A Fair Shot Hometown hero Kenton Evans will attempt to resurrect his football career at TSU. by Dennis Freeland t ended exactly the way some had predicted. But with a lot less impact. Kenton Evans, the quarterback who some hoped would save the University of Memphis football program, announced last week that he will transfer to Division I-A Tennessee State. Evans, the record-setting high-school quarterback, thus follows the path of another U of M quarterback from Westwood, Darryl Williams. When Evans was being recruited, there were those who told him not to sign with Memphis. Look what happened to Darryl, they said. Williams languished on the Tiger bench before transferring to TSU. His long shadow almost kept Memphis head coach Rip Scherer from signing Evans. Scherer had to convince Kenton, his mother Johnnie Evans, and his high-school coach John Ware that what happened to Williams would not be repeated. Williams had played for Scherer's predecessor at the U of M, Chuck Stobart. Evans' announcement didn't surprise anyone. After starting six games last year, Evans had dropped to third on the depth chart by the end of the season. In an unusual move, he received permission from Scherer to miss spring practice. Close observers of the Tiger football program knew then that Evans would not be back. Will the Kenton Evans story be used against Tiger football coaches the next time they try to recruit a high-profile black quarterback from Memphis? Probably. But for a school which seemingly has to circumvent dozens of obstacles on the road to college-football success, an inability to recruit black quarterbacks from Memphis is probably not a major factor. And besides, no one can claim that Scherer did not give Evans ample opportunity to play quarterback at the University of Memphis. If anything, Scherer probably went too far with Evans, who frankly never had the full support of his teammates. In 1997, when Evans was a redshirt freshman competing with Bernard Oden and Stephen Galbraith to replace Qadry Anderson, he sat out several practices with a sore elbow. At one scrimmage during the pre-season training camp, I stood next to Evans on the sidelines. At one point a burly senior lineman walked by us. He shouted an obscenity at Evans, then said, "Is that Band-Aid on your arm the reason you aren't practicing today?" Among football players nothing counts more than toughness. That same summer I interviewed Oden, who would ultimately win the starting job and break the school record for single-season passing. Oden scoffed at the idea that Evans could beat him out for the QB job. "He says his arm hurts!" Oden said disdainfully. "Hell, my arm hurts. Stephen's arm hurts. If you're going to play quarterback, your arm is going to hurt. Kenton was never going to beat me out." Oden was not eloquent. He didn't make fiery speeches in the locker room. But he was tough. When he took a lick on the field, he got back up. His teammates saw that and respected him for it. They never saw the same toughness in Evans, and, frankly, that cost him the kind of support a quarterback has to have. And that made it difficult for Scherer to play Evans. But the coach knew the political ramifications and desperately wanted Evans to succeed. In Scherer's dreams, Evans and his Westwood teammate Damien Dodson formed the greatest passing combo in Tiger history, igniting the local fan base in the process. Unfortunately, those dreams never advanced beyond Scherer's bedroom. Even though some Tiger coaches were predicting (correctly but not for attribution) that Neil Suber would ultimately be the Tigers' quarterback, Scherer started Evans at Ole Miss in the first game of the 1998 season. He completed 24 of 39 passes against the Rebs, mostly in the short passing game. For the season, Evans threw for 877 yards while completing 45 percent of his passes. He completed two touchdown passes but gave up six interceptions. The Tigers were 1-5 in games Evans started. By all accounts Kenton Evans is an upstanding young man. He played at the University of Memphis during bleak times -- the line was suspect and most of his receivers lacked speed. As the highly touted quarterback, Evans was always in the spotlight. The fact that he is an African American from a Memphis high school made his task that much harder. But I think it is important that the full story be told. Evans did not fail at the University of Memphis because he was not given a fair shot. When the Tigers open the season September 4th against Ole Miss, Evans will not be there. The reason is simple: He never gained the full support of his team and he didn't get the job done on the playing field. That's the bottom line. WHAT NEXT FOR PENNY? It's no secret that U of M basketball players have not fared well in the National Basketball Association. Keith Lee's knees gave out. William Bedford couldn't keep his head straight. Vincent Askew bounced around the league from team to team, with an occasional drop to the CBA. But Hardaway was supposed to be different. Penny was a can't-miss prospect -- "the next Michael Jordan." The Orlando Magic used the first pick of the 1993 NBA draft to select Michigan's Chris Webber, whom they promptly traded to Golden State for Hardaway (the Warriors had selected Penny with the third choice) and future draft picks. The combination of Shaquille O'Neal and Hardaway made the Magic instant contenders for the NBA championship. But since Shaq left Orlando for L.A. a couple of years ago, Hardaway has suffered. Knee operations kept him out of action for much of the previous two years. Labor problems curtailed this season, but Hardaway stayed healthy and produced decent (if less than Jordanesque) numbers. He averaged 15.8 points, the lowest output in his professional career, but still best on the Magic team. He led Orlando in minutes played and finished second in rebounding, averaging 5.7 per game (a career high). But the playoffs were a bitter pill. Allan Iverson and his Philadelphia teammates crushed the Magic three games to one. Hardaway's shooting, never a strong suit, took a tailspin (he shot only 35 percent in the series). After game three, Hardaway insisted that he needed to take more shots. So in the decisive fourth game, he shot 17 times. He made only three. Orlando is a small market, not much bigger than Memphis, and NBA players do not feel the media intensity in Orlando that they do in bigger markets like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. But Hardaway still complains about the way "they" treat him. After the Philadelphia series ended, the Orlando Sentinel's Larry Guest wrote a column under the headline "All Points Alert: Where Was Penny?" Here is part of Guest's take on Penny in game four: "As I understand it, the State Department officially declared him an M.I.A. and Magic brass put out an all-points bulletin. Team officials were fearful their leading superstar might have wandered off in search of a Philly cheese steak and fell into the dangerous clutches of some of Allen Iverson's neighborhood toughs. They frantically asked passersby: 'Did you see a tall, thin young man with doe eyes and a hang-dog look?' They posted his photo on milk cartons." Tough, yes, but also fair. "In truth, even in top form, Hardaway probably couldn't have saved the Magic against a Sixers team that was simply too young, too talented, too hungry," Guest added. The next day Hardaway announced that he might leave the Magic. "They don't want me here, and it feels like I don't want to be here," Hardaway told the Orlando daily. The former Tiger star is eligible to declare himself a free agent. He is reportedly seeking an $85 million, multi-year contract. Penny will get his money. He might even end up on a team capable of competing for an NBA title. But Hardaway still has something to prove. He has developed a reputation around the league for being a whiner. On an NBA post-game show on TNT Monday night, Kenny Smith and Charles Oakley, both NBA veterans not prone to criticizing fellow players, said, in essence, that it's time for Penny to put up or shut up. Hardaway has never won a championship ring. Not at Treadwell, not at Memphis, not in Orlando. He's a good ballplayer and he makes a lot of money. But Smith and Oakley are correct. Penny needs to grow up. REDBIRDS RISING I was among the 3,659 who watched the Redbirds play Sunday at Tim McCarver Stadium. The nice crowd was treated to Mark McGwire T-shirts (courtesy of Concord EFS, a local bank) and some excellent baseball (courtesy of the first-place Redbirds). The work the Redbirds have done in courting fans to the old Fairgrounds ballpark seems to be paying off. It was a noisy, joyous crowd on Sunday. Meanwhile, AutoZone Park is starting to take shape. In a few weeks passersby will be able to see the outline of the stadium. Despite what they may think in Nashville, Memphis got a great deal in the trade of the Chicks/Diamond Jaxx for the Redbirds. Pressbox talk Sunday centered on pitching phenom Rick Ankiel, the 19-year-old wonder boy currently dominating the Texas League at Little Rock. Both Redbirds president Allie Prescott and broadcaster Tom Stocker think Ankiel will soon be in Memphis. They believe the Cardinals' experience with Cliff Politte last year will make the parent club think twice about rushing Ankiel to the big leagues. (Politte started in St. Louis, then dropped to Memphis before settling in Little Rock. "They completely messed his head up," says one Redbirds insider.) Ankiel, like J.D. Drew last season, should help the Redbirds at the gate (although as a starting pitcher, he will not have as big an impact as Drew did).