Sports

Colleges

Down-to-earth Booker set to blast off

FSU back turns heads on campus, hopes to do same around the nation tonight.

By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published September 4, 2006

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For a recent casual dinner out, he wore a plain, gray, sleeveless T-shirt and garnet shorts, a blend-in-with-the-crowd attire for the everyman in Tallahassee.

Not that he had hoped to be inconspicuous. Not that it would ever happen anyway.

For as soon as he came through the doors of Los Compadres, a Mexican restaurant near the Florida State campus, you couldn't help but notice the turning heads, the darting eyes and the heightening whispers.

Lorenzo Booker just doesn't blend in.

"You know if somebody's watching; it's so easy," said the Seminoles' senior tailback, offensive captain and easily most recognizable player. "You catch people out of your peripheral all the time, and you can hear them talking: 'That's Booker. That's him.'

"It's flattering. It's definitely flattering. They make me feel like I've won the Heisman Trophy. I think I'm a great player, that I'm capable of anything, but I have not done that."

Booker, you see, has the looks and magnetism of a Hollywood star with none of the aloofness.

In October, ESPN the Magazine picked Booker as its lone collegiate athlete for its "Hot+Cool" list. He was tabbed as "Cool" but could easily have been either.

FSU linebacker Buster Davis said his teammate is "smooth and laid-back, like the Bill Clinton that (first) came into office."

FSU quarterback Drew Weatherford tells of Booker's good humor, affability and sincere concern for his friends and even acquaintances.

"How are you, Book?" comes the greeting from an employee at the cash register, as if Norm had just strolled into Cheers.

"I'm cool," Booker chirps.

His friend and teammate, Eric James, a walk-on running back, smiles and shakes his head as if he has seen that scene play out for the umpteenth time in countless settings. He has.

Booker can't go shopping with his girlfriend and not be spotted, even if it's at a Bed, Bath & Beyond, which isn't exactly his usual stomping grounds.

"I was like, 'Man, are you serious?' " he said, laughing.

He can't go to a club during the season and hope to maneuver across the room without posing for a few pictures. "My friends understand. It's, 'Meet me over there (later),' " he said.

As the platter with his two chicken burritos, rice and refried beans is served, another waiter hits him with the question even someone as quick and elusive as Booker can't escape:

"Are you going to beat Miami?" he asks, referring to tonight's season opener that was still, on this night, more than a month away.

Welcome to Booker's world.

* * *

Booker grew up with microphones and cameras zeroed in on him. Hailed as one of the top, if not the top, prospect in the nation in 2002 coming out St. Bonaventure in southern California, he helped pioneer the trend of players announcing their college choices on national signing day on ESPN.

"But he's so humble about things," said his mother, Sharon Hill, who essentially raised Booker and his two older siblings as a single parent. "That's what I love. Once he gets on the football field, it's a different story, which it has to be, but once he's off it, he's just a genuine person, and he doesn't have a big ego."

"Our family is really athletic," added his cousin, Curtis Richardson, a former receiver at Idaho who has been a father figure to Booker. "Everybody is trying to outdo the other and support each other. It keeps you level-headed."

FSU coach Bobby Bowden recognized that in Booker almost immediately. Despite his accolades and abilities, Booker came to him in preseason and asked if he could sit out as a redshirt.

"Not many backs, not many players, these days say that," Bowden said. "They all think they're ready. But he's very mature, and I think he knows what he wants in life. He has his eye set on it, and he goes after it. He doesn't worry about that trivial stuff."

Perhaps that's why he handles celebrity with such aplomb.

He doesn't hide in his house to avoid crowds. He doesn't don shades when he's out.

He rarely, if ever, resorts to pulling out his cell phone and pretending to be engrossed in conversation to discourage fans from approaching.

"Lorenzo's comfortable in who he is and knows it's important to treat everybody with respect," Richardson said.

So, Booker shakes hands, poses for pictures, signs autographs and answers questions, especially from children. And he tries always to do it all with a smile.

"Just by taking two or three minutes out of your time, you can brighten somebody's whole day or maybe whole week," he said.

* * *

Booker, 22, contemplated bolting early for the NFL in January.

Although he had a healthy 4.6 yards an attempt (and finished with a team-high 552 yards, with 329 receiving yards), he had only about nine carries and game.

FSU averaged 94 yards rushing, 109th nationally out of 117 Division I-A schools.

Booker believes if he and starter Leon Washington had had more of opportunities to make a difference, the team's 8-5 record might have been different.

So he talked to Bowden about his frustrations and concerns.

Bowden assured him he too wanted to run the ball more effectively in 2006, making Booker's decision to stay an easy one.

"I came here for a reason," Booker said, "and I haven't done the things I wanted to do."

He has laminated a card with the number 1,242 - the FSU single-season rushing record set by Warrick Dunn in 1995 - and keeps it positioned next to his bed. He can't get in or out without seeing it.

"I'm sure that's going to get broken pretty soon," Dunn said. "I like Lorenzo. He's going to be all right."

Booker, who enters the season as the solid starter for the first time, is confident that reaching his individual goal would mean the team has a better shot at its goal of a national title or at least reaching that game for the first time since the 2000 season.

"I have an extra year to make people remember me forever, not only from an individual standpoint but to put another national championship banner up and to graduate," said Booker, who needs just one course this semester to finish his degree requirements in English and creative writing. (His mother, who has a fear of flying, plans to make her most cross-country trips this season, including for the December graduation ceremonies.) "Ever since I was 5 years old, I sat in front of the TV and told my family what I was going to do. I want to make good on my promises. I'm big on that."

That's how you become more than just another face in the crowd.

Welcome to Booker's world.

 LORENZO BOOKER

AGE: 22

HT./WT.: 5-11; 195 pounds

POSITION: Tailback

CLASS: Redshirt senior

HOMETOWN: Port Hueneme, Calif.

Booker's year-by-year statistics

Season Rushes Yds. Avg. TDs Rec. Yds. Avg. TDs

2002 Redshirt

2003 62 334 5.3 3 19 86 4.5 0

2004 173 887 5.1 4 24 160 6.7 0

2005 119 552 4.9 4 38 329 7.4 2

Totals 354 1,773 5.0 11 81 575 7.1 2

No. 11 Florida State at No. 12 Miami

When/Where: 8 tonight; Orange Bowl, Miami

TV/Radio: ESPN, ESPN2; 1470-AM

Weather: 79 degrees, scattered thunderstorms

Line: Miami by 3¹/₂

[Last modified September 4, 2006, 05:28:33]