After George Clinkscale passed away Sept. 21, Curnelius Arnick approached Clinkscale’s fiancee with an idea.

He wanted to honor his friend and former teammate at Tulsa by wearing his No. 8 jersey.

Arnick received her blessing and took the field for Tulsa against North Texas on Oct. 1 — the day of Clinkscale’s funeral — donning his fallen teammate’s number. Arnick could not put into words what it felt like running onto the field for that game. He simply wanted to give Clinkscale, a former linebacker, the chance to be on the field one last time.

‘For the rest of the season I’m trying to dedicate the season to him,’ Arnick said. ‘Just play how I know he would want me to play and just make him proud.’

The gesture for Clinkscale — who died at age 24 after participating in an unsanctioned boxing match — proved that Arnick has not only grown as a player in his senior season at Tulsa, but he has also grown even more as a person. Arnick has stepped up on and off the field to honor his friend.

In a year marred by a change in defensive scheme under a new coaching staff and the death of his former teammate, Arnick has stayed strong and provided a sense of unity in the Golden Hurricanes locker room.

Through it all, he has transformed into one of the nation’s most dynamic defensive playmakers under first-year defensive coordinator Brent Guy. With 74 tackles through six games, Arnick is fifth in the nation in tackles per game. The linebacker is also pushing to break Tulsa’s single-season record of 165 set by Chris Chamberlain in 2007.

Coming from a large public high school in Dallas, Arnick had to adjust to the culture of private college like Tulsa.

‘He’s grown a lot as a person,’ Guy said. ‘He’s a world changed from where he grew up, what he knew, to where he came to a private school, just culturally. Guys respect him for seeing what he’s gone through and the changes that he’s made.’

For Arnick’s transformation to take place he had to adapt to a new coaching philosophy. Seven out of the 10 coaches on the Tulsa staff, including Guy, are in their first season with the team.

Arnick had to find his niche in Guy’s new 4-3 defensive scheme. Arnick was inserted at the Mike linebacker position, and he has flourished as the quarterback of the defense. Guy said Arnick’s nose for the football and ability to dissect the defense rapidly makes him an effective leader of the defense.

His play is very similar to the way Clinkscale played during his time at Tulsa.

‘He was always going to be there,’ Arnick said. ‘He was going to make the play, and if he wasn’t making the play, he was doing what he needed to do to help his teammates or his fellow defensive players. He always supplied the team with a spark and a passion.’

Arnick was one of the few members on the team that got the chance to play side by side with Clinkscale for two seasons before the former linebacker graduated in 2009.

Arnick and the upperclassmen on the team were the deeply affected by Clinkscale’s passing. But many of the freshmen and sophomores did not know who he was, and following Clinkscale’s death, the Golden Hurricanes seemed to be divided by varying levels of heartache.

But Arnick took it upon himself to rally his teammates to honor a member of the Golden Hurricanes family. He spoke with the team’s captains and each player donated their per diem, or cash allowance, for one week — a total of $1,800 — to Clinkscale’s fiancee.

For junior defensive end Cory Dorris, that gesture brought the team closer together. The younger players may have seen Clinkscale on the sidelines as a spectator, but many of them didn’t know what he meant to the program until they saw the older players’ reactions following his death.

‘Even though it’s not something they can relate to because they didn’t know him,’ Dorris said, ‘it’s something they can see us and see our heartache, and with that they can respect that, and they can come together with us.’

The loss of Clinkscale shows how quickly life can take a sharp turn. For Arnick, the memory of Clinkscale will serve as inspiration for the rest of the season. And for the team, his death is a constant reminder of what it means to play for Tulsa.

‘I think for them it’s a real reality check,’ Guy said. ‘And for the opportunity when you’re out here sweating and it’s hard, it’s tough, and you want to think about doing other things, you think about, ‘Hey, George didn’t have much time on earth, I better make the best of it.”

adtredin@syr.edu

Published on October 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm