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Dominique Whaley arrived at Oklahoma with little fanfare as a walk-on from an NAIA school and not a recruit with five stars in front of his name.
If he had his way, he'd prefer to keep that anonymity. That may be much harder to do these days.
Whaley led the top-ranked Sooners with 131 yards rushing and scored four touchdowns in his debut Saturday night, a 47-14 win against Tulsa.
''I don't want nobody to know who I am,'' Whaley said after his breakout performance. ''I don't want nobody coming to me or anything: `Dominique Whaley, this, Dominique Whaley.'
''No, I'm good where I'm at.''
Whaley said he even considered sneaking out instead of coming in to visit with dozens of reporters who huddled around him following the game. And he hopes he doesn't get tossed in as a Heisman Trophy candidate, because he doesn't want all the extra attention.
''I'm just a football guy. I just want to play football,'' he said. ''All the limelight and stuff like that, that doesn't really matter to me.''
Whaley never went to summer camps and slipped under the radar after playing at Lawton's MacArthur High School in southwestern Oklahoma. He ended up at Langston, a historically black college about 20 miles north of Oklahoma City, and totaled 258 yards on 58 carries during his freshman season in 2008.
He left the Lions after one season for what he calls ''personal issues'' and contacted the Sooners in spring 2009 to inquire about walking on. After not playing the last two seasons, he said he's ''just glad to finally be out there, finally get a chance.''
''(God) has a plan for all of us. Maybe his plan for me was to go to Langston and work some things out and get here,'' Whaley said. ''I just want to finish his plan out and see what he's got in store for me.''
Whaley's emergence was hardly a surprise for coach Bob Stoops or others who have seen his development on a daily basis at practice. He remembers Whaley running so wild on the Sooners' defense in practice one day last year that he had to get intravenous fluids.
Whaley called that an exaggeration.
''I did start cramping,'' he said. ''No IVs, though. I'm not getting stuck with those.''
For everyone outside of the Sooners' closed sessions, Whaley was a bit of a mystery man until he suddenly popped up at the top of the depth chart last week. Whaley shared the starter's spot with Brennan Clay, who ended up taking the first snap against Tulsa while Whaley got the most carries. Roy Finch, whose jitterbug moves made him a popular choice to be the Sooners' top rusher this season, had only five carries for 23 yards.
''I expected it from him,'' quarterback Landry Jones said. ''You see the way he runs in practice. One of the better athletes on our team - a big, strong, physical back. But it's good for someone like that to come out and play the way he did.
''He's a hard worker, comes in at practice with a good attitude every day, so you like guys like that on your team.''
Jones said no one ever counted Whaley out because he wasn't on scholarship and ''sometimes the five-stars don't work out and sometimes the zero-stars turn out to be five-stars in college.''
''He's obviously an incredible athlete, one of the better ones we've got on this team, and he kind of came out of nowhere and made a name for himself during spring ball,'' Jones said. ''It's just exciting. Every time you hand the ball off, you don't know whether he's going to run for a touchdown.''
Whaley's powerful style, highlighted by a 32-yard touchdown run through three potential tacklers, helped to beef up a rushing attack that had been unimpressive at times last season. Oklahoma finished 10th in the Big 12 with 138 yards rushing per game and 106th out of 120 Bowl Subdivision teams with 3.34 yards per carry.
Among schools in conferences with automatic bids to the BCS, only Rutgers (2.72) and Washington State (2.62) had worse averages. Whaley averaged 7.3 yards per carry, helping boost the team's average to 5.3.
''Dominique has really done a great job,'' Stoops said. ''As you can see, he's strong. He's got great vision. He was great taking care of the football.
''And compliment the guys that are also helping him. There was decent space in there, too, and that matters.''
But Stoops also said he thought too many defenders got through unblocked and that the run game ''needs to be polished up, but we're getting there.''
Whaley said he plans to forget about his impressive debut quickly and work to continue improving. He thought his offensive line blocked ''perfectly.''
''That was a big emphasis in the offseason, showing that we could dominate in the run game,'' Whaley said. ''And I really feel like they proved that.''
