In Depth | Adam Sparks Prepares to Face Familiar Foe on Family Weekend at Mizzou
9/13/2017 11:23:00 AM | Football
Adam's older brother, Jared, is a RS freshman QB for the Boilermakers
COLUMBIA, Mo. – When Mizzou charges onto Faurot Field Saturday afternoon, you may be able to hear some extra cheering from a certain section of the stadium, decked out in various shades of black and gold. That is because, when Mizzou faces Purdue for the annual family weekend game, the Sparks family will be cheering for a couple of players, Mizzou freshman DB Adam Sparks and his older brother, Purdue redshirt freshman QB Jared Sparks.
For Adam, playing against his older brother in a nationally televised football game is sure to be an emotional experience. But the freshman knows the most important task facing him isn't stopping his brother, but defeating Purdue and helping Mizzou earn another win.
#Mizzou's Adam Sparks Prepares to Face Familiar Foe Saturday. His brother is a QB for Purdue. ??
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) September 15, 2017
?? https://t.co/m03POPaTjO#MIZ #ShowMe ???? pic.twitter.com/uKcxysjFZB
"It's going to be fun, but we're going to treat it like any other game," Sparks said. "We'll go 100 percent. We aren't going to allow another person to change the way we play or prepare. He's my brother, but it's just another team. At the end of the day it's going to be the same game, and we're going to ball."
While team success is Adam's highest priority, he does admit that going up against his brother will be a new and exciting opportunity.
"We were on different sides of the ball all the way through high school," Sparks said. "But we always played on the same team. Since I've played sports we've always been on the same team. I see this as a great accomplishment though, because we all worked every day together to get to this point."
Regardless of the situation, Sparks is confident that as soon as the game starts up, his practice habits will kick in and it will feel like any another game. But, until then, the idea of playing against one of his role models will be more than enough to get him excited.
"In life, and in football, I've looked up to him since I was younger," Sparks said. "If it wasn't for him I probably would have made more mistakes than I have, in my life. I really appreciate him. He was the first person I talked to when I realized I was going to be able to go to college for sports. I really based my freshman year off of what he did and I think it'll be the same thing through my sophomore year and all the way until I graduate."
Adam fully expects to go up against his brother in a game situation, and so does the rest of his family. The Sparks have rented a charter bus and will be bringing as many family members as possible to this game to watch Adam and Jared play out their childhood dreams together on the same field. They are expecting more than 20 family members to be at Memorial Stadium.
"I'm really excited to see my family," Sparks said. "I haven't in a while, so it's going to be really exciting. And they're loud, so that's going to be an awesome feeling. They're not going to pick a side. They got a shirt made with both teams on it. It's crazy. With both of us going Division one, and playing in power five conferences; they're all happy. They're all on cloud nine, especially coming to this game."
This has been a game the Sparks family has had circled on the calendar for quite some time. In fact, Adam said that the trash talk between him and his brother started as soon as Adam committed to Mizzou. And while playing on the same team as his brother would be special, Adam sees this weekend as a celebration of the fact that both he and Jared were able to play high quality college football at a couple of world class institutions.
"Purdue was one of my last offers. But I had still, already fallen in love at Mizzou, I felt like this was more home for me. [Playing with Jared] would have been just as amazing. Me and my brother have always pictured playing together. We just ended up in two different places that we both love, so that's still a plus."
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