KANSAN
Section 5
Sports
Football '81
Recruits, veterans combine for mature, optimistic team
By TRACEE HAMILTON Sports Editor
Don Fambrough's hard work has begun to pay off.
Coach Fambrough and his staff have been slowly recruiting a team and salvaging what was left of the squad Fambrough inherited from the squads ago. The results are beginning to surface.
"The carryover is beginning to show up," Fambridge said. "We were just learning to line up last year at this time. We were able to do it and win the first day. It helps the playermers, too."
"if they come back fat and out of shape, they're not thinking about football."
Fambrough also was impressed with the condition of the 110 players and walk-ons who reported to the first day of practice last Thursday.
The Jayhawks return 13 starters and 45 lettermen from last year's 4-5-2 squad, and Fambrough said that the experience wouldn't hurt, either.
"They all came back in excellent physical condition," Fambridge said. "That's the first thing a coach looks for. It's a true indication of how we've been thinking about over the summer."
"I like to think that overall we're bigger, faster and in most areas experienced," he said. "I'll still concern about the line. 'We'll be a big part of it,' he said. 'The will certainly improve as the season goes on.'"
"At the defensive end position, numberwise, we need to be deeper. And we need to be lucky with injuries, especially at positions we're thin under pressure. We have a different type of year as last year as far as injuries."
Fambridge last spring sought to bone up his graduation-depleted offensive line, as well as other positions. He shopping for junior college transfers and signed seven, including three defensive linemen. Fambridge pitched at Paul Faulkner, 64-4, 240-pound guard; and Rob Marshall, 64-5, 240-pound tackle.
"As I've said before, last year we were a
freshman-senior football squad number 85. "Fambrough said. 'We lost a lot of seniors—seven off the offensive line. We had to bring in help immediately.'
"I if I had my preference, I'd rather bring in 'younger players, sort of raise my own. We've made some big strides in recruiting. If your hiring program is not consistent, it'll haunt you."
Last year's recruiting class won't haunt Fambrigh. Among that group were quarterback Frank Seurer, tailback Kerwin Bell and linebacker Mike Arban.
Suerer earned starting signal caller honors and impressed KU coaches with his leadership
"He's an example of what one year's experience will make," Farnbrough said. "What experience he did have is paying off for him. He knows more, and is more sure of himself."
Bell was reinstated to the team this summer after being removed by Fambrough for disciplinary reasons. Both agreed that the rift between problems of spring training were behind them.
This year's recruits have the potential as a group to be just as successful as the last, Foster said.
"As a group, I'm more impressed now than when we signed them," he said. "A lot of times it's the other way around."
The combination of the young recruits and the returning Jayhawks brings optimism to Mount Oread of a third place finish in the Big Eight, no small accomplishment in a conference with perennial powers Oklahoma and Nebraska.
"I sure do think we'll be major contender for third," Baughread said. "I like to be realistic; you have to be about Oklahoma and Nebraska. You have to be about Eight, but two of the top teams in the country.
Incentives
"If you finish in the top four you've got a fine football team."
The Jayhawks will face at least two strong contenders for a third-place finish.
"Iowa state's got everybody back. Missouri lost a lot but the people got. Fambrough lost a lot," she said.
Walker motivates Bell; Seurer likes shotgun
By TRÁCEE HAMILTON
Sports Editor
KU's football success may hinge on Georgia running back Herschel Walker.
No, Walker is not even considering trans-ferring to KU. But it is Walker's shadow that KU tailback Kerwin Killin is chasing, and that KU head Killin lead KU to an even better sophomore season.
BELL's 1,114 yards last season ranked him BELL in the nation among freshmen backs to Walker's 1,616. The Huntington Beach, Calif., native was named the Big Eight's Offensive Player of the Year for yards than any freshman in Big Eight history. He broke Oklahoma Sooner Joe Washington's
"Coach felt the dismissal would make him a better coach and me a better player. I've put it all behind me now."
-Kerwin Bell
Pretty impressive credentials for the abort, stocky 18-year-old. But Bell didn't accomplish something he set out to do—he didn’t catch Walker in the rushing race. Bell missed the Alabama game and virtually all the Missouri contest. After a year he still thinks about it.
record and was an honorable mention Associated Press All-American.
"I think he is one of my main concerns this year," Bell said of Walker. "If I can play every game this year." His voice trails off and he is fighting off the fleet figure of Walker in front of him.
"F I PICK up a paper and see he rushed for me"
"I know I'm 189, I know I've got to run harder the next game."
And to Belt, this personal race with Wallet ties in with his goals for the Jayhawks. He sees his individual competition as beneficial to the team. And he is very optimistic about both.
"I think third place is realistic," he said. "Oklahoma and Nebraska are going to be there at the top of the Big Eight, though."
One reason for Bell's high hopes is the oft-tense line, which he said was much improved over his predecessors.
"Last year we had a good line, but it was made up of seniors," he said. "You kind of got the feeling they wanted to get it over with. There are good transfers and we know we can win now."
Bell threw a scare into Jayawk fans last spring when, after a disagreement with the coaching staff, he was dismissed from the team by Head Coach Don Bambrouz.
PERSONAL PROBLEMS and family troubles were part of the cause of the rift between Bell and the coaches, but he said all that was behind him now. He said he had changed.
He's changed his image to prove it. Gone is the *fingering* afar. Bell has cropped his hair close to his neck.
But he is still close-mouthed about his problems.
"It it wasn't anything serious from the start," he said. "Couch felt it would make him a better coach and me a better player. I've put it all on and me now. My teammates don't remit me of it."
"One of Kerrin's problems was that there was so much pressure on him," he said. "He's certainly in better shape to cope with that now. A lot of times people forget the young men are growing up as well as being football players. They have problems every young person encounters. He's more mature, a year older and in better shape to cone."
"Transferring crossed my mind, but I never put any effort into it. I never look back at it."
KU quarterback Frank Seurer, who played at the University of North Carolina, said that the two of them were still close friends.
Fambrough is equally subdued on the subject.
"WE'VE ALWAYS been good friends," he said. "We don't always go out together, but we tell each other our problems. It's kind of an art that helps because we respect each other so much."
Besides his change in appearance and attitude, Bell came back to Lawrence with some added weight, but he isn't worried about shedding it.
"I'm about halfway in condition now," Bell said after the first day of practice. "I'll be ready to go, especially after a week of two-a-days, especially in pads."
In fact, Bell rates his size as his greatest asset as a runner.
"My quickness and short, stocky build aid me when I'm tackled," he said. "I'm not top-heavy; my weight is even. It's hard to get a good shot at me.
"I have trouble cutting on turf, though. It's different from grass. I wish I could play on it."
Bell and Seurer's summer in California put them on sand rather than grass. Bell helped his high school coach, Bill Workman, run a football camp for kids. Bill spent his free hours relaxing.
"We've always been good friends. . . . It's kind of an unusual relationship because we respect each other so much."
—Frank Seurer
"THE SUMMER WENT fast," he said. "I went to the beach as much as I could. Frank and I had a beachhouse for a week."
But for both Bell and Seurer, the work has begun again.
"I'm approaching the season the same as last year," Seer said. "I've got to work hard and I can't let down. Last year I was working for the company on back position; this year I'm working to keep it.
“I’ve come a long way mentally. But I’ve got a wavs to go.”
Unlike Bell, Seurer doesn't maintain a personal rivalry as an incentive.
"YOU ALWAYS have idols you like to follow, but I don't have any in the Big Eight," he said. "I don't compare myself with other quartebucks. I don't know Haddi and learn, all that other stuff will come."
And Seurer, too, is confident that Bell's earlier problems are behind him now.
"He said he wants to start all over. That made me feel good. I'm sure he will."
Kerwin Bell and Frank Seurer came to KU last fall as prep standouts from Huntington Beach, Calif. The two eventually teamed in KU's backfield as they had done at Edison High, and the duo will be back this fall, with Bell starting at tailback and Seurer at quarterback. Despite the pressure of college football, the two have remained friends on and off the football field.