HICKS UNFAZED BY SETBACKS.Byline: Jon Wilner Daily News Staff Writer Perhaps it is the wasted seasons. Maybe it's the three knee surgeries. Or it could be his natural demeanor. Whatever the reason, UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX tailback tail·back n. Football The back on an offensive team who lines up farthest from the line of scrimmage. tailback Noun Brit a queue of traffic stretching back from an obstruction Skip Hicks Brian "Skip" LaVell Hicks (born October 13, 1974 in Corsicana, Texas) is a former American football running back in the NFL. In his four seasons, Hicks played for the Washington Redskins and the Tennessee Titans. was remarkably calm in the Bruins locker room following a 41-21 loss to Washington - a loss in which he was a significant contributor. Chief among his troubles was a second-quarter fumble, his fourth of the season. It was returned 32 yards, to the UCLA 11, and the Huskies took a 21-0 lead on the next play. Hicks Hicks , Edward 1780-1849. American painter of primitive works, notably The Peaceable Kingdom, of which nearly 100 versions exist. was benched for the remainder of the first half. ``Coach (Bob) Toledo took me out and just told me I couldn't fumble,'' Hicks said. ``It took me a couple minutes to get over it. I told myself there was nothing I could do about it, stay ready, and when I got back in I wouldn't fumble.'' Hicks, a junior, seems surprisingly unfazed un·fazed adj. Not fazed or disturbed. by his growing reputation as a fumbler, or as a back who does not run hard. Perhaps he has experienced so much disappointment since the first of three knee injuries (in 1994) that he does not feel the criticism. ``I try not to pay any attention to what people say,'' he said. ``If they say I fumble a lot, or that I'm not as tough as I used to be, or I don't run as hard. I can't do anything about it. I know what I can do.'' His primary problem is the fumbling. The coaches talk about it, the media asks him about it - he can't escape it. And when a runner starts thinking about not fumbling, that's usually the first step toward fumbling. ``I think about it before the games, but once I'm on the field it's like clockwork clock·work n. A mechanism of geared wheels driven by a wound spring, as in a mechanical clock. Idiom: like clockwork With machinelike regularity and precision; perfectly: ,'' he said. ``I don't think about it at all. I don't let too many things get to me. ``Fumbling is going to happen. I've been here four or five years, and I'm going to fumble a few times. Everybody makes mistakes. We had a lot of mistakes out there today. I made one of them. A big one.'' His fumbles have overshadowed what has been a solid season after missing most of the past two years. A concussion concussion Period of nervous-function impairment that results from relatively mild brain injury, often with no bleeding in the cerebral cortex. It causes brief unconsciousness, followed by mental confusion and physical difficulties. limited his action against Tennessee, but he gained 175 yards against Oregon and 114 last week against Arizona State. |
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