Check out the part about Simms weight.  


Big 12: Applewhite eager to reclaim his job
By Mark Wangrin
Express-News Staff Writer

AUSTIN * It runs up and down the inside of Major Applewhite's left knee, a 
four-inch shiny pink speed bump of a scar. 

If it could talk, it would tell of how the anterior cruciate ligament buckled 
as its owner planted while trying to avoid a relentless Arkansas pass rush at 
the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1.

It would tell of the reconstructive surgery by team orthopedist Dr. Carey 
Windler, how the joint was whipped back into shape with hours of work and 
carefully tended with ice bags and heat and extra stretching and anything 
else Applewhite had read, heard or seen that would help keep his return on 
pace.

If the joint could talk, it would tell people how everything's fine inside, 
how Applewhite could drop back and plant, set up or scramble, in a real live 
game today if one was scheduled. 

If it could talk ... well, Applewhite might well be the happiest guy on the 
planet.

Being a quarterback, team guy and newly inaugurated Student Government 
representative, Applewhite tries to be diplomatic, but part of him wishes he 
wouldn't have to answer a steady barrage of questions about his knee, no 
matter how well-meaning the fans might be.

"I don't want to be rude," he said last week. "I just wish they'd stop 
asking. I love them, appreciate them, but it's getting a little ..."

Got the picture.

OK. So here's the word: Applewhite is 100 percent * even ahead of schedule.

Ready to take on the challenge to his starting job from sophomore quarterback 
Chris Simms, who with only one career start has graced the cover of The 
Sporting News football preview and had an ESPN Magazine cover shoot last week

This word on Applewhite's fitness comes not just from the junior player, but 
from the man who's worked most closely with him, physical therapist Allen 
Hardin.

Applewhite, Hardin stresses unequivocally, is ready to play now.

Hardin said Applewhite has tested 5 to 10 percent above the expected range 
when he's had periodic strength and flexibility tests on the injured leg. 
During rehab, Hardin ditched the pool work, concentrating instead on 
sport-specific movements, shortly after Applewhite observed that very few 
football games are played under water.

One of the most effective of the workouts involved pulling on Applewhite with 
rubber tubing as the quarterback moved, cut and set up, strengthening his 
supporting muscles and improving his balance.

"If I came in and told him to do what he did yesterday, he wasn't happy, 
because he wanted to be challenged," Hardin said. "It was a challenge to come 
up with things to challenge him."

"The only difference I can tell about the knee is it takes longer to warm 
up," Applewhite said. "I'll jog for four minutes instead of two, stretch for 
six minutes instead of five."

After workouts, Applewhite dutifully ices his knee, though he does so based 
more on conventional wisdom than necessity.

"I've always heard you can get tendinitis, so I ice it," he said. "I don't 
have any of the symptoms, so it feels like I'm icing it for no reason."

In some ways, Applewhite feels he's better for the injury, not the least of 
which being a renewed appreciation for the game.

"So what if I'm tired?" he said. "I can rest when I die."

Resting now isn't a bad thing, either. Applewhite said missing spring drills 
was a boon for his arm.

"I was throwing so much during the spring (of 1999), summer and season that 
it felt like my arm was run ragged," he said.

Of course, the knee questions will be answered the first time Applewhite 
takes a hit in the fall. The other question, the one that he can't shake, 
will take a little longer.

Who's the starter going to be * Applewhite or Simms?

"I'd be quick to drop in comments about Chris," Hardin said of his 
occasional, and apparently unnecessary, mention of Simms as a motivational 
ploy. "But I think internally, he'd have worked that hard whatever."

"It's remarkable the way he's come back," said sophomore cornerback Roderick 
Babers, noting that Applewhite has been occasionally overthrowing even the 
speediest receivers in workouts. "In two-a-days, it'll be a fair fight."

Asked to size up how Applewhite and Simms have looked in informal workouts, 
Babers said, "I think (Simms) has the advantage. Major's been sitting out and 
Simms' confidence is up, big-time. That's what you need in a quarterback. But 
at the same time, Major's a veteran. He's beaten Nebraska. He's beaten them 
all."

"He's the same old Major," cornerback Quentin Jammer said.

Soon Applewhite will probably be as tired of talking about the quarterback 
duel as he is about answering questions about the state of his knee. Now, a 
month before the freshmen report on Aug. 13, he's talking about how he's not 
competing against Simms, just against himself.

"The competitive nature that Tiger Woods has is the competitive nature I 
have," Applewhite said. "At Pebble Beach, Tiger was up 15 and had a 10-footer 
on the last hole for birdie, and he was out there lining it up. He could have 
done the 'Happy Gilmore' tap to the hole and still won. But he wanted it all."

Simms has bulked up from 208 to 223 pounds, working on his leg and upper body 
strength.

"I feel like there's more to me now, that it's not like the wind's going to 
blow me over," he said. "I don't want to be a wimpy quarterback. I want to be 
like Brett Favre. He's not the biggest or the fastest, but he can run when he 
has to and he can chuck it 80 (yards).

"It's going to come, and it'll get worse," Simms said of the building 
scrutiny. "To tell you the truth, I don't care. Football's a competitive 
sport. There's nothing you can do about it."

So he shrugs it off for now, concentrating on finishing up summer school. 
He's working on his topic for a writing course, "History of American 
Baseball." The book he chose is about Babe Ruth.

In August, the topic switches to college football. The question remains the 
same. And Chris Simms, or Major Applewhite, won't write this story.

They'll live it.



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