SPORTS
The University Daily KANSAN
September 26 1983 Page 16
Jayhawks rewrite the Coliseum script
LOS ANCELES
LOS ANGELES — About 1,500 KU supporters had plenty of chances to wave the wheat Saturday when the Jayhawks surprised USC. 26-20.
By JEFF CRAVENS
Associate Sports Editor
LOS ANGELES — It was a setting that every football fan has seen.
Tenth-ranked Southern California, playing in the Los Angeles Coliseum. Blonde-haired cheerleaders and the white Trojan Horse. The Heisman Trophies, the All-America players.
The scenario was perfect. USC had a team it could run up the score on in front of 50,000 fans. After all, these KU guys had lost to Northern Iowa and lost to Washington where the best victory celebration would be.
But somebody forgot to give Frank Seurer and the rest of the Kansas Jayhawks the script. They didn't know their parts. They were completing the bombs. They were making the key defensive stops. They were blocking the punts. They were playing with confidence.
AND THEY WON the game. 26-20.
"I didn't think we could play so poorly in every phase of the game," USC Coach Tollner said.
Perhaps Tollner should have looked across the field at the Jayhawks. Plenty of answers were out.
Probably the biggest answer was Seurer. The California native returned home for the best day of his career. Seurer, who wanted to play at USC but was shunned by the Trojans, befuddled the Southern Cal secondary, passing for a career-high 385 yards, including 270 in the first half.
"Frank had an outstanding game." Coach Mike Gottfried said. "It was a very satisfying win for him, coming home. The young man has had a lot to deal with. Our offensive passing game has some tough reads, and he did a good job reading the defense."
Seurer had the hot hand, completing 26 of 28 passes. He credited his receivers for his success.
"WE HAVE AS GOOD a set of receivers as we had yesterday," Searer said. "We got our stuff together today."
Seurer fumbled on KU's opening drive, setting up a USC field goal. After that, he took over.
"That stuff is going to happen." Seurer said of the tumble. "We decided not to give up. It really haled me back."
Darren Green was Seurer's favorite target. Green caught seven passes for 197 yards, a KU single-game record. Green broke the record during the first half with 169 yards.
"I wanted to have a big day," said Green, who had caught six passes for 83 yards in the first three games combined. "It goes game by game. Today was my day.
"We saw on the films that their secondary liked to come up and make the hit on the run. We decided to run some play-action. We tried that early."
THE KU COACHING staff, who outmaneuvered their counterparts all day, set up the Jayhawks' first touchdown by putting to use what they had seen when closely watching game
Defensive end Elvis Patterson came right up the heart of the Trojan punit team to block Troy Richardson's punit into the end zone. Willie Pless the defense's first to touchdown and a big dose of momentum.
Ron Zook, defensive coordinator, said, "I knew we could block a punt if they continued to block the way they had been. John Fox (KU secondary coach) played for Tollner at San Diego State and he pulled out his old playbook, and they did it the same way."
The staff didn't use the films to tell themselves to send Bruce Kallmeyer out on the field. KU's record-setting place kicker picked the second of his four field goals after Pleiss' touchdown, giving the Jayhawks a 13-3 lead over the startled Trojans.
THE USC OFFENSE, led by quarterback Sean Salisbury, was supposed to dominate the Jayhawk defense. The Trojans finally struck in the first half, and they fielded a tough touchdown pass to tight end Joe Cormier.
The USC fans, showing life for the first time all day, were quickly quieted. The Jayhawks were pinned back at their own 14, but Seurer and one other team had bomb off a play-action fake on first down.
A scrambling Seurer then found Bobby Johnson in the end zone, and the 1,500 Jayhawk faithful waved the wheat for the dumbfounded California crowd.
The Trojans scored a field goal before the half
ANALYSIS
ended. Tollner, in his first year as head coach at USC, took his team into the locker room to regroup.
THE KU DEFENSE, decisively outweighed on the line, kept the Trojan offense off balance in the second half. Only Mike Harper, a Kansas City, Mo., native who burst up the middle for a 84-yard third quarter touchdown, had much success.
"Their size didn't concern us," defensive tackle Mike Arbanas said. "We saw on the film how big and slow they were and we put in a lot blitzes and stunts to counter that."
But the Trojans, as they have so many times in their illustrious past, began to march down the field against an emotionally drained Jayhawk who had been seen in the first two games of the season.
Kallmerine added two fourth quarter field goals, giving him a school record 14 on the ground.
"I WAS TRYING to figure out how much time
we would have left to move down the field." Gottfried said.
Gottried could have saved himself the trouble.
On fourth down. Tollner sent Harper up the middle.
On third and two from the KU 36, USC tried to run up the middle against the KU defensive line.
The Trojans fell one yard short, giving up the ball to the Javahawks.
"ON THE FOURTH down play, I think Ken Davis got the initial hit and then Darnell Williams really stuck him. We stunted right into the play."
"Those guys played their butts off." Zook said. "When you go in a goal line situation, you have to play with that wild look in your eyes. But you have to do more than that.
Davis, who had seen only limited action in the last two games, thought that the entire defense
"I hit him and he spun." Davis said. "Then everybody hit him. That's what we try to do."
Obviously, the victory means a lot to the Jayhawks going into their conference opener in the first round.
"We knew that they were a good team, but we still have a long way to go." Patterson said. "This was a big win for us, but we'll get a lot more."
Arbanas said, "It's a great win, but we are not looking behind us in ahead. We're going into the game."
"This victory will help us in national recruiting," Gottfried said. "They're all emotional, but this may be the best we've ever had. They were not going to be denied."
GOTTFRIED, somewhat subdued in the lower room, could not ignore the importance of the
Davis shares in successful homecoming Makes first contact to stop USC drive at KU 36-yard line
By JEFF CRAVENS Associate Sports Editor
The Huntington Beach connection of Seurer and Bell was not the only successful homecoming story in the Javhawk's 20-12 set over USC.
Ken Davis was also coming home. He attended Taft Junior College in Calif., where he was a Junior College All-American
Davis, a defensive guard, was the first one to hit USC tailback Mike Harper on the fourth and two from the KU 36 yard line with 2:44 left in the game. Darnell Williams then finished in Harper and the Trojans hope.
"I hit him and he spun." Davis said of the play, "Then everybody hit him."
The amazing part of the play was that Davis was even in the game. A starter in the opening loss to Northern Illinois, and then a triumphant coming and could have been there for good.
"Basically, I had to learn the ropes," Davis said. "I was used to playing a penetrating defense and our philosophy is to control the line of scrimmage. I lost some confidence, but now I'm finally getting some back."
Davis and defensive guard Rod Timmons called themselves the "Guard Dogs" for the "Nasty Dog" defense. Many people had other names for them after NIU ran up the middle of the defense.
After moving down to the scout team, Davis kept working. He did not play against TCU and saw action in the mon-fun against Wichita State.
"I was pretty down," Davis said. "The coaches talked to me a lot, trying to keep me motivated. They told me to do what I was capable of doing."
Davis realizes that he hasn't earned a starting beet and that doesn't bother him.
It now looks as if Davis has earned a position in the defensive rotation. Defensive coordinator Ron Zook has been put in and out to keep the defense rested.
"They never promised me that I would start again or even play. I knew that was up to me. I just kept working hard and if I hadn't played, I'd still be here."
"I kind of like coming off the bench."
Davis said. "I'm more relaxes and it's
a nice day."
More Sports p.14
... America's Cup comes to a close
K-State cross country team sweeps Jayhawk Invitational
Andrew Hartley/KANSAN
... Dolphins defeat the Chiefs
LOS ANGELES — The KU defense, led by defensive guard Ken Davis, under the pile, halts Trojan tailback Mike Harper on a fourth-and-two play late in the fourth quarter. The stop prevented USC from gaining a first down that would have put them in scoring position.
Dream of KU victory unfolds but life at USC disillusioning
LOS ANGELES — Several weeks ago I had a vision in my sleep. I was on the sidelines of Los Angeles Coliseum inapping pictures of the USC-KU game.
The vision skipped several quarters and there I was: the final gun sounded, and I was snapping pictures of several team members carrying coach Gott-
The few friends I told about the dream found it to be a good laugh.
That was only one of many dreams that came the night I found out I'd be going to L.A. I pictured a beautiful campus, learned young men and women on campus, extremely beautiful and a football tradition with vocal fans.
But it came true. Several team members did carry Gottfried off the field after KU's 26-20 upset of USC Saturday.
The main road through the tightly-
packed campus was completely fenced off and torn apart in a remodeling effort for the 1984 Summer Olympics.
As with most of those late-night fantasies, this one was completely off base.
Because most of the classes do not meet on Friday, the campus was like a deserted wasteland. On weekends, the students, the campus dries up and blows away.
The topic of conversation wavered from idle chit-chat to a USC student's latest trip to Hawaii, or to the beach where they were having dinner with their mummy and daddy did for a living.
THE USC CAMPUS was littered with broken beer bottles when I was walking there Friday afternoon.
The walk along campus wasn't exactly expretty, but it was a big disappointment. Talking with USC and WAS depressing. A depressing comedy.
FOR INSTANCE, one fella I met
decided he would humor me with a little small talk.
"Like, where is your university located?" he asked.
I suppose I might be able to excuse a native Californiaian asking me such an inane question, but this guy was from Chicago.
"About 40 miles west of Kansas City."
"Where's Kansas City? By the way, are you anywhere close to Arkansas?"
On Friday I went to a party at one of the USC dormitories. It was a pretty
ANDREW HARTLEY Sports Editor
THE KANSAS RELAYS T-shirt I wore to the party was a source of enlightening conversation.
good party — if you discount the fact that they served only ice tea.
"What game? You mean like a swim meet or something?"
One guy walked up to me and said,
"Are you really from Kansas?"
"Yes, I'm here for the game this weekend."
"Him," he said, "Kansas. How did you get on our schedule? Aren't you a like junior college or something. Who's favor-
"No. We play you in football this weekend."
"You are by about 20 points."
"Well, I think I'll skip the game and do some laundry. Like my folks own a house."
The Jayhawk T-shirt attracted comments from another student.
"GEEZ! You guys have some kind of bird as your mascot?"
"It's a mythical bird. There's really no such thing as a Jawhawk."
"Yeah, it's called a Jayhawk." "Huh?"
"A mythical bird? You mean like Greek myths and that sort of thing?" Like some sort of prehistoric bird or something?"
End of conversation
A girl I danced with told me she was trying to be a sports announcer for television.
"Does USC have a good journalism program?" I asked.
This came as quite a surprise to one who thought he was enrolled in one of the top journalism schools in the country.
"You bet they do," she said. "Columbia University in New York and USC are supposed to be the top two in the nation."
"HAVE YOU HEARD about the journalism school at Kansas?" I asked. I knew it.
"Oh, do you guys have a journalism school!" I didn't even know, you had
At about dinner time, the topic of conversation turned to food.
The greatest source of disappointment from the weekend was the noise level of the crowd in the Coliseum. These people are so used to winning that they didn't raise their voices until after halftime.
By JEFF CRAVENS
"There's a burger King up the road and McDonalds a little farther down. Do have McDonald's in Kansas? What about tacos?" Can you get them there?"
Seurer, Bell get revenge against hometown team
KU$S CROWD of about 1,500 made several times the amount of noise that
Associate Sports Editor
It all goes to show that a winning tradition can pack the fans into home games, but it doesn't necessarily mean the team is a beautiful campus and world students.
LOS ANGELES — The contest Saturday against UCS was a storybook game for Frank Seurer and Kerwin Bell.
Maybe KU is on its way to combining all of those.
Since being recruited four years ago out of Edison High School in Hunting Beach, Calif., the thoughts of USC ran through their heads.
Seurer had been stifled by Trojan recruiters after they decided to court John Mazur, another California quarrelist, who has since transferred to Texas A&M.
"JUST COMING out here and coming home, it's great," Seurer said. "I really don't think anyone figured we'd beat them."
Seurer returned to the Los Angeles Coliseum with a vengeance, throwing for 385 yards, leading the Jayhawks to a significant victory in almost a decade.
He rushed for 52 yards on 12 carries against USC and caught one pass for seven yards. Bell's 14-yard run with the game allowed KU to run out the clock.
Bell was recruited by everyone coming out of high school, including the Trojans, but he decided instead to head to the Midwest with Seurer.
"Everybody knew the situation of us coming home." Bell said. "We stayed朴
BELL ADMITTED that it had been tough to keep the visit to Los Angeles off his mind during the first three games.
"The coach was always telling us to think about one game at a time," Bell said. "I tried not to think about USC, but always there in the back of my mind."
FOR SEURER, the 385 yards shattered his previous high of 260 yards against Kentucky last year. He had 270 yards in four games as he mastered the Trojan secondary.
"He's the best quarterback I've ever faced." UC cornerback Darrell Hopper said, comparing him to John Elway. "He's a little too good." "He's right there with Elway."
USC's head coach agreed that Seuren was outstanding.
Bell played a quiet but important role, gaining yardage outside when Seurer wasn't unloading his mortar and desiring it carried at the attitude of the USC players.
"He is a tremendous quarterback," Coach Tollor Toller said. "When you have a quarterback as capable as he is, you can hand him hand, you don't know what to expect."
"I THOUGHT they had bad sportsmanship." Bell said "Most of my buddies were all right, but the rest of them did a lot of talking and pushing. I think that was reflected in the penalties."
The Trojans were penalized nine times for 93 yards, including four personal fouls for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Bell knows he has some time to savor the victory. The Jayhawks are off next weekend before traveling to Iowa State to open their Big Eight schedule.
"We've got a week to celebrate before concentrating on Iowa State." Bell said. "We knew it was very difficult, but we did." We have, we have. We still have a ways to go.
"We knew we were playing well so we just kept our heads and didn't let them see."
But for now, the fallen Trojans are a sweet memory.
LOS ANGELES — Defensive end Elvis Patterson blocks the punt of Trojan punter Troy Richardson at the USC goal line. Linebacker Willie Pless, right, picked up the ball in the endzone to put the Joyhawks ahead 13-3 in the first quarter.
Andrew Hartley/KANSAN