WITH FRIENDS LIKE Mac Stokes, who needs you-know-whats.

That's one way to look at the move Shaquille Gaskins made last offseason, when he persuaded Stokes, a fellow basketball player for Southern High, to try out for football.

Stokes did more than say yes. He wound stealing up Gaskins' job.

"Quarterback or wide receiver. It doesn't make a difference to me. No big deal. I like them both," said Gaskins, a 6-foot, 160-pound senior. "Mac's a great athlete. I've known him since we were babies. He was always the quarterback on our [youth team] and I was always the running back.

"His deep balls are still as good as ever. He just needs to get back on track with the other things."

Somewhere down the line, folks.

Gaskins and Stokes switched positions for Week 4 and the Rams (3-0, 3-3 overall) now own the Public AAAA Blue title with one game remaining. The clincher came yesterday in impressive fashion, namely a 40-0 blowout of visiting Samuel Fels.

Gaskins, a true football athlete who is drawing preliminary interest from James Madison, played a part in four touchdowns, passing and running for two apiece.

Overall, he went 4-for-7 for 56 yards - hitting Desmond Thomas and Stokes for scores of 26 (off a deflection) and 9 yards, respectively - and carried nine times for TDs of 1 and 2 yards.

He also shivered a time or three. The weather was downright brutal, thanks to rain and wind and low temperatures. Not freezing, mind you, but much colder than anything so far this fall.

"Sitting in school, I could see the rain off and on in the morning," Gaskins said. "Then, when dismissal was coming, it was steady and harder. I thought it was going to make things real difficult. For both teams.

"But me and my center, Richard White, had a good plan. We got a practice ball and made sure it was all wet. And we kept practicing snaps. That really helped us."

Southern's grunts aside from White were guards Dorrell Wise and Tyree Parks and tackles Anthony Mitchell and Pereze Guions.

The Rams committed no turnovers. Fels was guilty of four. Ken Johnson and White recovered fumbles, while Daniel Wallace and Lamar Williams (53-yard return for the final TD) posted interceptions.

"I'm liking this horrible weather," Gaskins said, laughing. "Seemed like it helped us out, right? We even took back a pick for six."

Andrew Auer earned TD No. 4 on an 11-yard run.

"When the season began," Gaskins said, "the coaches moved me to wideout because they thought it would get the ball in my hands more often. That was fine with me, because that's probably going to be my college position.

"Mac Stokes was doing the job, but we needed to start winning so we switched things back.

"At quarterback, honestly, I get to be me more because the ball's in my hands every time. The guys look to me to make plays. If the pass isn't there, I can take off, because I do have great speed. This way's good, too, because we can match up Mac against slower defenders."

Gaskins, who lives near 22nd and Wharton, is dedicating his senior season to the memory of good friend Tyrell Smack, who was killed last summer. That'll go for hoops, as well.

Which one's his favorite?

"Football has my heart," he said. "More basketball players should come out and do this. I always talk to them. Guess they're afraid of the contact. You look around the NFL. A lot of guys were two-sport stars in high school. It helps to do more than one sport."i