Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Parker hopes to take game up notch — to NFL

Utah senior cornerback Arnold Parker this week was recalling something an old classmate had written in his Cimarron High School yearbook his senior year.

"He wrote, 'Who's going to get to the league first?' " Parker said with a chuckle. "I guess he beat me."

Yes, that old chum -- Marcus Banks -- has moved on to the Boston Celtics after starring for UNLV and getting picked in the lottery in last June's NBA Draft.

Meanwhile, Parker, the 1998 Nevada state player of the year after leading the Spartans to the state 4-A football title, makes what should be his final college appearance at Sam Boyd Stadium on Saturday afternoon when the Utes (5-1, 2-0) face the Rebels (4-2, 0-1) in a very important Mountain West Conference matchup for both teams.

Parker, a 6-foot-2, 210-pounder, will start at cornerback for the Utes and has hopes of taking his 4.36 in the 40 and 34-inch vertical jump to another league, the NFL, next year.

"I'm so happy for Marcus," Parker said. "We've known each other for a long time. We went to school in the second grade together and have been friends ever since. He beat me (to professional ball). That's okay as long I make it, too."

With his size and speed it would seem Parker, who has started for four seasons for the Utes, would definitely garner the interest of NFL scouts, especially if he can continue coming up with some of the big plays he's made for Utah so far in 2003.

In fact, Parker made arguably the biggest play of the Mountain West Conference season so far when he ran back a fumble by Colorado State running back Marcus Houston a school-record 80 yards for the game-winning touchdown in Utah's 28-21 upset of the Rams in Fort Collins three weeks ago.

For Parker, who starred as both a running back and linebacker on Cimarron's back-to-back state championship teams in 1997 and 1998, it was his first college touchdown.

"I finally got one," Parker said. "I was really in the right place at the right time."

"(Utah safety) Dave (Revill) made a great hit and the ball just popped up in the air," Parker said. "I came off my receiver, saw the ball in the air, grabbed it and just started running up the sideline. No one was going to catch me."

Parker, who has been timed at 10.6 in the meters, scored easily and Utah went on to post the stunning victory.

Six days later Parker played another key role in Utah's 17-13 upset of No. 19 Oregon, helping keep the Ducks' talented wide receiver Samie Parker out of the end zone and to just four receptions. Samie Parker, a former prep teammate of UNLV running back Larry Croom and linebacker Reggie Butler at prep powerhouse Long Beach (Calif.) Poly High School, may be the fastest wide receiver in college football with an electronically timed 10.18 for 100 meters.

"It's always fun beating a Pac-10 team because they don't give the Mountain West Conference a lot of credit," Parker said.

Utah followed that win up Saturdaywith a 27-6 victory against San Diego State in Salt Lake City, limiting the normally potent Aztecs offense to just two first half field goals. In fact, the Ute secondary hasn't allowed a touchdown pass in more than 10 quarters entering Saturday's game against UNLV.

"I'm pretty comfortable playing cornerback now," Parker, who struggled at times his junior year there after moving from safety, said. "I'm just having fun. Our whole team is just trying to have fun. It's not as stressful here as it's been in the past. We're keeping things more positive. Our new coach, Urban Meyer, has brought along a more positive attitude here."

Parker said the Utes also are better prepared than they've been in the past.

"I think everyone takes the game more serious now," he said. "I think at times last year we got kind of lazy. But Coach Meyer gets on us to keep going. He keeps telling us not to be satisfied with what we've done and where we are and to continue to work hard to keep getting better."

Parker is expected to graduate in December with a degree in sociology.

As Parker finished his interview he had one last request for the reporter.

"Please tell all the people in Las Vegas and all the Cimarron people, guys like Coach (Ron) Smeltzer and Coach (Greg) Spencer, thanks for me," he said. "Please tell them thanks for all the help and support they've given me. I really appreciate it. And hopefully I'll get to see everybody Saturday."

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