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Senior linebacker Donald Booker’s rise to stardom at Oklahoma State came because of a season-ending injury to his friend and teammate.
Just days before arguably the most hyped season opener in Cowboy football history, OSU fans let out a collective groan when they received word that senior linebacker Orie Lemon tore his ACL in practice and would have to sit out the entire season.
In Lemon’s absence, Booker, who made a name for himself on special teams in 2008, was thrust into the starting middle linebacker spot.
He hasn’t looked back since.
Booker, who leads the team in tackles (71) and sacks (4), will be playing the final home game of his short Cowboy career on Thursday night when the Cowboys host the Colorado Buffaloes in the their last game at Boone Pickens Stadium this season.
When Booker first heard Lemon would be lost for the year because of an injury, his first concern was not how he would prepare for his newly acquired starting role.
“I thought about (Lemon) more than myself,” Booker said. “I thought it was really over with and everything, so I had to be there for him before I could be there for myself.”
This type of selflessness has not gone unnoticed by his teammates. When asked if he was stranded alone and only one teammate could be there, sophomore safety Markelle Martin answered he would want it to be Donald Booker.
“He’s one of those guys that’s gonna be really concerned about your well-being and just want to try to protect you as a brother would,” Martin said.
Before coming to the Cowboys in 2008, Booker played his first two years of college football at Navarro Junior College in Corsicana, Texas.
Ray Woodard, who is now the head coach at Lamar University, was the defensive coordinator and head coach at Navarro while Booker played there.
Woodard said Booker was the same kind of teammate and friend when he played at Navarro.
“If you want to go into battle, or you were stuck and you had to have someone to have your back, Donald’s a guy you want to have because he’s gonna give you everything he’s got,” Woodard said.
As a freshman, Booker played defensive end and led the Navarro defense with nine sacks, according to the National Junior College Athletic Association Web site. He also finished third on the team in tackles with 66.
Before his sophomore season, Woodard and his coaching staff decided to move Booker from defensive end to linebacker. The coaches were concerned about their decision at first, but moving Booker to linebacker paid huge dividends for the defense.
As a sophomore, Booker not only led the team in tackles, but he also led the NJCAA with 161 stops.
After watching Booker in his first game at linebacker, Woodard knew Booker had what it would take to be a successful player for a Division I football program.
“We questioned our intelligence right off the bat – he was our leading sacker at defensive end as a freshman,” Woodard said. “But he had so much speed and so much tenacity trying to get to the football, it just made sense to put him in the middle of the field so he can make more plays.”
Booker doesn’t have prototypical linebacker size, standing 5-foot-11 and weighing 235 pounds but dealing with larger and stronger athletes in Division I football was not the biggest adjustment Booker had to make coming from junior college.
“The biggest adjustment was the speed of the game. It’s a lot faster (in Division I),” Booker said. “In junior college, it was a lot easier for me to run around blocks and make people miss, but here, you have fast linemen and everything, and they try to get to you and cut you.
“In junior college, they’re not as fast as they are at this level.”
However, Booker did not seem to lack any speed while playing at OSU. His junior season, fans would watch on kickoffs as No. 44 in bright orange sprinted down the field as soon as the ball left the kicker’s foot.
He usually beat all of his teammates down the field and, more often than not, he would lay a punishing hit on the ball carrier. If he wasn’t making the tackle, Booker could be seen throwing his body recklessly into a host of blockers to blow up the play and allow his teammates to make the tackle.
This season, fans watch him on defense as he hustles from sideline to sideline, stopping running plays before they have a chance to get started.
On passing downs, Booker has been effective blitzing the quarterback, using his speed to disrupt the passing game. He leads the team with four sacks and has put pressure on the quarterback on numerous other occasions.
Defensive coordinator Bill Young has been pleased with Booker’s production this season but knows he still has room to improve his game.
“Donald’s really done a great job for us and really stepped up in an area we needed some help at when we lost Orie Lemon,” Young said. “I wouldn’t want to say he’s surpassed our expectations, but we’re very, very pleased with the way he’s playing and look for him to continue to play better.”
Although Booker lacked experience playing Division I football at the beginning of the season, his teammates weren’t surprised that he has become one of the star players on defense.
Senior defensive end Jermiah Price said Booker just needed to let his athletic ability take over and to play the game with energy and passion.
“I’m not surprised because I’ve known the guy for two years now and I saw him play at junior college,” Price said. “He’s a heck of an athlete. He can get out there and he can play, he can run. He can make plays that a lot of people can’t make.”
Athletic ability is only part of playing football. When Booker found out about the season-ending injury to Lemon, he knew he had to step up and become more familiar with the defensive scheme by putting in more time in the film room and studying plays.
Fourth-year starter Andre Sexton, who also plays linebacker, took notice of the extra work Booker put in to better prepare himself.
“He’s put in the extra time in film and he’s stepped up to be a more vocal leader, and that just shows how much he’s matured since he got here,” Sexton said. “You gotta commend him for that. He’s done a great job of making tackles and making big plays and sacks when we need him to.”
Luckily for Booker, learning a new defensive system is much easier when he has guys like Lemon, Sexton and four-year starter Patrick Lavine all playing linebacker with him.
Booker said he learned a lot of from the trio and he has also become good friends with them.
“It helps a lot because I always have them there to help me or correct me when I do something wrong,” Booker said. “Or if I’m going through something and I need help with anything, I can call anyone of those guys and ask them a question about it.”
Booker played high school football at Klein Forest High School in the north Houston suburb of Spring. Oddly enough, Lavine, Lemon and Sexton are all from the Houston area as well.
Booker said the group enjoys hanging out during breaks when they have free time.
Booker has a final opportunity to impress the Cowboy faithful at Boone Pickens Stadium.
He’s made many friends among his teammates and said he has enjoyed playing for OSU, and he said he wishes he could have played his whole career for the Cowboys.
“This is a great school to come play football,” Booker said. “My teammates are like my family. If I could take it back, I would try to be here all four years instead of two.”
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