back. He redshirted his first year, then played sparingly spar·ing adj. 1. Given to or marked by prudence and restraint in the use of material resources. 2. Deficient or limited in quantity, fullness, or extent. 3. Forbearing; lenient. as a redshirt freshman. The coaches needed someone to emulate a smaller, speedy back in practice to prepare for a game and asked Marks to do it. He caught everyone's attention. ``The coach said `Hey, if we can't catch him then maybe we need to think about moving him there,' '' Marks Sr. said. ``That's how he changed over from defense to offense. It's worked out well.'' Marks rushed for 166 yards in limited action last year. Entering this season, there was an open competition for the starting spot. Marks won the job with 105 yards on 14 carries against Idaho in the season opener. He went on to score a touchdown against Pac-10 opponent Oregon State and rush for 112 yards in a meeting with Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (commonly referred to as the WAC, pronounced "wack") was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly rival Fresno State. Oregon State and Fresno State have already gone on to win bowl games. Despite the mounting win streak, Boise State has a difficult time getting respect. An undefeated season didn't get the Broncos into a BCS (1) (The British Computer Society, Swindon, Wiltshire, England, www.bcs.org) The chartered body for information technology professionals in the U.K., founded in 1957. bowl game. But beating a 10-1 Louisville with an explosive offense would make Boise State hard to ignore. Marks and Boise State have proved to be a perfect fit. They're both underdogs who overcome physical limitations to bring ultimate success. ``Boise State doesn't get the big names,'' Marks said. ``We get guys like me who didn't get national exposure. But we're good people who work hard and believe in our system. We do the little things to be great.'' Matthew Kredell, (818)713-3607 matthew.kredell(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: Boise State's Lee Marks, a former Taft High running back, gets past Louisiana Tech's Michael Johnson Michael Johnson or Mike Johnson may refer to:
Jeff Gross/Getty Images Box: LIBERTY BOWL |
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