Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • 13

Tftf laitiassee Sports Thursday, August 31, 1978 11 tml 7 to Jones helped build a winner 7 From the Sidelines Bill McGrotha Sports editor Willie Jones was one that did not get away. Under the circumstances, that was astounding. Out of Homestead's South Dade High, he was one of the country's most-sought football players. He was an All-You-Name-It, and he could have gotten himself a scholarship with any college in the country. He was that rarity, a can't-miss prospect.

And, being so, he was of the sort that Florida State, over many years, has had a great deal of difficulty signing. On paper, Florida State figured to be about the last school that could interest him. Following the season of 74, when Jones played his last year of prep football, the Seminoles had won one game in two years. But here Jones is a senior at Florida State, headed into a final season that may very well earn him All-America acclaim. Coach Bobby Bowden is heralding the 6-4, 235-pounder as the very best defensive end in the college game.

And, the Seminoles are coming off a 10-2 season and are ranked in the Top 20 for 1978. Regardless of what you may have heard, top prospects most often make a decision on the basis of their identity with people not schools. Willie Jones came to Florida State because of an assistant coach named Cal Jones, no relation. Cal Jones is now on the staff at Minnesota. "YOU WOULD have to give him the credit," said Willie Jones earlier this week.

"I simply thought. said, "then I thought everything was turning out pretty good about the whole idea of me coming here and trying to help to turn this program around." Born in Dublin, Jones moved with the family to Homestead when he was nine. As he grew older, when not playing football, he held a variety of jobs "from throwing newspapers to mowing grass to picking beans in the field." In his last season of prep football, South Dade won only four games, but six players off that team got college scholarships. "We just couldn't get it together," said Jones of a team that had talent. The NCAA now restricts the number of schools a prospect may visit, but at that time there were no restrictions, and Jones visited 15.

He flew to California three times, for visits with Southern Cal, San Jose and California. He also recalls trips to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Florida, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State. There were other trips he could have made, but there wasn't time; he had seen the country. At the end, he said, it was a close decision between Ohio State, Oklahoma and Florida State. WERE THERE illegal offers from schools? "Well," said Jones, "nobody said specifically what they would give me, but some would hint that they'd give me whatever I wanted.

There was one (Please see McGROTHA, page 3B) Coach Jones would take a personal interest in me. Because of the background I had at home, I felt like I needed somebody to look after me." His parents were separated. There were five children, Willie the youngest and the only boy. Interwoven, to a lesser degree, in the thinking of Jones in his decision to come here was the feeling he could start right away. "I kind of liked coming into a program that wasn't winning," he said," "because I thought they had some fine athletes here, that we could turn it around, and I could help them turn it around.

I felt good about that." When Florida State changed coaches, following his freshman year, Jones did not feel so good about it. Bowden replaced Darrell Mudra and brought in his own staff; Cal Jones was among the departing assistants. Only after his sophomore year, Jones now says, did he start feeling good about the change. "After we won our first two games last year," he LJ FSU defensive end Willie Jones took a chance in '74 Florida ted ivision 1 status gran BARRY COOPER Democrat sports writtr Florida University football coach Rudy Hubbard expected the worst Wednesday when university president Dr. Walter Smith approached the Rattlers' practice field with his head bowed.

"He said he had some bad news for the team, but I didn't want him to tell them then because we wouldn't get anything out of practice," said Hubbard. Smith normally serious and business-like was only acting this time. He had good news. The NCAA's classification committee voted Wednesday to extend Division 1 qualifying status to FAMU, which means the Rattlers will be granted Division 1-AA status in football, and Division 1 status in seven other sports. The ruling takes effect Friday.

1-AA is the NCAA's second-highest football classification. The Rattlers have been trying to move up from Division 2 to Division 1 since June. FAMU's initial application was rejected by the classification committee after it ruled that FAMU did not meet the NCAA's scheduling requirements in football and basketball. FAMU APPEALED the decision, however, and an 18-member NCAA council voted to send the Rattlers' application back to the classification committee for another vote. This time, FAMU's application was accepted.

The classification committee's vote was not made public. Smith was jubiliant when the council voted to send FAMU's application back to the classification committee, but he was even more excited Wednesday. "We are absolutely ecstatic about it," he said. "This means a lot It is going to enhance our recruiting efforts. It means that when we bring a kid in here, we can tell him that we play big-time football at Florida We can be competitive with the big-name institutions.

It means we can tell a young athlete that his statistics will be released with the other Division 1 schools for Saturday's or Monday's paper. We can look for greater chances at TV exposure. We can look forward to being involved in the 1-AA (football) playoffs. We could just go on and on." According to the NCAA, a Division 1-AA candidate must play more than 50 per cent of its games against either 1-A or 1-AA opponents. In basketball, a Division 1 candidate must play more than 75 per cent of its games against Division 1 opponents.

FAMU satisif ied the classification committee that it could meet those requirements on the second application. "Right now, we play five Division 1 opponents (in football)," said Smith. "Next year, we will play six with the addition of the University of Miami. And we won't have any problems meeting the scheduling requirements in basketball." The Rattlers have until 1983 to meet the NCAA's scheduling requirements in football, and until 1981 to meet them in basketball. By then, they must have schedules drawn up three years ahead of time in football and two years ahead of time in basketball, with the required percentage of Division I opponents on those schedules.

Smith said the Rattlers were still considering the possibility of joining either the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference or the Southwestern Athletic Conference. FAMU is currently a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which is a Division 2 conference. IN BASKETBALL, it will be almost impossible for (Please see FAMU, page 4B) lV- God by runs, Leon throws at jamboree j. Christian hauled in a six-yard touchdown toss. Rickards had two big plays on option passes by Tony Carroll, but other than that the Redskins couldn't move and Leon hung on to win the period.

Godby needed only four running plays against Lincoln before springing speedy quarterback Harper loose on a 49-yard run around right end, but the play was nullified by a clipping call. Still, Godby kept pecking away and an eight-play drive ended with Dwayne Johnson prancing 19 yards through that open right side for a touchdown. A GREG HOBBS sack of Lincoln quarterback Steve Hilliard forced Lincoln to end its first drive with a punt. Lincoln's Rick Fournier intercepted a Godby pass, the only Cougar throw of the quarter, to get the ball back but time ran out on Lincoln's last try. In the third period Lincoln tried Fournier at quarterback, but he was stymied by the Leon defense, while Williams could only hit the short pass.

Penalties hurt Leon and Lincoln fumbled twice as the ball changed hands eight times in a scoreless period. In the overtime, with teams trying to score from 10 yards out, Williams was sacked but came back to toss a 13-yard pass to Scott Donaldson. But Lincoln's Hilliard hit Luke Unglaub in the right corner of the end zone for a touchdown and Unglaub took a faked extra point kick and threw to Chuck Todd for the winning points. (Please see GODBY, page 4B) By MARK HOHMEISTER Democrat sports writer If you can go by pre-season jamborees, this is the way things shape up for Tallahassee's big four football schools: Godby will be able to run the ball and eat up great gobs of time. Leon will be driving the radar screens at the airport crazy.

Lincoln will have another tough defense but needs some work on offense. And Rickards still has plenty of work to do on a sputtering offense. The scores were: Leon 6, Rickards Godby 6, Lincoln Lincoln 8, Leon and Godby 13, Rickards 0. Interesting statistics included a nine-for-20 passsing night for Leon quarterback Blair Williams, 81 yards passing and 32 yards rushing for Godby quarterback Kelvin Harper, two Godby touchdowns of 49 and 24 yards called back by penalties, only three passes attempted by Lincoln and mi-nus-23 yards rushing on the evening for Rickards. LEON WON the opening toss and started passing right away.

But Rickards was ready and left three men on the line while loading the defensive secondary. Quarterback Williams had trouble finding men open with top receiver Greg Shumann sidelined and Leon was forced to punt after six plays. Rickards, however, went nowhere on its possession and punted. After two running plays Williams came back to hit tight end Brad Sheffield with a nine-yard pass to move Leon to the Rickards eight, and three plays later the transfer from North Florida Seminole secondary shrinking By BOB BLANKENSHIP Democrat sports writer Bobby Bowden, confronted earlier in the day with the resignation of defensive back Tim Koehnemann, was still able to let out with a sigh of relief Wednesday. "I'm so happy," he said, "that we didn't get anyone hurt in the scrimmage." His Florida State Seminoles, already scheduled for another scrimmage on Friday, had just concluded a somewhat reluctant and near spur-of-the-moment 'game' which lasted for nearly two agonizing hours in the heat of the day at Campbell Stadium.

Bowden then revealed that he and his staff had just 24 hours earlier decided to throw in the extra full-speed, game-type scrimmage in a somewhat desperate move to whip his young team into shape for the opener at Syracuse, just 10 days away. "It was a necessity," he said, explaining the gamble in the wake of a growing hospital list that has added freshman defensive back Gary Henry and freshman linebacker Charles Ferguson as serious casualties in the last 24 hours. "It's the type thing (scrimmage) that scares coaches to death," Bowden added, "but, it was something we felt we had to do We've got so many young players who really lack game-type experience." Bowden, however, found little heartening news in the scrimmage that featured limited fireworks and just two touchdowns. "OUR OFFENSIVE line got beat badly," he pointed out. "It didn't give us any pass protection and it didn't open any holes.

"We've got a long way to go," he added, "and we've got a lot to tie together We don't have any cohesion." All of his concern, however, was not reserved for the offense which scored its two touchdowns on spectacular long pass-run plays. The first defensive unit, consisting of only five players who started in last year's Tangerine Bowl, is causing its share of anxious moments among the coaching staff, as well. "We had six new faces out there on defense today and that's a lot of new faces," Bowden said. "Right now that's worrying us." Five of those new faces were in the linebacking and secondary crews, which have been riddled by graduation, resignation and injuries. "That's got us scared to death," Bowden admitted.

"If we'd been playing Syracuse today, they'd picked us (Please see FSU page 4B) Godby quarterback Kelvin Harper looks for an opening Wednesday night Harper led his team to jamboree wins over Rickards and Lincoln Here's one you'll want to clip and save This is the prediction season. Polls. Jr3 DcbCohn --jm Democrat sports writer to say that O.J. Simpson's fat salary was the cause of much resentment among his Buffalo Bills teammates. Now Simpson is gone, and minus this burden, the ostensibly happy Bills are the choice tb win the division.

They will be challenged by the New York Jets. Quarterback Richard Todd should have a big year, especially since he caught a preview of former Jet QB Joe Namath on his new TV show, The Waverly Wonders. Todd now knows that the future of football players is in football and will try like heck to be a great quarterback for many years to come. The Dolphins and the Colts may raise a few eyebrows with bright young quarterbacks Don Strock and Bill Troup replacing old, used up ones. Bob Griese and Bert Jones.

The New England Patriots have size, speed, great coaching and tons of ability but little else. AFC CENTRAL This division is always the toughest to predict; the teams are that even. But from here, Cleveland looks like it's got what it takes. The Brownies really shine at quarterback. They are in the enviable position of having two great ones to choose from, Brian Sipe and Mark Miller.

Everyone knows that two quarterbacks are better than one. Cincinnati is just fair, but watch out for Houston. The Steelers, unfortunately, look doomed, mainly because after eight years in the NFL, it appears that Terry Bradshaw really isn't smart enough to play quarterback. picks, previews and prognoses are turning up everywhere. Even Playboy magazine has them.

This is funny. Imagine getting a job with Playboy, then being told you're in charge of the Pigskin Preview. They all seem to think they're experts. They go out on a limb and say that Dallas and Oakland will be mighty good this year. Maybe to appear really bold, they warn us to look out for Houston.

Not wishing to miss the bandwagon before it rolls into the sunset, we offer the final NFL pre-season predictions. Only this preview is different because it has something the others lack: Guts. We are venturing so far out onto the limb that people like Brent Mus- AFC WEST Talk about a dogfight The race for conference superiority between Seattle and Kansas City should go right down to the very last day. Bible-toting quarterback Jim Zorn has the right people on his side for the Seahawks, while Kansas City's new coach Marv Levy is a Phi Beta Kappa. Football experts agree that the only thing better than having 40 studs is being able to say that your coach plays chess.

San Diego will be dragged down by the acquistion of Lydell Mitchell from the Colts. Informed sources say that Mitchell's fat salary is the cause of much resentment among his teammates. Denver, which won a lot of games (Please see COHN, page is) SPORTS on the air 0 berger and Irv Cross are nowhere in sight. If these turn out to be right by season's end, remember, you heard it here first. If not, well, what do you think we have here, a crystal ball? AFC EAST For nine years, it was the mark of real football savvy 11:45 p.m.

TENNIS: U.S. Open. Another 15-miDUte highlight program of the top action from Flushing Meadow Park. Channels 4, 6 (cable 9)..