The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 43

P.S., TV Listings, D4 SECTION D3 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1981 The Post McNeal Places His Pride Over His Pain To Play tout i a er er of no he ill lie ig in. Steve Hummer Sports Editor jams," said McNeal, referring to the strategy of slowing down a receiver by blasting him once near the line of scrimmage. "The coverage is mostly footwork and I think I can knock down the passes." In weighing all the evidence, there are many more factors trying to pull him into this game than trying to tear him away. This league doesn't want your excuses, just your body. There is the myth that the men who play professional football are beyond pain, that the more they hurt the harder they become and that nothing quite stirs them like the taste of their own blood.

What's a broken arm between friends? "Tell McNeal to save his pin for a swizzle stick," Kuechenberg said. Turn to HUMMER, D6 MIAMI As they say in the NFL, it is a big It is also a big arm. Don McNeal has rather attached to it; afterall.it has teen with him ever since he was a kid. You can see the dilemma of a second-year with a broken arm whose team is ireparing for the playoffs against the best assing attack of this decade. Here his coach las called him the best defensive player the rfiami Dolphins have, and all he did in the livisional championship game against Buffa-o was watch.

He watched some more yesterday morning luring the Dolphins breezy kicking game workout, his right arm layered in a cast, ice ind a sling, looking nothing like he can play Saturday afternoon. He participated in yester-iay afternoon's full-tilt session, swiping at asses with his good arm and looking like he night play against the San Diego Chargers as ong as Dan Fouts throws everything to his would be easy to come back so quickly from breaking the bone in his right forearm against Kansas City on Dec. 13. Kuechenberg has said his arm throbbed throughout the games be played with his broken left arm; to this day that arm is weaker than his right. He has told stories that his cast was reduced to powder by the fourth quarter, but technology has advanced enough since 1972 to allow McNeal a durable fiberglass cast nine years later.

The same stuff that holds Chris Crafts together is designed to hold McNeal together. He tried out his new, lightweight model for only the first time yesterday. Kuechenberg didn't have to worry about the post pattern. "He'll be confronted with many more things," coach Don Shula said, "forcing the run and playing the ball. If it looks like he can help us at all, we'll either use him in situations or the entire game." "My biggest problem will be getting in the left.

"I have been kind of protective of it in practice," said McNeal, "but when game time comes, who knows?" On the line between pain and pride, McNeal will have to know if he can leave the doubts in his locker long enough to track down Charlie Joiner and Wes Chandler as well every run to his side. Fighting off pulling guards on a sweep is tough enough without the knowledge that your right arm is held together by a pin. Urging him to play is precedent as well as the unwritten credo of this higher league that a man plays as long as he can walk. Bob Kuechenberg played the line during the stretch run of the Dolphins' undefeated 1972 season with a pin in his arm; and McNeal was shown the X-rays to prove it. Nagging him is the notion that a broken arm is nature's way of telling you to take a few weeks off from football.

(. 4, a. 3. St sa "I can't say either way now whether I'll be able to play," McNeal said. "I want to play, but I don't want to endanger myself either.

"Nobody is pressuring me. If I can play, then I'll play. If I can't play, then I'm just not going to play. I'll see how it goes during the week to make the best decision possible." Then it's entirely up to you? "Well, me and the coaches," McNeal said. No one has guaranteed McNeal that it Nebraska Doubled Up Withl-Backs A Complementing Duo Of Rozier and Craig Mountaineers' King Puts Friends On Hold, D2 Navy Tries To Give Welsh Liberty Sendoff, D2 By Dave George Poit Staff Writar MIAMI Herschel Walker and George Rogers, heavyweight champions among college football running backs in recent years, couldn't make it into the end zone the last time each played against Clemson.

But in Friday night's Orange Bowl game, the No. 1 Tigers face a different challenge against a tag-team of extraordinary running talent Nebraska I-backs Mike Rozier and Roger Craig. Operating under coach Tom Osborne's unusual strategy of alternating I-backs each series, Rozier and Craig give fourth-ranked Nebraska a fresh and furious running attack every time the Cornhusker offensive unit takes the field. By melting their individual abilities into a single unit, the two comprise a scoring juggernaut that never shifts out of high gear. And that's something even supermen such as Walker and Rogers can't do alone.

Rozier and Craig are awesome underclassmen who already may be Corn Belt legends if not for the escapades of former Nebraska I-backs Jarvis Redwine and I.M. Hipp. Together, Rozier and Craig rushed for 2,003 yards and 12 touchdowns in 1981. And they did it with relative ease, each popping off the bench every so often to scurry downfield at better than 6 yards per carry. Using this relay-race rushing plan, Nebraska was No.

2 in the nation in rushing with an average of 330.5 yards per game, just 4 yards behind Oklahoma. Craig, a junior from Davenport, Iowa, averaged just 15.7 carries per game this year. Rozier, a sophomore, averaged just 13.7. There is no need for either to play hurt or tired as long as the other is around. That luxury is not available to guys such as Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Allen and Walker, who sometimes throw their battered bodies into the line 40 times a game.

"It's really not difficult to get used to," said Rozier, 4Big Hands' Charged Up For Miami Henderso Arrested, D4 By Jay Lawrence lat St(H WrHar They're called the Bruise Brothers in San Diego and most offensive lines can tell you (or show you) why. There is Louie Kelcher. They call him Big-foot because of his 16EEE shoe size. At left tackle is Leroy Jones. He's Bad Bad Leroy Jones.

John Woodcock replaced the traded Fred (Too Mean) Dean and had nine sacks. Then there is Gary Johnson. Gary (Big Hands) Johnson. He's the leading sack artist on the team and was the NFL's defensive player of the year in 1980. The Chargers led the league with 60 quarterback sacks a year ago, and Johnson led the team with 17 He was double-teamed on his easier days.

Triple teaming Johnson was normal. Then Dean had contract problems early in the season. He was sent to the San Francisco 49ers, and it was the Bruise Brothers who were getting bruised. The sack total fell to 47 this season still third best in the league and Johnson finished with 10. The Chargers, however, gave up more points than every team but Baltimore in the AFC in 1981.

But Johnson says the Charger defense that comes to the Orange Bowl Saturday to meet the Miami Dolphins in the second round of the AFC playoffs will bear little resemblance to the model that delighted opposing offenses in midseason. "It hasn't been the kind of year I'd like it to be," Johnson said yesterday. "We've missed Fred, but he's gone and there's nothing we can do about it It bothers us that people always complain that our defense doesn't do this or doesn't do that. We just do our jobs. We were playing with a lot of young guys at the beginning of the year.

They tend to make mistakes. And we've been handicapped by injuries. But we've still done the job." Johnson missed two games with a pinched nerve in his neck. But he still got his big hands on most opposing 'I 7 "jr I vKw 1 i -T i 4 I i 'i 'Li? KISS OF DEATH Nebraska's l-back Roger Craig Killer Whale at the Miami Seaqoarium. Wonder if nuzzles up close to accept a smooch from Lolita, the Craig heard the old story about Jonah? Summer Dreams Do Come True Clemson Pair Believe in Fantasy 'i1 1 j25.

quarterbacks. A first-round draft pick from Gram-bling in 1975, Johnson grew up in Bossier City, just across the Red River or about 5 miles from David Woodley, who played high school football in Shreveport He acquired the nickname in eighth grade, when Johnson grabbed for a basketball and an instructor yelled, "Keep your big hands off my basketball." Big Hands grew to 6-foot-S and 252 pounds. He was All-America at Gram-bling, and the Chargers planned to build their defense around him. They took Dean and Kelcher in the same draft. But then Charger coach Tommy Prothro tried to change Johnson's style.

It didn't work and Johnson was being ridiculed publicly. He wondered if it was all worth it Wife Alice, called "Little Hands" in the Charger media guide, was Johnson's lone ally. "Through the lean years, there was no one to turn to but her," Johnson said. "We'd sit down and cry together." Nobody need cry for him now. Johnson, Kelcher and Dean were all named to the Pro Bowl last season, the first time three defensive linemen from one team had ever been voted to start in the postseason contest.

Johnson says he has probably suffered most by Dean's absence. But attacking the quarterback is still the ultimate visage, especially in that Turn to DOLPHINS, Do By Laszlo Denes Put Wad Writer MIAMI Perry Tuttle and Homer Jordan spent a lot of time last summer sitting around the Clemson University Student Union cafeteria, sharing their fantasies about which bowl game they and their Tiger football teammates would be invited to attend. "We came off a 6-5 season last year (1980) and really wanted to set our sights on redeeming ourselves in 1981," said Jordan, the junior quarterback for the Tigers. "Perry and I spent the summer going to classes together and working out a lot and we found ourselves setting a lot of goals. "I wanted to become an All-Atlantic Coast Conference quarterback and he wanted to be an AU-American receiver.

We both talked about how we would be playing for the national championship on New Year's Day." Late summer fantasy has become mid-winter reality for Tuttle, Jordan and the Clemson Tigers. who strutted into Lincoln with a reputation built in Camden, N.J., and extended by earning the All-Big Eight honors that many expected would go to the elder Craig in 1981. "I would mind not starting all the time if Roger wasn't a pretty good running back. The way it is, he takes pressure off me and I take pressure off him. "You need two I-backs at Nebraska.

An I-back goes down pretty fast in our league. They used to tell me how tough it was in the Big Eight and I'd just say, 'All right, all right' It was not really until I got there that I realized it was true. It's like pro ball to run against those guys. One of the reasons I went to Nebraska was to see how I'd do against the big guys." Only by carrying the ball more could Rozier have done better. Stuck behind Craig early in the season, he broke into the picture in the sixth game with a 153-yard effort against Kansas State.

Two weeks later, Rozier rushed for 179 yards against Kansas. All told, he gained at least 100 yards in four of seven conference games and finished 43rd in the nation with 943 yards rushing and a 6.2-yard average. In addition, the 5-foot-ll, 205-pounder returned kickoffs for an average of 32.4 yards. That would have led the nation if Rozier had had more attempts. However, Rozier needed a stellar season to avoid being buried by Craig's accomplishments.

If anyone is upset about Nebraska's share-the-wealth I-back system, it should be Craig, who can't seem to keep the starting job to himself no matter what he does. As a sophomore, Craig carried his durable 6-2, 216-pound frame for 15 touchdowns, good enough for sixth in the NCAA scoring race. And he did it while performing on third string. Then in 1981, Craig gained 1,060 yards to move him into the No. 9 spot on Nebraska's all-time rushing list with 1,860 yards in two seasons.

Along the way, he went on a 234-yard rampage against Florida State, including a 94-yard touchdown run from scrimmage. Still, Craig hasn't made the all-conference team and he won't start in the Orange Bowl unless Osborne changes his mind this week and moves him ahead of Rozier. That kind of treatment causes ulcers or temper tantrums with most athletes, but not with Craig. He accepts it all with a quiet smile, figuring Nebraska might not be 9-2 without the help of his running mate. "I kind of figured he (Rozier) was going to slip right in there," said Craig, 31st among the nation's rushers this year.

"He's too good a runner to be on the bench. I don't worry about it. I'm not like that. I like to win and this helps us do that. "This keeps me healthy, keeps me fresh.

They've done this kind of thing before, even when Jarvis Redwine and I.M. Hipp were here. It's nothing new splitting time at I-back." That doesn't mean Craig needed no adjustment peri-! od. With his speed and power, Craig only saw the bench in high school during pep rallies. "It was a blow to my ego at first, not playing all the time," Craig said.

"I used to carry the ball a lot. When you split the carries up, you can lose your rhythym. But now I know it's good. I'm glad they did it." Craig started the season as the No. 1 I-back.

But when Nebraska got off to a shocking 1-2 start with losses to Iowa and Penn State, Osborne became even more determined to get every one of his best athletes into the game as much as possible. Rozier got his chance in the fourth game, rushing for 76 yards on 15 carries in a 17-3 win over Auburn. Next I iiiiiliiiinvl I i jlfWi hi. Slarl HMt ky RimmM Icmim Nebraska QB Mark Mauer (17) Clemson's Homer Jordan chat Like a gang of cat burglars, the Tigers almost silently wove their way through an 11-game schedule without a loss. While the traditional powers found themselves tossed around within the Top 20 polls, the Tigers worked their way to the No.

1 spot by the season's final weekend with consistency. Friday night, All-America split end Perry Tuttle, All-ACC quarterback Homer Jordan and company will try to nail down Clemson's first national football title against fourth-ranked Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. "We really set our minds to it week after week, and we always found a way to come through," said Jordan, runner-up in the voting for ACC Player of the Year. "We took it one week at a time and only concentrated on playing better than we had the week before. Our ability to concentrate was probably the biggest thing we had going for usv Dolphins-Chargers Close to a Sellout What seemed questionable Monday became probable yesterday as 8,000 tickets were sold for Saturday's Dolphin-Charger playoff game, enhancing the chances of the contest being shown on local television.

As of p.m. yesterday, just 1,500 tickets remained for the second-round AFC playoff game. All tickets must be sold by 5 p.m. today to have the local blackout lifted. If the game is televised, it will be broadcast on Channel 7, WCKT in Miami, and Channel 5, WPTV in West Palm Beach.

Pre-game coverage will begin at 4:30 p.m. Saturday followed by the 5 p.m. kickoff. "Homer is quite a person," Jordan said. "I think he makes the difference in our program.

He's probably the best person I'd want as my quarterback. "When he wants to run, he can run as well as most running backs I know. When he wants to pass, he's really smart about things. His biggest asset though, is his ability to scramble out of the pocket and pick up yardage if the pass isn't there. "I don't know too many defenses around that can stop that time and again." While balancing their offense with almost similar portions of running and passing this year, Tuttle and Jordan said they expect Tiger head coach Danny Ford to rely more on passing Turn to CLEMSON, D2 Tuttle, an explosive pass-catcher who holds nine Clemson receiving records, agreed that concentration, for the most part, played a key role in getting the Tigers through an undefeated season.

"I think we're good at deciding which direction we want to go in and maintaining an intense drive to get ourselves there," said Tuttle, a colorful, articulate character out of Winston-Salem, N.C. "Right now, we're heading for a win over Nebraska. Whether or not we get there will depend on factors that won't be revealed until Friday night" Tuttle said he considered his quarterback Jordan, with whom he connected on 40 pass plays, seven for touchdowns, as the reason for Clemson success this past season. Turn to NEBRASKA, D2.