6
Monday. September 13, 1976
Universitv Dallv Kansan
Kansas wins but flounders
Sports Editor
By STEVE SCHOENFELD
KU linebacker Tom Dinkel said the Jayhawks should have beaten Washington State 60-0 on Saturday. That estimate seems a little high.
But Dinkel has a good point. Washington State isn't a good team. And neither is Oregon State, whom KU nudged, 28-16, to open the season.
So why aren't the Jayhawks blowing anybody out? Why did Kansas crush the Cougars, 35-16, before 39,475 at Memorial Stadium, but have so much trouble doing so? That still concerns KU coach Bud Moore and several of his players.
"TIM DISAPPOINTED that we didn't salt the game away," Moore said yesterday. "But we played quite a few young people after we not ahead."
"That might be a part of the inconsistency problem, but still it shouldn't happen."
Part of the reason for the Javhawks
Part of the reason for the Jav Hawks'
inconsistency may be that they weren't psyched to play.
"we tended to relax," said Dinkin, who made eight tackles, five unassisted, in the game. "You really can't get psychoped up on a tackle," he said. "Now Washington State wasn't well known."
Mike Butler, defensive tackle, agreed.
"We haven't been mentally up out there." The spirit's not there. We're not jumping up into the dark.
But the Washington States and Oregon States are gone. Moore said the Jayhawks had better be ready for their game against Kentucky here Saturday, or they'd be
"WED BETTER darn well be up for KUCKY, he said. "They're as fine a football player as any aggressive offense and are physical. It concern me that we haven't been physical."
The most glaring example of that
Saturday was the play of the defensive line. The Cougars gained 239 yards pass, most of which Moore blamed on the lack of a KU nass rush.
"We put too much pressure on the secondary by not getting a pass rush," he said. "We should have had more pressure on their quarterback. We should have had more sacks. We're going to spend some time practicing rushing the passer."
BUT THE JAYHAWKS and their wiathose offense made it mass confusion for the battle.
The Jahvacks racked up 505 yards of
total offense, 467 on the ground and 38
in the air.
Halfback Laverne Smith was the Jahwynks' big gun, gaining 142 yards on 15 carries despite suffering from a week-long bout with the flu. He put KU ahead early when he went off-tackle and then veered right for 60 yards and KU's initial score
with 13:38 to play in the first quarter.
Pascal Mike Hubeach added his first of
three shots.
Smith was aided by a crushing block from Smith end Waddell Smith, who knocked over two Cougar defensive backs at the WSU 25-17 victory. Smith's rn was the fourth longest of his career.
The Cougars came right back after recovering KU quarterback Nolan Cromwell's fumble on the Jayhawk 20. It took Washington State only three plays to score. Quarterback John Hopkins found receiver Brian Kelly behind Jayhawk cornerback Caleb Rowe and drilled the ball to him for a touchdown. Diedrick's kick knotted the score at 7.41.
CROMELL WOT The Jayhawks rolling again, scoring first on a five-yard run and then on a 15-year burst, both in the first half. Cromell's scores were sandwicked between a Diedrick field goal and put the Jayhawks ahead, 28-10, at half.
Halfback Max Ediger is redirected to turf by airborne Cougar Mark Patterson
Cromwell, who played only the first half and a few minutes in the fourth quarter, rushed for 98 yards on 19 carries. He should have scored the ball in the fumble the ball on the goal line. The Jayhaws did score on that play, however, as offensive tackle Lindsey Mason alertly dove on the ball in the end zone. Mason's shot to 40 or play was the game's final score.
Freshman Mitch Dougherty made his punting debut in the game, kicking eight times for a 35.2 average. Dougherty, a walk-on who has been practicing with the New England team, had two few kicks before hitting two for 19 and 21 yards. But that didn't bother Moore.
"For it being the first college football game in which the youngster has punted, he did a fairly good job," Moore said. He showed me he can kick. He has a good leg. He was inconsistent, but he has a chance to be a good kicker for us."
Defensive end Harry Murphy was the Jayhawks' only reported casualty in the game, suffering a cracked bone on his left forehand.
Jarring tackle pops ball loose; Mason recovers for TD
KU survives aerial test
By GARY VICE
The Jayhawks had been cautioned. They would have been offensive attack would be入侵The air
And the Cougars' three quarterbacks predictably launched 46 passes in 78 offenses play Saturday, completing 20 for 239 yards. Despite the completion, Kansas ripped the Cougars, 35-16. Still, on several occasions, they experienced secondary bad been vulnerable.
JUNIOR CORNERBACK Caleb Row, the victim of those two completions, said "I think other teams will continue to throw against us because our front line is so good that they can't run. But it will all basically be short stuff."
"The time I got beat deep, I broke coverage. I just missed a key and took the flat when I should have covered long. I was dead and got beat."
WSU's starting quarterback, John Hopkins, hit flanker Brian Kelly for a 17-yard scoring strike early in the first quarter and then connected with Mike Levenseller for a 41-yard completion which led to a 29-yard field goal.
After Hopkins hit the Jayhawks deep,
KU's wary secondary dropped back,
allowing WST to strike underneath the pass coverage for several short-tardage packages
The Cougars might have been able to capitalize more on this situation had their quarterbacks been more on target. Many attempts were wrenched wildly. Defensive ends Steve Jones and Les Barnes each picked off errant Cougar passes.
Acknowledging Washington State's numerous short pass completions, senior cornerback Antoine said it. "I'm more aware of the action than you are, die a slow death and give up the short ones that die a fast one. I'd rather come up and meet 'em, knock 'em loose on the short pass."
Senior cornerback Skip Sharp said he thought KU's pass defense would have to adjust in the future if opponents continued dumping off short passes.
"I think we did all right only letting them complete one deep, oep," Spard said, "but we're still giving up too much cushion. We've got to play them tighter. We've
"We probably need a better pass rush too." I think Mike Butler dropped them once, but it puts a lot of pressure on us if the defensive line isn't setting in there.
TON FITCH, junior strong safety, said KU's weakness on defense was a combination of the secondary not covering tight lines and the defensive linenen not rushing well enough.
Laverne perseveres despite flu
But Washington State was unable to reap the benefits of the Jayhawk's confusion and unfamiliarity with their play, as two fourth quarter scoring threats died in front of KU's goal line. The first one was halted on downs; the second on a fumble.
remember one thing. They knew more about us than we knew about them."
The Cougars had mounted the two scoring threats behind the arm of third-string running back James Martin, moved WSU to the two-yard line on each possession after completing passes to Leversen for first down. Leversen led receivers with six reactions for 114 yards.
A wave of naseau hit Laverne Smith. His head dropped and he fought to pay attention to the signal that Nolan Cromwell was telling him. It was Smith's number on the belly play.
A groggy Smith trothed to his running back position, trying to shake off the flu-induced cobwebs in his head. Quarterback Cromwell barked out the signals, faked to fullback Norris Banks and tucked the ball in Smith's middle.
And the Kansas speedster—destined to be the greatest running back statistically in KU history—did the rest. Churning to his right, then weaving 60 yards downfield, Smith scored the first Jayhawk touchdown from the S-14 win over Washington State.
CHRIS GOLUB provided most of the team in the Jayhawks secondary, making nine tackles, and helping to injure his first pass of the year and senior safety pick off four last year to finish second in the conference, even though he missed the final five games with a knee injury.
IN ALL, it wasn't a bad afternoon for Smith or the KU offense. The former accounted for 142 yards of the whopping 467 rushing yards that Kansas piled up.
"WHAT WASHINGTON State did was just drop back and set up, waiting for us to commit ourselves. as we went charging in, they just dropped in front of us and cut us down. That worked for them and really hurt us."
Impressive figures for Smith, no doubt.
Vince Semney, defensive line coach, said, 'Sure, we knew they'd have to throw a lot to move the ball against us, so we prepared for two pass blocking schemes they might use. The trouble was, they didn't either of them and some of our linemen were confused.
Golub, who also broke up a long Cougar on the goal line, said, "I think we responded pretty well to the pressure of a passing attack. We broke up several long passing attempts and had a good time if we fell. We learn and get better each week."
Defensive tackle Franklin King said, "We worked especially hard on the pass rush for this game, but we didn't know what blocking scheme they'd use. You've got to
SCOOKING
KANSAS 14 14 0 7
WASHINGTON STATE 10 0 0 7
10 9
KI = Smith 86 run (Haback kick)
WBU = Kelly 17 pass from Hagen (Lieberkick kick)
WBU = Kelly 17 run (Haback kick)
WBU = Po 24 run
WBU = Cornwell 15 run
WBU = Cornwell 15 run
WBU = Doornut 2 run (pass failed)
WBU = Doornut 2 run (pass failed)
Mauon recovered fumble end (Haback kick)
Altenau
First downs R1 81 WASH. ST.
Passing yards 77-467 32-93
Passing yards 50-276
Passes 6-130
Pounds 6.1-30 20-46.3
Pounds-limits 6.0 6.3
Pounds-limits 6.3 6.3
Pounds-limits 8.45
INDIVIDUAL
KU - L.Silh - 15:142, Cramwell 19:86, Banka 1:441
KIU - L.Stauber - 15:142, Cramwell 19:86, Banka 1:441
HIGR - K.I.L. Aigle - 5:13, L.Silh -
WASH. ST - Boorotonga 14:77, Tybty 3:20, Gilum 3:44,
whimaius 14, Bennett 3:24, Washington 4, 46,
Whimaius 14, Bennett 3:24, Washington 4, 46
WASH, ST. - Hopkinson 12-19-19 (1 interruption), Bennett
3-11-25 (2 interceptions), Thompson 4-7-55
KU-Campeled 2.13, W. Smith 1.13, Michaels 1.4, L. Smith 1.4, Johnson 1.0
Weeks: 31-1-Elekundo 64-1-Radhon 4-58, Tandy 3-21,
Doorkill 3-1, Kelly 2-24, Gillam 2-14.
Reeckman
K-U-Cumpled 4, W. Smith 1-13, Michaen 1-6,
Smith L, Johnson 1-6.
KU—Doughetty 8-282 (3.2 avg.)
WASH—H. Tedrick (3.72 k/284 3.4 avg.)
But after the game, standing in the happy Jayhawk locker room, a talkative Smith lamented the fact that he hadn't garnered even more yards.
"I had the chances," he said. "I should have broken several of them. Every time I get out in the open, I'd think Here I go. I just couldn't move as fast as I wanted."
Despite having the foul, Smith practiced all last week. But the game took a lot out of him. The small but quick Washington State team had its shots at giving Smith some misgirl.
McMichael obviously was talking about two long second half passes that KU receivers had in hand—then dropped. But no matter. McMichael concentrated on the pass, but he didn't quite prehard for Kansas on Saturday—The Jayhawks fumbled six times, losing three.
"They were kinda small, he not, "We shouldn't have let them stop us, not with our wishbone. We should have beat them bad but we didn't. We had too many mistakes."
THEN THERE was Nolan Cromwell. He lay parallel to the floor on one of the locker rails.
"They were hard hitters," Banks said. "We should have been able to run up the middle on them. But they toughened up my I thought I could make it through."
"They (WSU defense) were small and they missed reading our keys a lot, so we ran on them pretty well. 'McMichael said,' he said. "I just didn't like getting the ball to the backs."
towel was draped around his midsection and a bag of ice lay on his hip.
After helping guide a team to an awesome 467 rushing yards in one afternoon, that's probably what most college quarterbacks would have done.
yards; Cromwell was one of four for eight yards. Still, he didn't seem over upset.
"Washington was playing us pretty honest today," he said. "They weren't letting our receivers run too wild. I kept looking for that. But our running game was working so I stopped worrying about the pass."
The All-American candidate ran for 98 yards and a touchdown, despite playing only half the game. Cromwell reinjured a hip on a half half passing play. His yardage put him eight on the KU career rushing list with 1,643 yards.
THE PASSING attack fizzled against the Cougars, KU completed six of 13 for 38
Backup quarterback Scott McMichael played half the game, but the KU offense didn't move well when he was in. Playing was reward enough for McMichael, thought.
"I'm okay," Cromwell said about the hip. "It's the same thing I injured last week against Oregon State. But the pain went away in the second half."
"It felt good to be out there playing," he stressed. "I wish I could have had some friends."
Weekend Sports Roundup
Rovals blast Twins
The Royals, who took advantage of six errors by Minnesota infielders to score 13 unearned runs, scored all nine runs in the game and we reached base on an error with two outs.
BLOOMINGTON (AP) — Frank White's basses-loaded triple capped a nine-rim篮 in the sixth inning that powered the Minnesota Twins to victory over the Minnesota Twins yesterday.
Ruggers win 1. lose '
The Lawrence Rugby Football Club, formerly the KU Rugby Club, kicked off the 1976 fall season by splitting a pair of games with Johnson County.
The victory marked the first time in 17 days that Kansas City, trying to nail down the American League Western Division championship, has won two straight straines.
Mayry tropea freshman, opened the scoring for the University side as he recorded a try, worth four points. Dave Beck junior, kicked the two point conversion.
The University side won its game 12-6, but the city side dropped a 10-4 match.
Rich Millard, Prairie Village sophomore, accounted for the other try. Hay's conference was 10-3.
The City side's only points were registered on Ted McGrade of Kansas
Chiefs lose. 30-16
KANSAS CITY (AP)—San Diego quarterback Dana Fouts threw a varied, multi-formation offense at Kansas City yesterday and sustained four long touchdown marches to defeat the Chiefs 30-16 in the National Football League opener for both teams.
The Chargers, picked by many to make drastic improvements on their 2-12 record of last year, scored on drives of 80 and 67 yards in the first half, and wrapped the game up with 74-and 86-yard scoring drives in the third quarter.
Bills retain O.J.
BUFFALO(AP)-OJ. J. Simpson returned yested to the drill for Rikke, the team he was guarding.
Bills' owner Ralph Wilson said the all-prorunning back will be in runoff when Buffalo opens its National Football League game, formally televised game here against Miami.
Connors wins Open
Simpson's new contract is worth $00,000 a year plus fringe benefits, according to Browne.
The exciting muten-starting in bright daylight and finishing in arclights-laked 30 seconds.
FOREST HILLS, N.Y. (AP)—Jimmy Connors fought off four set points in a dramatic third-set tiebreaker and beat Wimbledon champion Björn Borg of Sweden 6-4, 3-6, 7-4, 6-4 yesterday for his second U.S. Open Tennis Championship.
Upsets abound in wacky week of college ball
What's new in the wacky world of college
to teach this week. Would you believe the
tough truth?
By the Associated Press
It all began Thursday night when No. 17 UCLA upset third-ranked Arizona State before a national television audience. And it continued for real Saturday when top-rated Nebraska was held to a 6-4 standoff by no more than four points, while sixth-ranked Alabama, No. 7 Texas and No. 8 Southern California all suffered defeats in their opening games.
them in the losers' column were
11 Notre Dame, 10 Michigan, No. 18
Florida.
LSU, sentenced to a second-division Southeastern Conference finish by the "experts," surrendered an early touchdown to Nebraska and tied the Cornhoppers on a field goals field by Mike Conway. Conway narrowly missed a 44-yarder in the final minute.
McClendon's Bayou Bengals made a propet of Tom Osborne, Nebraska coach, who had said there were a dozen or so teams winning of winning the national championship.
"The pollsters the ones who put us No. 1," Osteree said. And the pollsters only will waste little time in removing them. Cornhuskers from their exalted position.
Alabama dropped a 10-7 decision to Mississippi, Texas lost 14-13 to Boston College, Southern Cal lost gounced 46-25 by Missouri, Florida lost 24-21 to North Carolina and Miami of Ohio dropped a 21-16 decision to Marshall.
Very route.
Apt. 1 for 4
Must dens.
Small Inquil
Small ton 1
843-95
Missouri, which upset Alabama in the first game of the 1975 season, turned the trick again conclusively against Southern Alabama. Curtis Brown ran a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown and scored two more times against the error-gone Trojans.