Parker has found his niche in NFL

PITTSBURGH -- Where'd all of this come from? All of a sudden, Willie Parker is a rising star in the NFL, the starting running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the league's second-leading rusher after the first two weeks of the season.

Yes, that Willie Parker. The same player who could barely get on the field for North Carolina, the same guy who rushed for just 1,172 yards during a UNC career that ended in 2003.

So how come the flashy runner who has blazed through the NFL for 272 rushing yards this season wasn't a star at Carolina?

"You've got to be more than fast," said UNC coach John Bunting, who played linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles after starring at Carolina and later served as an assistant coach for several years in the league.

According to Bunting, Parker was the wrong fit for the Tar Heels at the wrong time.

Kansas City Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil "called me on the phone and asked, 'Didn't that guy play for you?' " Bunting said. "I said, 'Yes,' but he didn't play as much as he could have if the situation had been different. If you think back to where we were in 2002-2003, we had the worst defense in the country and we needed a running back who could catch, block and run all the routes.

"We're extremely proud [of Parker]. And I hope that we had a small piece of giving him some incentive or motivation of what's it's going to be like on that level."

But Parker said he didn't play much because of a personality conflict with Bunting and the coaching staff, leading several Steelers veterans to strongly question Bunting's ability to evaluate talent.

Parker, 5 feet 10 and 209 pounds, said playing so little inspired him once he reached the Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 2004.

"What changed? I'm the same guy I was in college. It was always there. Always," Parker said. "I don't want to just sit here and bang on him [Bunting], but dude and me just didn't see eye to eye."

Parker's father, Willie Sr., said his son "got a raw deal" but added, "I can't blame anyone. It could have been his fault -- I don't know. But we knew if he just got a chance, he would succeed. It just took him to get to the NFL to get a chance. That's saying something."

Some of Parker's current teammates in Pittsburgh are pretty sure who was to blame.

"Tell [UNC athletics director Dick Baddour] to fire that coach," linebacker Larry Foote said. "He needs to be ashamed of himself. He doesn't know what he missed. He could could have created an all-time ACC leading rusher. They could have won national championships -- or at least the ACC -- with [Parker] running the ball.

"They need to really evaluate [Bunting] and take a good look at what he's doing to that program. It's obvious that he hurt [UNC] by sitting that boy on the bench. He doesn't know talent and eventually, that's got to show up in recruiting."

Pittsburgh running backs Jerome Bettis and Duce Staley said they could see Parker's potential when he joined the team.

"When I first saw him, I would have never thought he didn't play much in college," Bettis said. "He could run, catch, block -- all that. He needed coaching on this level to be an NFL player, but he had all of that when I first saw him."

Bunting said he's pleased Parker has succeeded.

"This guy is a great kid and he's worked extremely hard to live out his dream," Bunting said. "I think that there are things that he lacked that he has [now] because he's worked so doggone hard."

But Steelers assistant head coach Russ Grim said Parker didn't have that much to work on when he arrived with the Steelers.

"I didn't even know who Willie Parker was," Grimm said of when he first saw the running back in 2004. "But I don't think they played him enough to call him one-dimensional. He had a lot of tools coming in."

Parker has taken advantage of injuries to Staley (knee injury) and Bettis (calf) to become one of the major surprises of the early NFL season. Coach Bill Cowher has indicated Parker will remain the starter even when the other backs are available.

Parker, who starred at Clinton High School before going to UNC, and the Steelers take a 2-0 record into today's game with the New England Patriots, a rematch of last season's AFC title game.

While he is still disappointed with the way his UNC career turned out, Parker said if he had to do it all over again, he would be a Tar Heel.

"I mean, besides football, I met a lot of great people there. I loved my time there," Parker said. "It's just too bad for everybody that I couldn't show what I can do on the field. It all worked out.

"Now, I'm happy playing football for the first time since high school."

Source-News and Observer

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