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Traber
back to
irascible
ways
E
DMOND — Not long
after Jim Traber under-
went a four-hour brain
surgery on May 29, he
was starving.
“I hadn’t eaten in five days,”
he recalls. His wife, Julie,
responded with a sausage, egg
and cheese
biscuit.
Metro Christian quarterback Asher Link, a passing and rushing threat, rolls out of the pocket during spring practice in May. STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World
Traber
devoured it. A
healthy appetite
was a positive
sign.
2019 Another
ALL-WORLD QUARTERBACKS sign that the
PRESEASON FOOTBALL CONTEST Bill occasionally
Haisten irascible Traber
Sports is on the road
columnist to recovery and
normalcy: He
LINK TO
bill.haisten
@tulsaworld.com ended a recent
exchange with
an Oklahoma
City Sports Animal caller by
calling the guy a “fool” and a
“stupid sissy.”
Traber’s most famous insult
QB LEGACY
of callers is to refer to them as
“yardbirds.”
Now, even as he has a fresh,
6-inch scar on the back of his
D
uring the past decade, Metro Christian 107 carries for 605 yards and jected 2019 performance and
quarterbacks have consistently pro- 12 TDs — he had a rushing TD college potential.
duced prolific passing numbers. in each of the last six games. Last year, Link’s signature
“He’s probably the most moment came in the second
In 2018, Asher Link became the fifth physically gifted QB I’ve ever round of the playoffs at third-
Metro passer in 10 years to throw for coached and we’ve had some ranked Jones. Link passed for
more than 3,000 yards in a season — great quarterbacks,” Metro 428 yards and four TDs, and
following Beau Marsaln, 2011 World coach Jared McCoy said. “He’s he capped the winning drive
metro player of the year Andrew our fastest time in the 100 with an 8-yard TD run with
and 200. 22 seconds left to give the Pa- Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young
Hearon (twice), Abe Anderson and “And he’s durable. He triots a 49-45 victory. coaches a participant during his youth
Dylan Bierman. would prefer to throw it, but “He’s done a really good basketball camp in Oklahoma City on
Link, who is 6-foot-1 and 197 with (2018 rushing leader) job of knowing when to tuck Saturday. NATE BILLINGS/The Oklahoman
Ryan (Johnson) being gone, it and run when it’s not a
pounds, completed 236-of-364 passes for 3,477 yards he’ll probably assume more designed play,” McCoy said.
and 33 touchdowns. His stats down the stretch were
especially impressive as he led the Patriots to the Class
2A semifinals. In his final five games, he connected on
of that workload, too.”
Link, who has been offered
by Air Force, is No. 2 in the
“He’s a throw-first type of kid,
but I don’t know if we win the
Jones game if he doesn’t run
Young
122-of-180 passes for 1,851 yards and 15 TDs with only
two interceptions.
All-World preseason football
quarterback rankings, behind
Sapulpa’s Eli Williams, a TCU
it. He runs in untouched and