Friday;; . Optemberr 6, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Eleverv-B Friday, September 6, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Eleven-B Trojans all Far likely to crush est opponents LOS ANGELES - Tongue in this time of year. cheek, Coach John McKay ruled In 14 seasons, McKay has out perhaps the only way his coached three Trojan teams to Southern California Trojans can national championships, the lat- be dethroned as the best col- est in 1972. lege football team on the West "We've got as good material Coast. as we've had in a long time, "We're not going on strike," including 1972," said McKay. the 51-year-old McKay quipped Since that team went 12-0, to a gathering of writers before thrashing Ohio State 42-17 in the his Trojans opened fall prac- Rose Bowl, and was applauded tice. "There's no freedom on by many as one of the best, our team." if not the best, in college foot- The coach continued his paro- ball history, the race in the dy of the pro football strike: Pac-8 this year probably is for "All our players are free to second place. leave any time they want. McKay, whose Trojans collide Some do at various times." Nov. 30 with defending national champion Notre Dame, didn't HOWEVER, enough players rule out, however, the chance - 34 lettermen including quar- "we could get beat on any Sat- terback Pat Haden, tailback An- urday." thony Davis and All-American UCLA and Stanford have the linebacker Richard Wood - are best shots at USC in the Pac-8. back at University Park to D I C K Vermeil, the new make the always optimistic UCLA coach who served his McKay unusually radiant. apprenticeship under John Ral- "Wel a shooting for the na- ston at Stanford, Tommy Pro- tional championship," he has thro at UCLA and with the Los said over and over to booster Angeles Rams under George groups. Usually he merely guns Allen and Chuck Knox, said, "I for the Pacific-S championship feel we have a chance to win and trip to the Rose Bowl at every game we play. If we had t to play a great team every week, we'd probably get beat a few times, but we'll definitely be competitive." Vermeil shucked Pepper Rod- gers' high4coring wishbone for- mation in favor of the Veer-T. Rod Dowhower, who went with Don Coryell from pass-minded San Diego State to the St. Louis Cardinals, is Vermeil's top of- fensive assistant. The Bruins went 9-2 last sea- son, losing to the Trojans, 23-13, for the Pac-8 title. Thirty-five lettermen return, headed by j u n i o r quarterback John Sciarra, a dangerous option runner. Top priority at Westwood, however, is improving the de- fense, and Vermeil has a highly rated linebacker, Fulton Kuy- kendall, and a promising jay- cee transfer, 6-7, 261-pound, tackle Cliff Frazier. JACK Christiansen at Stan- ford already has a tough de- fense with returning starters Roger Stillwell and Pat Dono- van at defensive end and Gor- don Riegel among four veteran linebackers. The Cardinals, who lost to USC 27-26 on a last-gasp Tro- jan field goal last November, have to come up with a quar- terback to replace Mike Bory- Ia. Sophomore Mike Cordova is the leading candidate, a 6-4, 215-pounder reminiscent in looks and mannerisms to 1970 Heisman Trophy winner Jim and Gary Larsen at linebacker, but they must replace eightn- starters on defense. California, Oregon, U C L A, USC and Washington State all scored more than 40 points against Jim Owens' Washington Huskies, who were 0-7 in the J Pac-8 and 2-9 overall. The Huskies demand a lot of im- provement from 10 returning defensive starters. OREGON, 2-9, has offensive punch in quarterback Herb Sin- gleton and diminutive running back Don Reynolds. The Ducks list 14 returning starters but they'll need help and it could come from a dozen junior col- lege transfers. Reynolds a n d sophomore Rick Kane give Oregon the best one-two running punch they've had since Mel Renfro and Lar- ry Hill, say the Ducks. Dee Andros at Oregon State has suffered back-to-back 2-9#} seasons. Alvin White is back at quarterback, along with some linemen and running backs. But Daily Photo by STEVE KAGAN the schedule, including USC and LAST YEAR, Stanford's defense was nothing to write home about as they were crushed by UCLA 59-13 and by Michigan 47-10. Ohio State, appears an uphill If the Cards are to challenge Southern Cal for Far West supremacy, they will need improvement from defensive backs like battle. John "Doc" Blanchard (29) and Jim Kaffen (22), shown here stopping Michigan's Chuck Heater last year at Michigan Stadium. li or tales Penn PATERNO ROLLS ON, S., Ptt to, rule .1I 1- Ma!aM. wiaft2 to iue----'1 !1 .baseball ex pans Ic W ea3mUUU ,U ' ,ton. , ,.,not nog AJOR League baseball executives and owners are presentlyf onsidering proposals for expanding the current roster of 24 teams to 28, starting in the 1976 season. This would be a fatal error for the grand old national past- time for various reasons, some old and others new. Many of the traditional anti-etpansion arguments such as ;fttther dilution of the quality of play, lengthening the schedule to accommodate the new teams, and the still more infrequent visits of some of the game's great stars to each town, are every bit as valid as they ever were. We've all heard the old-time sportswriters tell us of base- bAll's glory years when there were 16 teams in two time zones and the ease with which the astute fan could know the lineups and batting orders of all the major league teams. Since my recollection of baseball goes back to just the early 60's I'm too young to remember the Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers but there is no denying that the traditional setup would have trickled my fancy also. In spite of the outcry, the American and National League each added two teams in the early Sixties and another quartet of clubs were created in 1969 bringing the total to 24, where it has remained since. In the intervening years, almost every other professional sport has experienced a bulky expansionary trend either in the form of a new league or the addition of new franchises to the existing league. While World Hockey, Tennis and Football Leagues have sprung up like crabgrass, baseball has had but one franchise shift and the same number of teams for almost six years. A players' strike may have hurt its image two years ago but right now, with three tight pennant races brewing and a 35-1 year old man approaching the all-time stolen base record, base-1 ball looks very much alive and healthy. By remaining stable for a mere six years, baseball is getting its old conservative, established reputation back while newj leagues and lawsuits seem to be dominating the other pro sports. Fans seem to have grown accustomed the divisional alignments and now can settle back on Labor Day and watch each division settle its own outcome without any interference from teams in the other three divisions. Although the play- offs pollute the purity of the World Series, the Idea of four six-team races every year is every bit as appealing as the old League format. No baseball official in his right mind would say that another four baseball teams sharing the limited supply of quality ball- players will help the game. However, they might say that they don't want to get shut out of the New Orleans Superdome when it finally opens or be saddled with the lawsuit brought by the city of Seattle after its Pilots were whirled out of town in 1970. Toronto and Washington, D.C. are also clamoring for teams as soon as possible, but if the owners care about anything except turnstile counts, they won't add another four teams. First of all, if each division were to have seven teams, the scheduling difficulties would be immense. For instance, no di- vision could have games just among itself with an odd number of teams. Say the Tigers, Orioles and Red Sox were battling for the pennant and while two of them were playing each other, one might be on the West Coast battling the Cal Angels. Not very appealing, is it. I am not suggesting that baseball's present alignment is perfect, becausei t is far from it. The rationale for having Cincinnati and Atlanta in the Western Division and St. Louis aud the Chicago Cubs in the East is beyond me. Even though the best American League teams of the past decade have called Baltimore and Oakland home, both the Orioles and A's have trouble drawing fans to the ballpark. Thus, switch- ing these strong teams to better baseball towns might help the AL gate. Having a few prime cities like New Orleans and Toronto in the closet when a troubled franchise is looking for a new home doesn't hurt, but more teams have no redeeming virtues. (] i I 1 1 i 1 i i Plunkett. Stanford's loss at USC was NEW YORK (IP -- The last its only setback in its last six time Joe Paterno sang the' games of a 7-4 season. blues to any appreciable extentl "We hope we can pick up was just before the 1972 CottonM where we left off," said Chris- Bowl . . . and Penn State went" tiansen. "I haven't seen the out and whomped Texas 30-6. Trojans this year. Our barome- With his ninth season as head ter is pro scouts in the spring football coach of the Nittany and they say the Trojans look Lions just around the corner, awful good, the best team per- Paterno is performing a sum- sonnel-wise. Every year they mer rerun of that refrain as he aliggriandtiloeratn u-tries to duplicate last year's alfonia, stil erating un- best-ever 12-0 record and fifth- der NCAA sanctions that prohi- place finish in The Associated record and six Eastern titles in bit a post-season bowl trip, lost Press rankings. the last eight years. quarterback Vince Ferragamo, A mere one game separated who departed for Nebraska We are not going to be the first four teams in the 1973 where he'll sit out a year be- anywhere closerto beingras ir fur teas n te fore becoming eligible. good as we were last year, Ivy League race and no fewer Still, the Bears of Coach Mike says Paterno. "We aren't go- etoushan six eyes atthe 1974casting crown- White have quarterback Steve ing to dominate or overpower Bartkowski, decided to stay in- anybody. We are going to vDartmouth, Yale, Penn, Ha- stead of going into professional have to work hard to be com- yard, Cornell and - honestin- baseballexcellent receivers petitive."- "unk rown k.y r led by Steve Rivera, and a top- Those guffaws you hear are yotike, st yarwas flight running back in Chuckprblycmn fom sh competitive, just wait until flihtrunin bak Chckprobably coming from such' this fall," predicts Harvard's Muncie. way stations as Pittsburgh, Joe Resti , whose team fin- Morgantown, W. Va., Chestnut ished in a three-way tie for CAL, however, surrendered Hill, Mass., and Philadelphia. sed i n ae tie more than 40 points on five oc- Those are the respective lairs second with Penn and Yale, casions last season when they of Pitt, West Virginia, Boston one game behind Dartmouth. went 4-7. College and Temple, all of Defending champion Connecti- Washington State won the Pa- whom are ready to claim Penn cut and Massachusetts are fa- cific-Northwest championship State's annual mantle of East- vored in the Yankee Confer- of the Pac-8 last season, beat- er supremacy should the Lions ence. ing. Washington, Oregon and stumble. Penn State and Paterno are Oregon State in a 5-6 season. s bnot without problems. The Jim Sweeney's Cougars have The reason for the chuckles Lions must replace 13 starters, Andrew Jones back at fullback are Paterno's brilliant 75-13-1 including Heisman Trophy win- STILL NO. 1?; l I] m three victories in the last four games of 1973 as an untried sophomore. "He has unlimited potential, but is not as polished as he must become," says Bowden. Also back are 16 other start- ers, including explosive wide receiver Danny Buggs, who keeps defensive coaches awake nights. "We've got potential and ex- perience," says Bowden, "but ner John Capelletti and nine like a bomb, we can't explode others who went in the pro without an igniter." draft. The areas of concern at Bos- The only returning starters ton College are quarterback on offense are strong-armed and the middle of the offensive quarterback Tom Shuman, her- line. Mike Kruczek, last year'sf alded tight end Dan Natale, backup,, gets the nod at quar- guard John Nessel and center terback. The number he'll call Jack Baiorunos. The defense most often belongs to star tail- wasn't hit quite as hard, re- back Mike Esposito. turning halfback , Jim Bradley, The Eagles have a wealth linebacker Chris Devlin, tackle of talent returning on de- Mike Hartenstine, two solid fense, topped by Alex MacLel- ends in Dave Graf and Greg lan and Bill Smith, a pair of Murphy and some reserves nifty outside linebackers. with plenty of experience. Temple, undergoing a resur- Walt Addie, a 200-pound sen- gence with four consecutive ior, inherits the chore of replac- winning seasons under Coach ing Cappelletti. Wayne Hardin, has a golden op-I Pitt turned things around portunity to challenge PennI last fall with its first winning State-provided the Owls can season in a decade 6-5-1 and beat Pitt, West Virginia and, first bowl trip in 17 years. Boston College head-to-head. "You know it's always tough- Hardin says Steve Joachim er to reach that second pla- "may be the best quarterback teau," warns Coach Johnny Ma- in the United States" and there jors, warily eyeing a sched- are plenty of talented runners ule that includes Notre Dame, and receivers to go with him. Southern Cal and Penn Stt.- "We surprised some people last year, but they'll be ready for Sus this season. I'm confident gRA DE1S1 we'll have a better team than BRANDEIS last year, but this doesn't mean we'll have a better record." with Tony Dorsett, the fabulous H freshman who's now a super sophomore. The All-American Year Program or F tailback, who exploded for 1,586 yards, is joined by 14 other re- open to qualified turning regulars, including Spring Term only. starters at all the skill posi- tions. The offensive line and the receiving corps need work, but Juniors and Seni 255-pound middle guard Gary Earn 16 credits Burley heads eight returning P defensive veterans. Financial Aid Av Not far down the road from Pitt, in the hills of West Vir- ginia, Coach Bobby Bowden's Application Deadlines: M feels that "if our quarter- N backing comes through, we j o could be a pretty good coun- try football team." For information write: The That puts the pressure' Bra squarely on the shoulders-and Wa passing arm-of Ben Williams, who led the Mountaineers to The defense, which yielded only 33 points in its last five 1973 games, is experienced. Elsewhere among the inde- pendents, Syracuse seeks to re- turn to its glory days under a new coach, Frank Maloney. The former Michigan aide says he's been "associated with suc- cess all my life." Better he should be associ- ated with more standouts than quarterback J i m Donoghue, center Mike McNeely, tight end Bob Petchel and linebacker Ray Preston. Billboard The Waterpolo Program at Michigan is currently being ex- panded. Starting this year all persons affiliated with the Uni- versity will be able to partici- pate on an inter-collegiate level. Previously inter-collegiate play had been limited solely to var- sity swimmers. The new team will compete in the Midwest Waterpolo Conference. Current- ly the fall schedule consists of 10 games plus the League Championships.. New members are welcome. The first meeting of the Club will be held on Wednesday, Sep- tember 11th at 9:00 PM at Matt Mann Pool. For further information contact Jere John- ston, at 764-8963. UNIVERSITY 'VTE-ISRAEL all Term only. Also J students for the ors elegible 'er semester vailable arch 1st for Fall and Year ovember Ist for Spring e Jacob Hiatt Institute ndeis University ltham, Massachusetts 02154 ND battles NEW YORK (A) - Numero uno, nummer eins, loss to Hou numero un; no matter what the language, Notre Syracuse Dame is No. 1 in college football, in this fore- brings the caster's opinion. look is goo( The Fighting Irish were No. 1 when they left North Car the Sugar Bowl last January, with a coun- Buckley, P try limp from excitement following their spine- Wolfpacka tingling victory over Alabama, and they are the State's def defending national champions - as they plunge Houston into a new season before a national audience Cougars co Monday night against Georgia Tech. swing, flus Pepper Rodgers returns to his alma mater victory. Ari at Tech intent on installing the kind of power ing, is rebu attack that made UCLA one of the best rushing Memphis teams in the country. But it's tough trying out quarterbac] new wrinkles against the heavyweight cham- plus an exj pion. The Irish by two TDs. pounders g UCLA and Oregon State cross the continent to The othe test the mettle of the South and East. One will Richmond win, the other lose. 10; Tampa A sparse program - just an appetizer. 30, Canta C Tomorrow New Mexic UCLA 22, Tennessee 15: An exciting battle 28; Eastern between two scrambling quarterbacks, John William & Sciarra of UCLA and the Vols' Condredge Hol- loway. But everywhere else, the Bruins are Notre Da bigger and older if not faster. machine sh Tulane 21, Mississippia14: The Green Wave ments and must remember its last game victory over Pepper bac Louisiana State and forget that 57-7 nightmare the salt. Tech uston in the Bluebonnet Bowl. 20, Oregon State 13: Frank Maloneyj Michigan look to Syracuse and the! d. rolina State 25, Wake Forest 13: Dave ete Cordelli and Stan Fritts give the a solid running punch, and N. C. ense should be better. 22, Arizona State 18: The Houston me into the new season on the up- hed with their big Bluebonnet Bowl izona State, always high in the rank- uilding. State 34, Louisville 25: Two solid ks, Dave Fowler and Joe Bruner, perienced supporting cast of 200-plus ive the Tennesseans a lot of clout. rs: d 20, Villanova 7; Dayton 28, Drake 25, Chattanooga 12; San Jose State Clara 26; Pacific 32, Sacramento 15; co State 18, Wichita 7; Miami, Ohio, m Michigan 14; Mississippi State 19, Mary 14. Monday Night me 33, Georgia Tech 19: The Irish ould be in full swing with Tom Cle- [Art Best romping again. Tech has Ek but Ara Parseghian will provide MOTORCYCL ERACING -it VICTOR PARK, Milan, Michigan I! TWO BIG NITES Friday, Sept. 6-8 p.m. Saturday, Sept.1-8 p.m. TT Scrambles Semi Professional Short Track professional and amateur riders compete for cash and trophies l' Soectator Admissio~n $2.50 ASIAINAMsRI CAN ORUI ENTA~l ON E nr\A hr4 " a a 1. -. L.... LL- 1 i ..: +., 1