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University Daily Kansan Friday, March 20, 1964
Mitchell Seeks Linebackers As Spring Football Begins
KU's spring football practice gets underway Monday, and Coach Jack Mitchell's attention will be focused on 12 linebacking candidates.
"Finding linebackers," Mitchell said, "is our major problem, mainly because our linebacking experience is very limited and this is a phase of defense in which we need to improve greatly."
About 80 prospects are expected to report for football. Two Jayhawk regulars, All-America halfback Gayle Sayers and quarterback Steve Renko, will miss football drills for duty with the track and baseball squads. Sayers is scheduled for action in both hurdles events and the broad jump. Renko is a pitcher.
COMPLICATING THE LOSS of KU's experienced linebackers is the graduation loss of veteran fullbacks Ken Coleman and Armand Baughman, who doubled in damaging the opposing teams both as backs and backers through the last two seasons.
John Hadl, two-time All-America quarterback here in 1960 and 1961, and now with the San Diego Chargers, will work with Jayhawk quarterbacks during spring practice.
The original plan calls for left guards and fullbacks to fill the back-up posts, but this could change to a pair of fullbacks or a pair of guards since the new Big Eight rules will allow a measure of platooming next season.
Coach Jack Mitchell
The opening sets of nominees to
fill the important positions line up this wav:
Left guards--Greg Roth, 204, Hays, junior; Santo Buda, 205, Omaha, Neb, sophomore; Kim Smith, 180, Fort Worth, Texas, junior; Bill Perry, 185, Herington, Junior; Fred Heidinger, 190, Jacksonville, Ill., sophomore and R. B. Miller, 205, Platte City, Mo., sophomore.
FULLBACKS — DICK BACON
K-State a Two-Point Pick Over No.1-Ranked UCLA
KANSAS CITY—(UPI)—The oddsmakers ignored past performances in making Duke a four-point favorite over Michigan and Kansas State a two-point pick over UCLA tonight in the semifinals of the NCAA basketball playoffs.
UCLA, unbeaten in 28 regular season games and named the national champion, scored a 78-75 victory over Kansas State (22-5) and Michigan (22-4) breezed to an 83-67 triumph over Duke (25-4) in December.
But the changes which K-State's Tex Winter and Duke's Vic Bubas have made in their teams since then convinced the oddsmakers to throw out those early season games.
"WE WERE DOING a lot of experimenting then," Winter says of his club at the time it bowed to UCLA, "and since then we have settled on seven boys—a rather unusual trend for me since I normally make full use of my bench."
The Atlantic Coast Conference champions now live up to a "fast, exciting and entertaining" tag with their rapid-fire fast break.
BUT, THE "coming of age" of one man on each club has probably had as much to do with their late-season success as anything else.
For Kansas State, it was the development of forward Jeff Simons, a junior playmaker without a noticeable weakness, to bolster the likes of 6-6 Willie Murrell and 7-foot Roger Suttner.
For Duke, it was the mid-February about-face performance of 6-10 senior Jay Buckley, who—in Bubas' words—"suddenly started playing and rebounding like a demon" while Duke was winning 18 of its last 19 games.
Michigan coach Dave Strack, whose tallest starters are 6-7 Bill Buntin and Oliver Dardin, still figures "rebounding is our forte" and hopes to use that tactic plus the 23-point shooting average of Buntin and 24.6-point output of soph Cazzie Russell to dunk Duke's hopes.
Tonight's losers will play for third place at 7 p.m. tomorrow night with the winners meeting for the national championship at 9 p.m.
Flowers for all Occasions at OWENS
***
210, Neodesha, sophomore; Arden Gray, 195, Phillipsburg, sophomore; Kent Craft, 190, Council Grove, sophomore; Bill Gerhards, 213, Leavenworth, junior; Dennis Liggett, 189, King City, Mo., junior, and Ron Oelschlag, 195, Marion, senior.
We wire flowers anywhere in the free world
****
9th & Ind.
VI 3-6111
Oelschlager has been a slotback for the past two seasons, but with Gerhards the lone letterman hold-over at this spot, the Jayhawks are in need of propping here.
Gerhards carries good running and blocking potential, but his 5-8 height is certain to be a linebacking handcap. Gray, a starter with last year's unbeaten freshmen, and Bacon, are rated good young prospects. Craft did a good job with the 1962 frog squash, but missed last season with a knee injury as did Liggett.
Roth is the only experienced guard, earning his letter last year on the No. 3 unit as a sophomore. He made a 20-yard touchdown run with a fourth-quarter interception at Wyoming last October as the Jayhawks came back from a two-touchdown deficit for a 25-21 victory.
Smith also lettered as a third-stringer last year, but has limited experience as a linebacker. Through necessity, Buda played end with the 1963 freshmen, but was a high school guard.
Perry was regarded as the best linebacker on the squad last spring, but was required to sit out the season under the transfer rule. Heidinger impressed coaches with his quick, aggressive defensive play with the freshmen last year. Miller is also regarded as a good prospect.
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