UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, October 4, 1996
5B
ALL SPOR
Ohio State football coach John Cooper and his No. 3 Buckeyes will take on Penn State at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow in Columbus, Ohio.
Penn State-Ohio rivalry hits field
National title quest overtakes recruiting battle
The Associated Press
For so long, the rivalry between Penn State and Ohio State has been played out in the living rooms of high school sensations across football-fertile Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
The playing field has expanded. Rapidly.
With Penn State in its fourth Big Ten season, recruiting wars now are overshadowed by Rose Bowl fever. And sometimes, like this season, the stakes are even higher.
When the No. 4 Nittany Lions (5-0) play the No. 3 Buckeyes (3-0) before more than 95,000 fans at Ohio Stadium tomorrow, the winner also remains in the national title chase.
"It's becoming a very intense football game," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "As we play games and they become significant ones like this one, there will be a tradition that will build up."
The foundation, thanks to annual battles for players, has been there for decades. And now that the schools are playing on a regular basis, it's remarkable to see how similar the programs really are.
The Buckeyes and Lions recruit many of the same players and are among the NCAA all-time leaders in victories, bowl appearances, attendance and sending players to the NFL.
Penn State has 709 victories, 32 bowl appearances and 32 players on NFL opening-day rosters. Ohio State has 682 victories, 28 bowl appearances and 35 players on NFL rosters.
Ohio State had a Hall of Fame coach in Woody Hayes for 28 years; Penn State has Paterno, in his 31st season.
Both teams have similar approaches to the game. On defense, the watchwords are attacking and hard-hitting. The Lions have allowed 27 points in five games; the Buckeves 23 in three games.
A natural rivalry if ever there was one. When the Big East was created, Penn State wanted no part of it, preferring to become the 11th team in the Big Ten. The match seems to be a good one.
On offense, it's power and patience, with Ohio State throwing in a dose of explosiveness. Ohio State leads the nation in scoring at 57 points per game, while Penn State averages 32.2 per game.
Penn State-Ohio State really heated up last season in the 11th game between the border rivals. Ohio State's Eddie George ran 6 yards for a score with 1:42 left and lifted the Buckeyes to a 28-25 victory at State College. Penn State leads the series 7-4.
The schools are 311 miles apart,but
recruiters travel the same interstates in search of high-school stars. The competition is fierce, and it probably is one of the main reasons the on-field rivalry has become so intense so quickly.
Many of the players in Saturday's game, including Penn State running back Curts Enis and Ohio State cornerback Shawn Springs, received the full recruiting treatment from Paterno and Ohio State coach John Cooper.
Enis, Ohio's Mr. Football in 1993, was pursued from all angles. And when the Buckeyes slipped up, the Lions moved in for the kill.
Oops. Enis said the mistake stuck with him and gave Penn State the edge. But the Buckeyes didn't give up until Enis signed on the dotted line.
As a sophomore at Mississinawa Valley High School, Enis received a recruiting letter from Ohio State. It was addressed to Chris Fenis.
Orlando Pace, Ohio State's mammoth tackle, recalled trying to persuade Enis to reconsider at the 1994 Big 33 game, an all-star matchup of Ohio and Pennsylvania high school stars.
"We had about eight or nine guys who
were going to Ohio State, and we were all talking to him. He actually considered it," Pace said. "But he looked around and decided to stay with Penn State."
Enis, who has 550 yards on 92 carries, obviously was a player worth fighting for. He's just one of 13 Ohioans on the Penn State roster, while, surprisingly, there is just one Pennsvyanian — nose guard Randy Homa — listed on the Buckeyes' roster.
The programs have similar football traditions, but Paterno said other factors came into play when a player decides which State he preferred.
"Kids are going to lork at programs and see which one has the best opportunity for them," he said. "Whether they want to stay closer to home, or whether they want to get away. They're too many intangibles involved in it."
Penn State flanker Chris Campbell of Akron, Ohio, was a Buckeyes' fan until it came time to pick a school.
"They tried to get me pretty hard," he said of Ohio State. "I went down there a few times unofficially, just to hang out. It wasn't the place for me, though. I maybe liked the coaching staff up here more than the coaching staff down there."
Paterno missed out on defensive ends Mike Vrabel and Matt Finkes.
Hard stint to begin for No.1 Florida
"We tried to recruit both of them," Paterno said. "They're quality people. They've got character, they're intense, and in great physical condition. They come all the time."
The Associated Press
Top-ranked Florida faces a tough Southeastern Conference swing, starting Saturday at Arkansas, and coach Steve Spurrier isn't even done fiddling with his offensive line.
Is he worried?
"I've got no fear at all," Spurrier said. "We've got six players we've got a lot of confidence in."
The problem is left tackle Mo Collins, out at least temporarily while the school investigates his eligibility. That means when quarterback Danny Wuerffel moves in under the center Saturday, he'll see a few different numbers and a few numbers in different places.
"This is about like we are each year," Spurrier said. "We're in good shape, probably like most teams. Most teams don't have two complete units, anyway."
In the next two weeks, Florida faces No.14 LSU and No.20 Auburn.
Collins was declared ineligible while the university investigates the $500 he took from an agent's associate after the Fiesta Bowl last Jan. 2.
In other games involving ranked teams Saturday, it's Clemson at No. 2 Florida State, No. 4 Penn State at No. 3 Ohio State, Boise State at No. 5 Arizona State, No. 6 Michigan at No. 22 Northwestern, No. 7 Nebraska at No. 16 Kansas State, No. 12 Virginia at Georgia Tech, Kentucky at No. 13 Alabama, Vanderbilt at No. 14 LSU, No. 15 North Carolina at Wake Forest, California at No. 17 Southern California, Stanford at No. 18 Washington, Boston College at No. 19 West Virginia, South Carolina at No. 20 Auburn, Oklahoma State at No. 23 Texas, No. 24 Utah at Texas-El Paso and No. 25 Wyoming at San Jose State.
In a game last night, No. 9 Tennessee played Mississippi at Memphis, Tenn., and No. 21 Brigham Young is at Utah State tonight.
Clemson hasn't done too well against Florida State since the Seminoles joined the Atlantic Coast Conference, going 0-4, including 57-0 in 1993. But after a 21-10 victory over Wake Forest, Clemson is feeling a little more confident.
"They said there was no way Arizona State could beat Nebraska. Look what happened," Clemson quarterback Nealon Greene said.
Coach Tommy West sounds a warning note, however.
"If we can't do what we're supposed to do, then they'll look like the No. 2 team in the country," West said.
When Penn State (5-0) travels to Ohio State (3-0) it will mark the third straight week that Top Five teams have been matched up. First, it was Florida State and Tennessee, then Ohio State and Notre Dame, now this.
Last Saturday, Ohio State beat the Irish 29-16, hurting Lou Holtz's team more with the blitz than probably any other single weapon.
Ohio State has won two of the last three meetings with Penn State since the Nittany Lions joined the Big Ten. Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George scored on a 6-yard run with 1:42 left to give the Buckeyes a 28-25 victory last year at State College, Pa.
"We did not blitz as much as you guys think we did," Buckeyes coach John Cooper said. "We blitzed at the right time. The blitz was effective."
The game is sold out and attendance might exceed the Ohio Stadium record of 95,537.
Sooners would sooner be winning
The Associated Press
NORMAN, Okla. — Oklahoma's John Blake is like any coach at a struggling program — he believes he has the plan that will bring the Sooners back.
But no one knows exactly how the Sooners got in this fix.
Oklahoma, with six national championships, is 0-3 entering Saturday's game against Kansas. Counting the final three games of last year, the Sooners have lost a school-record six in a row.
It is a safe bet the Sooners will lose more than seven games for the first time.
"We haven't had a losing season here in 30 years," said athletic director Steve Owens, one of the school's three Heisman Trophy winners. "It's
painful for all of us; it's very painful. But it’s just a pain we’re going to have to go through."
He and Blake have preached that time is the only cure.
The cause doesn't matter to Blake.
"That's really irrelevant right now, because right now we've got to do nothing but look to the front, look to the future," said the 34-year-old head coach. "You recognize why the program is in this situation. We've identified it. Let's go to work and get it back where it belongs."
John Blake
Blake replaced Howard Schnellen-
berger, who was forced out after only one year in Norman. Schnellenberger's team started the 1995 season 3-0 and ranked No.10, then got blown out by Colorado in its first real test.
The Sooners have been skidding ever since. Their only victories in the past year have come against Iowa State and Missouri, who were two of the weakest teams in the old Big Eight Conference and who aren't on Oklahoma's Big 12 schedule this year.
Schnellenberger had replaced Gary Gibbs, who resigned under pressure after six years in charge. When Gibbs replaced Barry Switzer in 1989, the program just had been placed on probation and had been scandalized by the arrests of five players on drug, weapons and sex charges.
Schnellenberger used a springtime tour of the state to stoke fan interest last year, and interest continued to build during the 3-0 start. Memorial Stadium was sold out when Colorado visited for the second night game in school history.
"Then boom, the bottom fell out," Owens said of the 38-17 loss. "All of a sudden all the air went out of the bubble."
Gibbs restored order while keeping Oklahoma competitive. He took the Sooners to three bowl games and never won fewer than five games.
And it hasn't returned. Blake, a former Sooner player and assistant coach, was hired in large part because of his ties to the school and his reputation as a good recruiter. After all, the best way to win is with good players.
The Associated Press
Pitcher recalls perfect game in World Series
NEW YORK — By his own admission, Don Larsen was an unlikely candidate for pitching the best game in World Series history.
And yet on one brilliant autumn afternoon 40 years ago Tuesday, baseball's version of everyman topped the October performances of Mathews and Young, Johnson and Gibson, Koufax and Ford.
No nothing.
No runs, no hits, no errors.
This was not just the only no-hitter in World Series history. This was a no-hitter with an exclamation point: A Perfect Game!
Today, Larsen chuckles at the irony of it. He was just a journeyman pitcher, a gangly guy his Yankees teammates called Gooney Bird. He lost more games than he won in a career that stretched from 1953 to 1967.
So how could an ordinary, nondescript guy like that pitch a perfecto — 27 batters up, 27 batters down — in the glare of a World Series game at Yankee Stadium?
Larsen knew what he was up against. Brooklyn's lineup was loaded with four future Hall of Famers and four other tough outs.
"It's a wonder I didn't faint, 'Larsen said. I thought to myself, 'I hope I don't screw it up like Game 2' I went out and warmed up, wondering 'Why me?'
The architect of the perfect game would be Yankees catcher Yogi Berra.
"You rely on the catcher more than anyone," Larsen said. "He knows if
Actually, Larsen wasn't sure he'd ever get a chance to do it. Still, nobody ever knew what Casey Stengel, the master manipulator and Yankee manager, might pull. There was always the possibility that Larsen would get the ball again. So on the night before Game 5, Larsen jokingly told a reporter that he'd probably throw a no-hitter the next day.
The next day, when he arrived at the parkball, he found a ball in his shoe, placed there by coach Frank Crosetti, which was the way Yankees pitchers learned they were to start games.
He didn't mention a perfect game.
There was a long foul by Amoros and another by Snider, and nothing else. Each inning, the Dodgers went out 1-2-3 and by the seventh, Larsen began thinking about the scoreboard and all those zeros.
One out followed another, and soon Larsen was facing the 27th batter.
Larsen stepped off the mound to collect himself.
There were a couple of close calls. In the second inning, Jackie Robinson lined a ball that deflected from third baseman Andy Carey to shortstop Gil McDougald, who threw the runner out. Robinson was in his last season, but if he were younger and faster, he might have beaten the ball.
In the fifth, Hodges drove a 2-1 pitch to deep left center, where Mickey Mantle ran the ball down and made a one-handed catch.
"You expect a hit to happen," he said. "Every pitcher does."
you've got your good stuff, if the ball is moving. All I did was keep trying to put the ball into Yogi's glove, wherever he put it. I just tried to get the ball where Yogi wanted it and hoped for the best."
Umpire Babe Pinelli, working his final game behind home plate, called it strike three.
Mitchell turned to argue, but there was no one there for him to talk to. Yankee Stadium was bedlam. Larsen, with Berra in his arms, was mobbed by the rest of the Yankees.
With 14 future Hall of Famers in Yankee Stadium that day, Larsen was probably the least likely guy to have made it a game to remember.
He grinned at that.
you know," he said, "it doesn't bother me a bit."
একটি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ প্রশ্ন। যদি আমাদের সংখ্যার মান হলো এক ফলে প্রশ্ন অনেক কম হবে তাহলে একটা সংখ্যা হবে।
"It was a good pitch, up and over the plate," Larsen said. "I'm glad he didn't swing."
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Throwing mostly fastballs — "I put everything I had left behind every pitch," Larsen said — he ran the count to 1-2.
"My legs were shaking," he said. "I thought, 'Just get me through one more.' To get that close and mess it up, they run me out of the ballpark."
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