Darling Of The WSU Defense Junior From Kettle Falls Ready To Take His Place Among Cougar Greats

“Pack your bags and go home, then. I’m the coach, I want you to play and I don’t want you to question my decision. I’ll see you later.”

James Darling vividly recalls the cold ultimatum barked his way by Mike Zimmer back in late August of 1993.

Darling was an 18-year-old freshman at the time, freshly removed from the small-town security of Kettle Falls and thrust into the intimidating world of big-time college football at Washington State University.

He remembers the confusion, the self-doubt, the fear.

He remembers having lined up against Jared Hayes and the Deer Park Stags less than 10 months earlier and wondering if he could possibly be ready to face Tyrone Wheatley and the Michigan Wolverines in front of 105,000 fans at Michigan Stadium.

He remembers thinking he wasn’t. He remembers wanting to use his redshirt season, instead.

And he remembers abruptly changing his mind after Zimmer, who was then WSU’s defensive coordinator, told him to either strap up his chin strap or strap his belongings on the roof of his car and motor back to Kettle Falls.

“I said, ‘I guess I’m playing,”’ Darling recalled earlier this week. “And it was awesome!”

Darling, a naive, fuzzy-cheeked 195-pounder at the time, was used almost exclusively on special teams against the Wolverines. He never met up with Wheatley, the Wolverines’ 22-year-old All-American and Heisman Trophy candidate.

He didn’t even make a tackle in WSU’s 41-14 loss.

But he proved to himself that he belonged.

And two years later, as the Cougars prepare for Saturday night’s season opener at Pittsburgh, Darling is poised to become WSU’s next great middle linebacker.

Unless either Chris Hayes or Johnny Nansen gets injured, in which case Darling would move to the outside and become WSU’s next great weak-side or strong-side linebacker.

“I just hope we’re not messing him up,” said Bill Doba, who replaced Zimmer as defensive coordinator two years ago. “

The 6-foot-1, 245-pound junior, who spent last season as a backup, is scheduled to start in place of Mark Fields, who was the Pacific-10 Conference defensive player of the year last fall and a first-round draft pick of the New Orleans Saints.

Fields replaced Anthony McClanahan, who replaced Rob Plummer, who replaced Dan Grayson, who replaced Tuineau Alipate. WSU’s middle linebackers, it seems, were into defense before defense was cool.

Now it is James Darling’s turn, and James Darling is ready.

“Just having played behind some of those other guys (McClanahan and Fields) has made me more confident,” Darling said. “My whole mental attitude has changed - even since last year. I know now that I can do the job, whereas last year it was, ‘Well, if I screw up, Fields or (Ron) Childs will be back in in a couple of minutes.’

“Last year I only thought I could do it and I played in fear of screwing up. This year I know I can do the job and I’m ready to start running around and doing some hitting.”

As a sophomore last fall, Darling played in all 11 regular-season games before missing the Cougars’ 10-3 Alamo Bowl win over Baylor with a knee injury. He finished the year with 20 tackles, including two for losses.

Last spring, Doba said Darling was as good or better than Fields was during the spring of 1994.

“Now we just need to see if he improves as much as Mark did between the spring and the start of the season,” Doba said.

Cougars coach Mike Price is confident Darling will.

“Darling is big like Mark Fields and understands the defense better,” Price said. “He’s not as fast, but he is better on the pass rush.”

Darling will call the defensive signals for a young, but talented, WSU defense that hopes to live up to the standards set last year by a veteran unit that finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in the nation in total defense and featured four NFL draft picks, two free-agent signees and two Canadian Football draft selections.

“Last year we had all of those big-names, but we didn’t have any experienced backups,” Darling said. “This year we have a lot more depth and a lot more people who can play. We might not have the big names, but I think, as a unit, we’re stronger from top to bottom.”

Darling remains amazed that his football career has progressed as it has.

As a high school senior, he was actively recruited by only WSU, Montana and Montana State.

“The only reason I ended up here was because I to came (WSU’s) summer camps just to be seen,” Darling said. “That was the smartest thing I ever did. If I hadn’t have done that, I would probably be a free safety or running back at Montana or Montana State right now.”

It hasn’t been a smooth ride to the top for Darling. Born in Denver, Colo., he’s never met his real father.

“He just kind of abandoned my mom and I,” Darling recalled, “so we moved in with my grandma in Denver.”

Darling said he has never even seen a photograph of his father and has no desire to meet him.

“I’d like, maybe, to see his other kids and see how they turned out,” he said. “But I have no desire to meet him, just because of what he did to us.”

Darling’s mother, Molly, eventually moved back to the Kettle Falls area and remarried. But she was divorced again when Darling was in the 10th grade and moved to Newport.

Darling stayed with his grandmother to finish out his final two years of high school at Kettle Falls, where he was a three-time all-Northeast A League selection in football and a standout in baseball and basketball.

Darling said playing for a Class A school might have hurt his chances of being recruited by some of the college football’s elite universities. But he wouldn’t swap the experience for anything.

“It was great,” Darling said of growing up in a small town. “I was the only black person in town and people just kind of took to me. The whole town was pretty much my friend, because for a long time there it was just me and my grandma.”

Since coming to WSU, Darling has had no problem fitting in with his teammates - even the big-city California recruits from Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

“I’m kind of surprised it worked out this way,” he admitted. “I’m really still in awe of the whole thing. I really didn’t think I’d be given a fair chance coming from where I came from, but I did and I’m happy about it.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo