The Anniston Star from Anniston, Alabama • Page 17

lo Sunday, Sept. 28, 1986 a Tiger put tMe squeeze on Charles Goldberg Star Sports Editor By JERRY RUTLEDGE i-. Star Sports Writer AUBURN Tracy Rocker has heard tand read the criticisms and skepticisms following the Auburn Tigers this football season. I The Tiger defensive tackle was remem-iUerlng them all late Saturday afternoon in Aoburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium dressing ''Everybody's been talking-. Saying we haven't played anybody," the sophomore defensive tackle said.

"They say We've got Ja-defense, but we haven't played anybody, jthey say we have a new passing offense, haven't played anybody. I 'SThev said we'll see when Tennessee I r-i rtf. J' pW I jornes to town. Well, we think they saw this tanernoon. Yes.

Tracy. They saw. A- 94 KM fond anA a roainnaX television audience looked on as Auburn -demolished the Tennessee Volunteers' dreams of a repeat Southeastern Con- I' i'i si D' YARDSTICK Auowrit 34 Tennessee 4 V. II 351 41 4)t IS 0 1-0 7-41 13 107 183 WO 13 10 0 42 225 430 24:43 Flrl downs Yards rushing Yards patting Total offense Piwi attempted Passes completed Intercepted by Fumbles-lost Yards penalized Punting avg. Time ol possesion ference championship with a commanding 144 victory In Jordan-Hare Stadium.

I. But what did they see? A great team? A Igootrteam? Nobody knows for sure. Even Tiger head 'Coach Pat Dye has his questions. "It would be a big mistake for us to say 'we're a great football team because we have a long way to go," said Dye after the "We don't know how good a team Ten-nesee has. If I knew Tennessee was a great team, I'd know what kind of football team -we've got.

But I can't say that." JOHNNY MAJOR'S Vols were not a very jgood football team in the heat and humidity of Auburn in early autumn. Tennessee never got anything going either offensively or defensively. The Vols produced only 290 yards in total offense against a Tiger defense led by Rocker and linebackers Kurt Crain, Aundray Bruce and Edward Phillips. ii.mii. 0 v-i I yjr 3 For the third time in three games, the Jim Donahue-coached Tennessee defense ave up more than 400 yards to an opponent.

Auburn produced 419 yards against a unit most considered the toughest in the SEC last year. "From our standpoint, I don't know how we could have played any worse," Majors sid. "I don't want to put that first becuase I don't want to take anything from Auburn. But we didn't play very well." Tennessee drops to 1-2 overall and 0-2 in (Please see Tigers on Page 4b) Score one for Auburn AUBURN His running backsJeff Burger remembers, were yelling "Score! core! score!" His orders read: "Run out the clock." He tried. He didn't.

Jeff Burger, the Auburn quarterback, took the snap, stood in the backfield and pitty-patted around as the clock wound down here Saturday, but when Tennessee failed to make the tackle again he saw nothing wrong with casually walking 1 yard into the end zone. It was nothing personal. It was just Auburn. It was just Tennessee. It was Just fitting.

"It was an appropriate ending to an Imperfect day," said Tennessee coach Johnny Majors after watching his defending Southeastern Conference champion Volunteers not only fall to Auburn 34-8, but out of the league championship picture with an 0-2 conference mark. Burger took the snap at the Tennessee 1-yard line with about 10 seconds remaining, took a step back and waited for the Tennessee defensive line to surge forward. But the Vols just stood around, again the nearby Tennessee tans just booed and Burger just scored with three seconds left. "Tennessee, I guess, just walked off the field, didn't they?" asked Auburn head coach Pat Dye. "I was the most shocked guy on the field when they signalled a touchdown." Both Dye and Majors dismissed the play, but it nonetheless told the story of this game.

Auburn rolled easily and Tennessee couldn't do anything about it. IT WAS AS one-sided as Tennessee's 36-20 win over then No. 1-ranked Auburn last year. And, yes, it was over early. Reporter: "Coach, it was pretty close at the half.

Dye "Pretty close? Do you really think it was close?" Reporter: "Well, the score was close." Dye: "Yeah, the score was close." But not much else. Although Auburn only led 10-0 at the half, Dye knew his Tigers were clearly the best team. And he knew Tennessee was living on past glories. "It would be a big mistake for us today to call ourselves a great football team because we've got a long way to go," warned Dye, who seemed somewhat disappointed Tennessee didn't make a better game out of it. But who's listening? After crushing flyweights Tennessee-Chattanooga and East Carolina, Auburn was ready to prove itself in this heavyweight fight.

Score it a TKO in the second. But leave room for some questions: Both Majors and Dye said Tennessee may not have been the true test for these Tigers. "I really didn't know what kind of football team we were, and I still don't know what kind of tootball team we are," said Dye. You don't dare discount victories over Tennessee no matter how they are achieved, however, and maybe especially in the way this one was achieved in this oven they call Jordan-Hare Stadium. THE NEW AND much-ballyhooed Air Auburn crashed and burned on takeoff, but it didn't matter.

Dye just deregulated the passing game. So, although Burger was only 6 of 15 passing for 6f yards, the forgotten Tiger ground gain was able to Churn out 358 yards and all four touchdowns. Tailback Brent Fullwood led the way with 207 yards on 18 carries. Air Auburn? They may spend millions for TWA, but nobody would have paid a buck-50 for this little enterprise. "I call myself a passing coach and we tried awful hard to throw the ball today Dye said, his voice trailing off "We planned to throw the football; we planned to use a lot of formations; and run and throw.

But, Lord, we got into a dang guessing match with them and I was just figuring on who would win the match. It looked like to me if we had come out there in just plain ol' vanilla and gone jaw to jaw, old fashioned style, it might not have been pretty, but it might have been effective." Auburn might not have run a pure vanilla offense, but it didn't scoop up Rocky Road, either. After hitting only 5 of 12 passes in the first half, Burger played it close to the vest the rest of the way, throwing only three more times in second half, only once in the final 21 minutes. But who needed to pass? Tennessee might have conceded its inability to play with Auburn on its second series of the game when it quick kicked on third down. But that was perhaps the Vols' best third-down play.

AUBURN ALLOWED Tennessee to convert only one of 13 third-down situations and only one of four fourth-down plays. The Tigers converted eight of 20 of those crucial plays. "I'm just as proud of Jeff Burger's performance out there today completing 6 out of 15 as I've been with him completing whatever of whatever," said Dye. "It doesn't make any difference. If you win, that's when a quarterback does his job." And Auburn did quite a job on Tennessee hew Saturday.

Star rt Auburn running back Brent Fullwood rushed 18 times for 207 yards in Tigers' easy SEC victory Th Hurrican es bio 'No. 1 Sooners away on the horizon for the Sooners is a moot point. "There is no one even close to them now," said Oklahoma's Barry Switzer, a losing coach for the first time in 10 games. "We're a good team. Our kids played their guts out.

But Miami is a great team." And just as the Hurricanes had done a year ago when they gave the Sooners their only defeat (27-14), the second-ranked Hurricanes (4-0) had a great day. Testaverde, with his nationally televised performance, may very well have sealed (Please see Hurricanes on Page 8B) having fun." Bosworth, serenaded by many in the Orange Bowl crowd of 71,451 with "Goodbye, Boz" and then pelted with garbage as he left the field, smiled at Brown. Bosworth wished Testaverde good luck in his quest for the Heisman Trophy and then said softly, "I was just having fun, too." BUT ON THE afternoon when the top two teams in college football met, the fun belonged solely to the Hurricanes, who not only shattered Oklahoma's Wisbbone offense, but its dream of an unbeaten season. Whether another national championship is By MARK BLAUDSCHUN Dallas Morning News MIAMI In the bedlam surrounding the the Orange Bowl. The three players had taken the lead all week as the two camps traded insults, but now, Brown and Testaverde hugged their beaten rival.

"Hey, man, I didn't mean nothing by what I said," Brown said. "I was just fend of Miami's 28-16 victory over Oklaho ma on Saturday, Hurricanes Jerome Brown and Vinny Testaverde found OU linebacker Brian Bosworth at midfield of Jacksonville State rolls past West eorgia 52-34 it By TOMMY HICKS Star Sports Writer JACKSONVILLE It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was a victory. And in Bill Burgess' log of wisdom, the latter is the one thing in the universe of football that truly matters.

It Was all that mattered Saturday night. mmmmm Bordered on yardstick i the edce of brilliance, his Jacksonville St a Gamecocks let momentum es- Ja Slate $1 weieorola4 downs 17 40 Yards rushing 52 140 Yards passing 421 M0 Total offense 4(0 ll Passes attempted 41 Passes completed 25 2 intercepted by 0 3 Fumples-lost- 2-2' MnallMll 4.44 cape their Punting ag. M0 2 grasp and With mmmmmmmmmmimmmmmmmmm it a SOUnd and swarming JSU defense in the first half, collected 480 total yards, 428 of it via the pass and 317 of that coming in the second half alone. The Gamecocks stormed to a quick 21-0 lead and went to the locker room with a 24-6 advantage at half time. The lead was 38-6 with only 2:31 reamining in the third period.

Then they held on for their lives and West Georgia Air literally tried to throw itself back into a game it had no business rejoining. Burgess was ecstatic with his team's offensive performance. He was happy with his defense, too, which kept the Braves' one-back attack on its back much of the time. Burgess was not pleased with his own performance, blaming himself for Jacksonville's loss of momentum in the second half "I'm awfully proud of our kids for winning," he said. "I don't care how many points are scored as long as we had more points than West Georgia." Who could blame Burgess for a twinkle in his eyes as he talked about the triple option attack, his bread and butter for so many years.

It was ok) home night for the Gamecock coach whose Oxford High School teams had buried so many opponents with the same scheme in games gone by. "The triple option game was the best its been this year," be said. "With the offense they had we needed to control the snaps and I think we did that." (Please see Jax State on Page 6B) thrashing of the West Georgia Braves. Still, Jacksonville came out ahead in a football game disguised as a track meet, bludgeoning West Georgia 52-34 in a Gulf South Conference encounter before 9,800 at Paul Snow Memorial Stadium. The numbers are staggering.

Jacksonville, its triple option offense totally destroying West Georgia's defense, piled up 600 yards, 460 on the ground. The Gamecocks set a GSC record with 25 rushing first downs and fell only 44 yards short of a school record for total offense. They had six players with 50 or more yards rushing and three different quarterbacks accounted for six touchdowns. WEST GEORGIA, stymied by an aggressive The JSU defense had its moments.