University Daily Kansan / Friday, September 11, 1987
Sports
11
Valesente looks forward in anticipation to Auburn game
BY CRAIG ANDERSON
Staff writer
After watching his team scrimmage against itself for the past month, Kansas coach Bob Valesente said he was looking forward to seeing what his football team can do against the Auburn Tigers.
"I want to see us perform in a 60-minute game," he said. "I want to see we can play jaw to jaw, eye to eye, national quality type football."
Valesente said playing a tough team like Auburn in the opening game would give him a chance to see how far his team has progressed since they began practicing in early August. Auburn is ranked No. 4 in the latest Associated Press Top 20 poll.
For a school that has routinely produced Heisman Trophy candidates at running back, Auburn has taken a different approach in its early season gameplan. With three relatively untested tailbacks at the top of their depth chart, the Tigers relied heavily on its passing game in its season opening 31-3 victory against Texas.
"We're still feeling our way on offense," Auburn coach Pat Dye said. "We still have no idea what kind of personality we will have."
"They're still young so they don't have the numbers of (some of their previous running backs)," he said. "They've got the talent to hurt us."
The Auburn running game gained only 112 yards in its first game. In previous years when Auburn had a Brent Fullwood or a Bo Jackson running for them, such low rushing totals would be unheard of. Part of the reason was that Texas stacked its defense against the attack. Valesante said, though, it would be a challenge to stop the Tiger running game.
The size and strength of the Auburn offensive line, Valesente said, concerned him. The Tiger offenses front averages six foot four, 257 pounds. Senior defense tackle Eldridge Avery said he didn't look at the size of the Tiger linemen when watching their films.
"It doesn't matter how big they are. I just know they're good," he said. "I feel like I can dominate the lineman I play over."
Kansas junior linebacker Rick Clayton said the key to the game for the Jayhawks
was shutting down the outside running game of the Tigers. He said if the defense was able to shut down the Auburn offensive attack, Kansas would dominate the game. Clayton said the KU defense could compete with anyone in the country.
Shutting down the running game still might not stop the Tigers from moving the ball on Kansas. Last week against Texas, senior quarterback Jeff Burger completed 16 of 22 passes for 269 yards and two touchdowns. Clayton said Burger could do a lot of damage if he was given the time to throw the ball.
Senior strong safety Milt Garner said the Jayhawk secondary had the ability to slow Burger down.
"He's a good quarterback, but he's not the best I ever been. Garnar said. "If we stick to that," he said.
A big key to stopping the Auburn passing game, junior safety Clint Nortmore said, would be if the KU defensive line could put some pressure on the Auburn signal caller. He said he felt confident that the Kansas defensive front four would be able to do so.
Kansas linebacker coach Scott Conley attended Auburns opening game and came away impressed with the depth of their receivers. In all, nine players caught passes against Texas. Projected starter Lawyer Tillman missed most of the contest because of a pulled thigh muscle, but did manage to catch two passes for 31 yards. Tillman will dress for the game against Kansas but likely will not play. Dve said.
Kansas quarterbacks Kelly Donohoe and Mike Orth contributed Dye. He said either quarterback had the ability to throw the ball downfield with success. Valesena said last night freshman quarterback Kevin Verdugo will also suit up for the Auburn game.
The Auburn defensive backfield suffered a blow last week when starting junior safety Shan Morris suffered a season-ending knee injury. Dye said, though, that junior letterman Greg Staples stepped in and did a good attack as staples had an interception against Texas.
Kansas may have to throw the ball many times if it's to be productive, Valesente said. He said Auburn's defensive line and linebackers be as good as any group in the country. Last week, the Tiger defense
had seven tackles for losses and sacked Texas quarterback Brett Stafford seven times.
"We've worked hard on our punging game this week because with their defensive line, who knows?" Valesente said. "I hope some of them miss curfew or something so Coach Dye has to keep out of the game Saturday.
"I don't know if we can run or throw on them. They're just so physical. But did you hear what Pat Dye said about us? He said we're better than Texas and he's right. They're 0-1 and we haven't played yet so we're undefeated."
"They pressured the quarterback all day," he said. "He never had a chance to set up and throw."
Conley said the speed on the Tiger defensive front was the first thing that jumped out at him when he was watching the game.
Auburn returns eight starters from a defense last year that ranked second in the nation in scoring defense, giving up only 10.1 points per game. In its 12 games, the defense gave up 10 touchdowns.
Valesente said the Auburn home crowd would also be putting pressure on the Jayhawks. Last week 80,000 fans attended the game at Jordan-Hare Stadium. He said that was an indication of Southeastern Conference football at its best.
Because the Tigers had played their first game already and Kansas didn't, Dye said the Jayhawks would have an advantage in the way they could prepare.
The large crowd, he said, would try to get involved in the game by trying to intimidate Kansas. Valesente said he was concerned whether or not the Jayhawks would be able to match the enthusiasm that Auburn would be playing with. He said his team would have to play with poise if it was going to compete with the highly regarded Tigers.
Dye said he expected the home crowd to approach 85,000 against Kansas. He said since the Auburn students had arrived back on campus this week he hoped the crowd would be louder and more excited than it had been in the first game.
"They know what our weaknesses are by seeing us play and will try to exploit them," he said. "We haven't seen them in a game-like situation, so it's hard for us to get ready."
Game 1
Kansas Jayhawks
Coach Bob Valesente
Record: 0-0
Last Week: idle
Last Week: The Tigers defeated the Texas Longhorns 31-3 in Auburn, Ala.
Series: This is the first meeting of the two schools in football
History: This Saturday's game will begin the 98th year of football at the University of Kansas. In 1890, Kansas went 1-2 for the season. The coach that year was Will Coleman. In 909 total games, the Jayhawks have a record of 449-404-56.
Coverage: The Kansas-Auburn game will be carried locally by the Kansas Jayhawk Network. The game can be heard on KLZR (106 FM) and KLWN (1320 AM). Coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. Kickoff time is set for 6 p.m. Central Daylight Time in Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium.
KU volleyball team playing host for four-team weekend tourney
KANSAN graphic
Staff writer
By ROBERT WHITMAN Staff writer
Now it has a place to call home.
The Kansas volleyball team has always had a place to play its home matches.
Now it has a place to call home. Allen Field House is the place senior outside hitter Judy Desch said she thought she could call a home court for the first time she had played. The team had two-a-day practices in the field house from Aug. 13-Aug. 24.
"We never practiced in Allen. We never really had a home court advantage." Desch said. "We never practiced in Allen, we really have a home this year."
The team 'opens the home portion of its schedule today in Allen Field House with the first game in the season. Kansas will play the Univer-
ity of Houston at 7:30 p.m. and New Mexico State will play Wichita State at 5:00 p.m. in the other match of the four-team tournament.
The winners will play each other in the championship game tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. The losers will play for third place at 5:00 p.m.
So that each team will be able to play the team it will not meet in the tournament, the four teams will be assigned 30:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. tomorrow.
Of the teams coming to the tournament, Coach Frankie Albitz said New Mexico State would probablely play Houston but that Houston also would be tough.
"I heard they were strong from the (University of Texas) Austin coach," Ablitz said. Kansas played Texas on Saturday in the South
west Missouri State University tournament.
Getting teams to come to Lawrence to play the Jayhawks has been difficult, said Abitz, who will all the scheduling for the team.
Albitz said she was trying to build a program that could be ranked in the top 20 nationally. But to be ranked, a team has to play a tough schedule. To make a tough schedule of nationally ranked teams, a team needs to ranked.
"It's more that we have been so weak in the past," Albizt said. "The schedule is not really organized. It's political. You have to know people.
"But the basic thing is, they don't want to travel and blow someone out, because it's not worth their time."
Dave Niebergall/KANSAN
Michelle Klone, Kansas setter, lunges to return a spiked ball. The volleyball team will begin its season at 7:30 p.m. today in Allen Field House against the University of Houston. Also playing in the tournament are New Mexico State and Wichita State.
K.C. falls on bases-loaded walk
The Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. — Jose Canseco's first look at Game Berger was rather scary through the first two pitches, both changeups for strikes
But Canseco kept his compose and watched four straight balls go by, drawing a bases-loaded walk and giving the Oakland Athletics a ninth-inning 3-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals last night.
"It's pretty hard to resist swinging when you're down-2 O. " Cansceo said.
There were two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning when Canseco came to the plate to face Garber, the former, and his Royals recently acquired from Atlanta.
"When the count went to 3:2, I was zoning in on one area where I thought he'd pitch me. He didn't throw it there and I never even thought of swinging," Canseco said. He
watched an outside pitch for ball four.
"If I ever walked with the bases loaded before, it must have been in my last life," added the usually free-swinging power hitter. "But I wasn't even thinking home run this time."
The Athletics, second in the American League West, pulled within $2^{2}$ games of idle Minnesota. The third-place Royals fell $5^{2}$ back.
"They're all tough losses this time of year. But there's still tomorrow. I'm not going to dwell on losses," Royals manager John Wathan said. "We didn't swine the bats very well."
The A's had three hits in the ninth and outhit the Royals 11-5.
Garber, Kansas City's fourth pitcher of the game, came out of the bullpen to face Canseco. The walk
brought pinch-runner Alfredo Griffin home from third base. Canceco got his 99th RBI of the season and his 15th game-winner.
John Davis, 3-2, was the losing pitcher. He left after giving up a one out, infield single to Mickey Tettleton. Griffin ran for Tettleton and went to second on Terry Steinbach's pinch-single off Jerry Don Gleaton After Tony Phillips filed out to center, Luis Polonia beat out an infield single to shortstop, loading the bases.
Reliever Eric Plank, 3-4, got the victory with two hitless innings of work.
Steve Balboni's pinch-hit, two-run homer off Curt Young in the seventh inning had given the Royals a 21-lead, but Mark McGwire drove in his 103rd run with an eighth-inning single, tying the game.
KU baseball team to open season against KCK Community College
Staff writer
Bv DARRIN STINEMAN
The coaches of the Kansas baseball team will get a look at how their players perform in competition Sunday when the Jayhawks open the fall season against Kansas City Kansas Community College at Quigley Field.
"We're going to try to play most of our ballclub," Kansas coach Dave Bingham said. "It's an evaluation time. We'll try to get as many as we can into a game situation and see how we react to it."
Bingham said he might want to redshirt two or three players, but that the determination of which players to redshirt only made the decision of who to play that much more
difficult. Even though the fall season is like a preseason for the team, a player's eligibility year counts much or what time of year he plays.
"We want to make sure what we do in the fall doesn't take away from the spring," Bingham said. "Like I've said, there's only one championship season, and that's the spring season."
Although he is concerned about losing the opportunity to redshift player, he's playing a bad fall. Tomman says the team must create a big relief of the policy of redshifting.
"I've never seen a lot of benefit in it," he said. "If a kid's ready to play for you, you put him out there."
Returning lettermen Mike McCloud, senior; Brad Hinkle, sophomore, and Scott Taylor, junior, will pitch for the Jayhawks on Sunday. Bingham said, because they had played this summer in summer leagues
Although Bingham said he saw the game primarily as a time to evaluate his players, he said that KCCK, the top junior college baseball team in Kansas last year, would be a worthy opponent.
"We're trying to put kids out there who are used to pitching in a regular rotation," he said.
The teams will play a single nine inning game beginning at noon Sun day.
Sports complex field is named in part after a KU administrator
By ROBERT WHITMAN
Staff writer
Staff writer
When young athletes in Douglas County begin playing on new fields built by Youth Sports Inc. tomorrow, one of the fields they will play on will be named in part after a KU administrator.
sportor.
The sports complex, about one-half mile south of the intersection of Clinton Parkway and Wakarusa Drive, will have one field named Reimer-Beibengood field.
The Leibengood half of the name is for Dana Leibengood, associate dean of journalism. Someone who wished to remain anonymous donated $7,500 to pay for the field and asked that it bear the names of Reimer and Leibengood, said Jim Otten, president of Youth Sports Inc.
The other half of the name is for John Reimer, regional vice-president
of Lincoln Liberty Life Insurance Co.
Reinimer is also a youth soccer coach.
Otten, Leibengood's next door neighbor, told Leibengood Wednesday night that the field would bear his name. Leibengood said.
"And, of course, I'm honored and surprised by the whole thing."
"I was out in the yard when I found out about it," Leibengood said. "He (Otten) said, 'Someone paid you quite a compliment.' I asked him what it was, and he told me all about it.
Leibengood said he had no idea who the anonymous donor was.
Leibengold said he coached soccer teams made up of Douglas County youngsters for five years until May 1987. Leibengold's sons, Bill, 16, and Steve, 13, played on the teams at different times.
'It was probably one of the parents
of one of the kids on the team," he said. "It's probably because his son had a good experience on the team and that's exactly what we wanted. Winning was secondary, but we never had a losing season, even though we played some tough competition."
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Soccer and football games are scheduled soon after the ceremony.
The complex will initially have eight soccer and two football fields. When it is complete, the complex will have 14 soccer, five football and four baseball fields.
Private donations have paid for all of the $200,000 cost of the complex to date. Often said. He said a fund-a raising drive would begin soon to raise the money necessary to finish the complex. About $200,000 to $250,000 is needed, he said.