High Stakes

Peters, Kingsbury going arm to arm

Published: Sunday, August 22, 1999

The scars on his hand are small and smooth and red and pink.

There are three of them near the top of his right wrist: two small dots of darkened flesh beneath a longer, more dramatic line of tissue on the base of his right thumb.

''This is where they went in and cut out the broken piece of bone,'' said Rob Peters, the starting quarterback for the Texas Tech football team. Six months after he underwent surgery on his throwing hand in February, the 22-year-old Peters pokes his scars, rolls his thumb and pounds home a few of the more graphic differences he experienced between the pain he felt as a junior and the much more relaxed tone of ''fun'' he plans to have with his team on the eve of his senior season.

''They cut a graft from here,'' Peters said, pointing to a smaller scar on his wrist. ''Then they put that on the end of my thumb and pinned it together. There were three pins, they removed the piece of bone, and now it's great. I have total range of motion, flexibility and strength.''

Coming off one of the most snake-bitten, first-game experiences in Red Raiders history last year as a starter, Peters also finds himself geared with two of the more hope-inspiring circumstances to hit training camp so far for Texas Tech players, fans and coaches.

The first one is his attitude. According to him, it's different, better and more relaxed.


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The other set of circumstances revolves around his up-and-coming top competitor, Kliff Kingsbury, a redshirt freshman gunslinger with an ambitious knack for giving Peters a sudden push of pressure from the practice field.

''Kliff improves with every practice,'' said Rick Dykes, Tech's offensive coordinator. ''We know we can win with Kliff. He's good. He gives us competition at the quarterback position, and the players have confidence in him. Rob's our starter. He won some big games for us and has the experience, but Kliff has really come along, and we're pleased with what he's done.''

If more freak health problems bundle up again for Peters, that will be the plan: Kingsbury will get his chance. Beyond that, there are other scenarios, too, some of them being conjured up by restless Tech observers who like to envision Kingsbury getting an early call if the offense happens to stall under Peters.

It's pure speculation, though. With 15 days left before the season-opening road game against 25th-ranked Arizona State, Peters isn't going to worry about it.

The biggest key for him, he said, is his new approach.

Consider the context of his last 12 months. The story goes like this: On his first play of the season last year during the season-opening game against Texas-El Paso, Peters broke his thumb. Eight plays later, he sprained his shoulder.

''I'd say he didn't get off to a good start last year,'' head coach Spike Dykes said. ''I had forgotten what a good quarterback Rob Peters is. It's a lot easier to play quarterback when you're thumb isn't broken. That makes it pretty tough to throw a football. Break your thumb and try to do it. By gosh, it's hard to do.''

It was so hard to do, in fact, that Peters found himself struggling with it at times throughout the season. He missed the next two games and spent most of the rest of the year splitting time with then-senior quarterback Matt Tittle. Despite his discomfort, Peters played in nine games and completed 96 of his 183 passes for 1,269 yards, nine touchdowns and four interceptions.

Just a few months later, he underwent surgery on his thumb and missed all of spring practice while Kingsbury learned the offense as the first-team spring quarterback.

That experience a rare, golden opportunity for a Big 12 Conference freshman quarterback gave Kingsbury the time he needed to bring himself up to speed with the mental part of the college game.

''I had know idea what was going on when I was a true freshman,'' said Kingsbury, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound passer from New Braunfels. ''I had no grasp of the offense, but I've adjusted more to the speed of the game. Now Rob's our starter, and I just want to be in position. If the time comes for me, I just want to be able to get the job done.''

If the time comes for him, his players and coaches have already seen enough of him to know that the offense will rest in talented hands despite his inexperience. Not only does Rick Dykes give him a solid vote of confidence, but his teammates give him one, too.

If nothing else, his background gives him at least a small foundation of credibility. As a senior in high school in 1997, Kingsbury led his team to six come-from-behind victories and a 13-2 record. In the summer of 1998, he was named the offensive most valuable player of the Texas High School Coaches All-Star game in Houston.

''I'm impressed with his work ethic the most,'' said Dee Jackson, Tech's junior flanker. ''He's probably the first person to get out here. He's the very last to leave. He always wants to throw. He always wants to work hard. He's one of those kids that if you're parents raised him, they'd say, 'Why can't you be more like him?' He does good in the classroom and everything. The kid can throw. He made me a believer.''

If Peters has his way, however, Kingsbury's time to shine won't come for at least 12 more months. The hardest part of the post-surgery process, he said, was that he couldn't increase his strength in the meantime. He couldn't lift weights until May, and the effects of that left him pushing himself toward one of the biggest years of his life in the fall.

There are two components: football and academics. Along with a senior season he hopes to ride to a shot with a professional team, Peters is scheduled to earn his master's degree in accounting in May. He is operating under a 150-hour business plan that will give him both his undergraduate and graduate degrees when he graduates.

''I have one year left, and I just want to have fun,'' said Peters, a 6-foot-3, 229-pound team captain from Katy. ''Last year, at times, it got to be pretty dreary. We lost a few games in a row, and I was kind of beat up a little bit. This year, I'm looking to have a good time, relax, play well and do something special.''

Whether that translates into a chance at the pros doesn't keep him up at night, though. If he gets a chance, ''great,'' he said. Otherwise, he'll pursue a career in the business world.

ESPN NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper, Jr., ranks Peters as the 30th-best senior college quarterback prospect in the nation and the third-best quarterback prospect in the Big 12 behind Texas A&M's Randy McCown (No.21) and Colorado's Mike Moschetti (No. 27).

''He gets the job done,'' Kiper told the Avalanche-Journal. ''In terms of the National Football League, his situation is going to be more difficult He's carrying a free-agent grade going in. But when you look at his skill level and the job he's done, it speaks volumes for what type of college quarterback he is.''