14B
Wednesday, August 18, 1993
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TOP 10
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREVIEW
A look ahead at the top teams on the gridiron for the 1993-94 season.
1. Florida St.
2. Alabama
3. Michigan 4. Miami
5. Notre Dame
6. Texas A&M
7. Nebraska
8. Washington
9. Syracuse 10. Florida
Rankings and team histories from NCAA Football Preview
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Seminoles look to take next step
Bobby Bowden has done nothing but win in 17 years at Florida State. But he has never finished No. 1.
It Makes Cents!
Now, for the third time in the last six seasons, most preseason forecasters are predicting a national title for Bowden's gifted team.
The Associated Press
The team's offensive leader, quarterback Charlie Ward, has recovered from surgery on his left shoulder, which he injured while playing basketball for the Seminoles. Ward was last year's Atlantic Coast Conference plaver of the year.
Highly touted freshman kicker Scott Benttley also could play a crucial role. Missed field goals may have cost the Seminoles national titles in 1987, 1991 and 1992, and Bowden is hopeful that Bentley can reverse the trend.
Ward will have plenty of talented targets, including sophomore Tamarick Vanover, the ACC's top newcomer last year.
Seniors Matt Frier, Kevin Knox and Lonnie Johnson and juniors O'Mar Ellison and Kez McCorvey also will be part of an eight-man receiving rotation, which should keep fresh passcatchers on the field at all times.
The Seminoles lost last year's leading rusher, Tiger McMillon, to a preseason knee injury and will rely on backsacks Sean Jackson and Marquette Smith and fullback William Floyd to handle running duties.
Lestyley's notes
1992 AP end-of-season rank-
ing: No. 2
The Seminoles
Junior guard Patrick McNeil will anchor an experienced offensive line, but the defensive unit will feature a
Last season. Bowden became the
Last year's record: 11-1
offense for a "fast-break" attack designed to take advantage of Ward's free-lance skills.
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1992 postseason play.
Season opener: Kansas at
1992 postseason
Orange Bowl victory over
Nebraska, 27-14
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Season opener: Kansas at Kickoff Classic, East Rutheford, N.J.
lot of new faces.
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annual tickets & announcements
Marvin Jones, who won the Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker has gone to the NFL along with defensive standouts Dan Footman, Carl Simpson and Reggie Freeman.
Yearbooks, booklets, manuals, tickets, announcements, business cards, labels, forms and more!
Florida State's traditionally rugged schedule does not get any easier this year. In addition to a tough ACC slate, the Seminoles play Kansas, Miami, Notre Dame and Florida in non-conference tests.
Mac's in use
The Seminoles have almost everyone one back from an offensive team that averaged 61 points and more than 600 yards in its final three games last year. The offensive explosion occurred after Bowden junked his traditional
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But by that time, Bowden is hopeful defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews will have rebuilt a unit hit with the loss of six starters.
first college coach to win at least 10 games in six straight years. During that run, the Seminoles have lost just nine games — five to Miami and one apiece to Auburn, Clemson, Florida, and Southern Mississippi.
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Steadman Shealy, quarterback of the last team to repeat as national football champion, has a message for those players who are trying to do it this year.
Alabama pursues consecutive titles
The Associated Press
"It's fun having a championship ring on my left and right hands," said Shealy, who directed Alabama to a 12-0 season in 1979.
Actually, Shealy said he thought the second title was easier to win than the first.
A new batch of Alabama players will try to break the repeat jinx after making history by going 13-0 in 1992. The Tide first won the Southeastern Conference championship game, then shocked defending national champion Miami 34-13 in the Sugar Bowl.
That team was a unanimous choice for No. 1, giving the Tide back-to-back national titles. No team has done it since.
Heading into this season, Alabama has the nation's longest winning streak at 23 games.
But repeating has proved to be a daunting task since Alabama did it 14 years ago. Miami won four titles in a decade, but could not put two of them together.
At first glance, Alabama's chances of repeating appear to be favorable. The schedule — criticized last year as being weak — is exactly the same. The toughest game figures to come the third Saturday in October against Tennessee, a team the Tide has beaten seven years in a row. Should Alabama repeat in the SEC
The Crimson Tide
last year's record: 13-0
Last year's record: 13-0
1992 AP end-of-season ranking:
No. 1
1992 postseason play: Sugar Bowl victory over Miami, 34-13
Season opener: Tulane
Western Division, the league championship game is once again at Legion Field in Birmingham - the Tide's home away from home.
Twelve starters return, led by junior quarterback Jay Barker on offense.
Barker has been maligned for the Tide's sometime erratic offensive play, but it is hard to argue with his results — 17-0 as a starter. At his disposal are an offensive line that includes All-SEC center Tobie Sheils and a receiving corps by ultra-talented David Palmer.
Palmer was brilliant as a freshman, but his sophomore season was marred by two drunk-driving arrests. Alabama is counting on him to return to his 1991 form and bolster an offense that ran for 209 yards per game but threw for only 154.
Alabama will not have All-American ends John Copeland and Eric Curry. Both were picked in the first round of the NFL draft, as was cornerback George Teague.
Elverrett Brown and Jeremy Nunley have the unenviable task of succeeding Copeland and Curry, but they'll be backed up by outside linebacker Lemanis Hall (a team-high 70 tackles, including five sacks) and a secondary that — even with Teague's departure — has four starters who combined for 13 interceptions in 1992.
Michigan's Wheatley could win Heisman
The Associated Press
Michigan's Tyrone Wheatley won the Rose Bowl MVP award last season. This year, he could win an even bigger award — the Heisman Trophy.
"The one thing I'll tell Tyrone that whatever he earns will be on the basis of performance," Michigan coach Gary Moeller said. "The team comes first. The more he helps us win, the better his opportunities are to be judged on his abilities."
Wheatley led the Big Ten in rushing as a sophomore last year and captured his season with a sensational performance against Washington in the Rose Bowl. Wheatley ran for 235 yards and three touchdowns against the Huskies, including a Rose Bowl-record 88-yard dash.
"He's the best back we've faced this year," Washington defensive tackle
The Wolverines
When coach Dennis Erickson took a look at his roster last spring, he found plenty of running backs, a depleted receiving corps, huge offensive linemen and an inexperienced quarterback.
Last year's record:
9-0-3
1992 AP end-of-season ranking: No. 5
To make another run at No. 1, the Miami Hurricanes will use a two-back attack.
1992 postseason play: Rose Bowl victory over Washington, 38-31
The Associated Press
Season opener: at Washington State
D'Marco Farr said after the game.
Because of his Rose Bowl heroes, expectations will be very high for Wheatley.
"There's always the danger of that," Moeller said. "That's the world we live in today. Some kids use that to motivate themselves. Will, Tyrone Wheatley? I don't know. We'll have to wait and see."
Miami alters game plan, plays to team strengths.
So Erickson revamped the playbook that helped Miami win 29 consecutive games during the past three seasons.
The one-back offense Erickson brought to Coral Gables in 1989 will remain part of his arsenal. But he plans to have two running backs in the game about half the time.
The memory of a 34-13 loss to Alabama in last season's Sugar Bowl also influenced Erickson. Crimson Tide defenders ignored the run, harried Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torreta into three interceptions and handed the Hurricanes their worst loss in seven years.
It ruined Miami's bid for a fifth national championship since 1983.
Poised to pursue that goal is perhaps the best set of running backs to attend Quarterback U. Probably at least four will be part of the rotation.
Sophomore tailbacks Danyll Ferguson and James Stewart have breakway speed; junior fullbacks Donnell Bennett and Larry Jones can run, block and catch.
Erickson hopes to throw less and run better. More than 70 percent of the Hurricanes' yardage came through the air last season, when they finished 87th in the NCAA in rushing
ing: No. 3
Last year's record: 11-1
1992 AP end-of-season rank ingr: No. 3
The Hurricanes
1992 postseason play:
Sugar Bowl defeat to Alabama. 34-13
■Season opener: at Boston College
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