Showdown at the OK corral

Mike Sciacca

It’s been a rather unique road that Jeff Grady has traveled to reach

a destination he has yearned for since arriving on the Fresno State

University campus five years ago.

The twists and turns along that road as a quarterback in the

Bulldogs’ football program, have come in the form of different

injuries that sidelined and nearly derailed his hopes and aspirations

on Saturdays of autumns past.

And perhaps Grady’s best statistic to date won’t ever be

officially entered into the Bulldogs’ record books; instead, it will

be one attributed to his character: perseverance.

“It’s been an interesting journey,” said Grady, 23, who is a

former standout quarterback at Edison High, as is his brother, Tommy.

“It just shows me that anything can happen and once you get the

chance, you have to take advantage of it.”

His journey takes another rare twist Saturday in Norman, Okla.,

when Fresno State takes on the top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners.

The game will mark the first time in school history that Fresno

State has taken on the nation’s No. 1 team and it’s the first meeting

between the two schools.

What’s just as rare -- and special, Grady says -- of Saturday’s

showdown, is that Tommy Grady will be on the Oklahoma sideline suited

up for the first time as a freshman redshirt quarterback for the

Sooners.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be playing in a major

college football game against my younger brother’s team,” Grady said.

“I’m looking forward to this, and I’ll be looking for him out there

on the opposite side of the field.”

Jeff Grady, 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, graduated from Edison in 1998

and left the school following a three-year varsity career that saw

him become the Chargers’ all-time passing leader.

Tommy Grady, listed at 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds in the Oklahoma

press guide, graduated from Edison in June and took with him several

school records -- which included his becoming the school’s new

all-time passing leader.

“I pretty much want to win this game but I want to see my brother

do well,” Tommy Grady said. “I was told that I might even get to play

in the game.”

Jeff Grady said he really took notice of his brother’s talents as

a quarterback when the younger Grady was about to enter his sophomore

year at Edison.

“I saw him at Bob Johnson’s camp and that’s the first time I knew

he was going to be awesome,” he said. “I hadn’t seen him really play

in a couple of years since I was up at Fresno State, so I was shocked

with what I saw.

“He’s just got a cannon for an arm. He’s the best high school

quarterback I’ve seen.”

Edison head coach Dave White coached the Grady brothers, as well

as their sister, Tricia, a 1999 Edison graduate and standout athlete

who played for White on the girls’ varsity basketball team.

“Jeff and Tommy both had outstanding careers at Edison,” White

said. “It’s pretty amazing that they will face each other’s team in a

major college football game.

“This is just great for Jeff. Here’s a guy, a fifth-year guy, who

has gone through some tough times up there in Fresno and has paid his

dues. He’s such a classy kid. They don’t come any better than him.”

In Jeff Grady’s first year at Fresno State, he spent the 1999

season as an understudy to All-Western Athletic Conference

quarterback Billy Volek.

Grady did play in six games and threw one touchdown pass.

In the 2000 season, he saw playing time in four games and threw

two touchdown passes -- including one at Ohio State.

He was redshirted in 2001 and did not play in any games.

He came back in 2002 and played in two games, the opener at

Wisconsin and a nonconference game three weeks later at Oregon State.

Grady was injured in the first half of the Wisconsin game and was

replaced by backup Paul Pinegar. He eventually got the starting call

for the Oregon State game but suffered a right hip pointer in the

second half of the game against the Beavers.

He did not play much after that injury as he fell to No. 2 on the

depth chart behind Pinegar.

But this season, the tables have turned.

Entering this season, Pinegar and Grady were entrenched in another

battle for the starting quarterback slot but Pinegar sustained a

muscle tear in his right shoulder during fall camp.

He has been out since and Grady, who had entertained the thought

of possibly not returning to football this fall, got the starting job

for the Bulldogs’ season opener Aug. 30 at No. 16 Tennessee.

Following his start before 106,000-plus fans in Knoxville -- which

ended in a 24-6 loss to the Vols -- Fresno State bounced back last

Friday to upset Oregon State, 16-14, at Fresno.

Grady led a late drive that ended with Brett Visintainer kicking a

47-yard field goal with 31 seconds left for the win.

Grady threw for 276 yards and a touchdown against the Beavers.

“He made big plays,” Bulldogs coach Pat Hill said in his weekly

news conference. “He made plays that you have to make in a big game.

I can’t say enough about the performance of Jeff Grady against Oregon

State.”

Now comes Oklahoma, the No. 1 team in the land.

“This is an opportunity I want to make the most of,” Jeff Grady

said of his start in Norman. “We’ve played some big-name schools but

we have an even bigger task at Oklahoma.”

The Sooners, who won the 2001 national championship, come into the

game with a 2-0 record and will be backed by nearly 80,000 partisans

at storied Owen Field.

“It’s going to be another great college football setting,” added

Jeff Grady, who is in his first year of graduate school pursuing his

MBA. “I’ve had the thrill of playing in some pretty big stadiums like

at Wisconsin, against UCLA at the Rose Bowl, Ohio State and

Tennessee.

“It’s been an interesting five years and the people up here in

Fresno have been so supportive of me. I just want to have fun with

this final season. It’s the reason I came back.”

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at

(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at [email protected].