The Trojans have the horses
to repeat Rose Bowl selection
Sophomore strong safety Ernie
Taylor lets his mind wander
from practice proceedings, per
haps thinking of the generosity
given the Ducks by the Pac-10
schedule maker. Oregon does
Second part of a two part series.
This week, the southern teams.
Analysis by STEVE MYERS
Of the Emerald
The race is on for the
Pacific-10 crown.
In the past, the conference
champion has usually been
from sunny California and more
often than not the team has
been the University of Southern
California.
Early season polls (UPI and
AP) indicate that sports writers
and coaches around the
country have picked USC to win
the imaginary national crown for
the second year in a row. There
isn’t much reason to doubt
these football minds, but who
would have thought that the
University of Washington would
sneak past the mighty Trojans
and into the 1977 Rose Bowl,
much less beat the powerful
Michigan Wolverines.
In order for a team to win a
Pac-10 football crown twice in a
row, it usually needs to go
through the conference season
undefeated. In the Pac-10 that is
not an easy feat to accomplish.
Especially with the quality
teams produced by the Califor
nia and Arizona schools.
Here is a summary of what to
expect from Pac-10 teams south
of the Oregon border:
UCLA — Probably the big
gest difference from last year's
Bruin squad will be the lack of
power running back Theotis
“Big Foot” Brown, Olympic
hurdler James Owens at half
back, three-time consensus All
American (first time in the U S.
in 29 years) Jerry Robinson at
inside linebacker and second
team All-American Manu Tuia
sosopo at nose guard.
All told, fourth-year coach
Terry Donahue has lost 23 let
termen, including seven offen
sive starters and eight defensive
starters from the 1978 team that
had a season record of 8-3-1,
finished 12th on the UPI poll
(coaches selections) and 14th
on the AP poll (sports writers
selections).
According to Donahue the
1979 Bruin team will be “an
extremely inexperienced foot
ball team with a total of only 12
seniors on the entire squad.”
Pointing up the extreme youth
and inexperience of this year's
UCLA squad are these numbers
— 19 sophomores and 20 fresh
man redshirts returning. Among
these, no less than five sophs
are pencilled in as offensive
starters and four as defensive
starters, plus eight more listed
as second teamers.
To complicate matters, Don
ahue has switched from the
multiple offense to the 1-forma
tion to maRe best use of the
Photo by Jimmi Harris
not have U.S.C. on this year's
schedule — everyone's consen
sus pick for the Pac-10 crown
and challenger for the mythical
national championship.
Oregon /ftMetto
FALL FOOTBALL
CLEARANCE
Style
Riddell Breakaway
Riddell Gridstar
Riddell 478
Riddell XP
Sale
Reg.
$42.95
$36.95
$30.95
$49.95
$24.95
$20.95
$27.95
$30.95
ALL Speedo Women’s Swimsuits
25% off
Cotton Gym Shorts $3.50 and up
Oregon
VISA
•I
ON THE DOWNTOWN MALL
Hours: Mon-Fri 9-5:30, Sat 9-5
115 W. Broadway
Phone 343-1288
talents of quarterback Rick Ba
shore (6-0, 186). Donahue says
Bruin fans can expect con
siderably more passing to
balance up the offensive attack,
which has gone largely with the
ground game in recent years.
Last year UCLA averaged on
ly 12 pass attempts per game
and were under double figures
in half its games. In addition,
pass completions averaged only
5.6 per game and produced only
two scores through the air as
compared with 24 by rushing.
Last season, Bashore's aerial
statistics were 62 completions
in 129 attempts for 811 yards, as
opposed to his 1977 statistics of
74 completions in 149 attempts
for 1,015 yards.
The Bruin return to the air can
partly be accounted for by the
lack of experienced running
backs to replace the one-two
knockout punch of Brown and
Owens, but tailback Freeman
McNeil (5-11, 211), who netted
408 yards on 81 carries for a
five-yard average as a reserve,
will try. The rest of UCLA's
rushers are virtually untested,
but cannot be dicounted.
Donahue says his team’s
main strengths will be at tail
back, offensive center, tight
end, free safety and a returning
senior quarterback. He also
boasts of a good kicking game,
which features senior place
kicker Peter Boermeester (5-11,
198), who hit 15 of 21 field goal
attempts and 30 of 31 extra
point attempts. Handling the
punting duties will be 1978
starter Matt McFarland, who
averaged 39.1 yards on 80
kicks.
“I’d say our main weaknesses
are probably depth in the
secondary and depth in the
defensive line,” Donahue ex
plains. “We will have to have a
few come-through perfor
mances in 1979, particularly
against a schedule that has six
bowl teams on it."
Stanford — First-year coach
Rod Dowhower is the rookie
among Pac-10 head coaches.
And he will be hard pressed to
match the 1978 squad’s season
record of 8-4 and Pac-10 finish
of 4-3.
Although the Cardinals will
return 35 lettermen and 13
starters — six offensively and
seven defensively — there will
be some glaring holes to fill by
the loss of five key players. The
most sorely missed players will
be NCAA passing champion
Steve Dils; Stanford’s career
tackling leader, linebacker
Gordy Ceresino and Heisman
Trophy candidate Darrin Nel
son, the all purpose back
sidelined with a knee injury and
redshirting this season.
The loss of Nelson is par
ticularly harmful to Cardinal
hopes. The elusive Nelson holds
(Continued on Page 7B)
DON’T LET THE
AGONY OF THE
FEET SPOIL THE
THHILL OF VICTORY
We resole any brand of running,
tennis, or basketball shoe at:
Rerun,Inc.
1247 Villard, No. B
Eugene, OR 97403
(503) 687-9538
<£RU)»