The Sun from Vincennes, Indiana • 11

Vincennes Sun-Commercial Thursday, Dec. 26, 1996 David Staver, sports editor, 812-886-9955, ext. 177 Top rookies Houston's George shows how to snap Heisman Trophy jinx HOUSTON (AP) Eddie George wants to be the best, and he's getting there fast. One season after being named the Heisman Trophy winner as college football's best player, George on Wednesday was named The Associated Press NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. The Houston Oilers' young star is eager to chase more of his goals.

"I want someday to be up there with the best of them, players like Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, Michael Irvin, Brett Favre and all of them," George said. In his first season out of Ohio State, George gained 1,368 yards on 335 carries, a 4.1 average, and scored eight touchdowns. Those numbers earned George received 74 of 93 votes from a nationwide panel of sports writers, easily outpacing New England receiver Terry Glenn, who had eight. George and Glenn were teammates at Ohio State. Tampa Bay fullback Mike Alstott was third with six, followed by wide receiver-kick returner Eddie Kennison of St.

Louis (three) and guard Jonathan Offensive rookie votes Eddie George, Houston 74 Terry Glenn, New England 8 Mike Alstott, Tampa Bay 6 Eddie Kennison, St. Louis 3 Jonathan Ogden, Baltimore 2 Ogden of Baltimore (two). "Honors like that are everything a kid sees now," George said. "The Heisman, Rookie of the Year, Super Bowl MVP, I think everyone shoots for those things, naturally." George came into the NFL with all the lofty expectations of being the Heisman Trophy winner, and it was clear early that he would meet those expectations. "From the first day of practice, it was obvious that he was going "to be all that he should be," offensive coordinator Jerry Rhome said.

"He's big and strong like a John Riggins, but he's more shifty." George became an instant starter with the Oilers and finished the season sixth in the NFL. His total also was fifth-best in team history. see OFFENSE, B3 AP Navy rallied from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to record a 42-38 victory. Navy's Cory Schemm catches a pass with California's Kato Serwanga defending on Wednesday in the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu. Work ethic no longer an issue for Cardinals' sack man Rice eserve QB responds for Navy Long catch puts Jacquet on NFL map MONTGOMERY, Ala.

(AP) Just like the other 79 players at the Blue-Gray Classic, Nathaniel Jacquet came in hoping to make a name for himself. The San Diego State receiver accomplished that goal, breaking Jerry Rice's record for the longest touchdown reception in the all-star game with an acrobatic 70-yard scoring catch Wednesday in the Blue's 44-34 win. He finished with just one other catch, but the 70-yarder was probably enough to grab the attention of the 200 NFL scouts who came for the 58th edition of the Christmas Day game. The 6-foot-l senior made a big-time play, adjusting his sideline route and jumping over his defender to snag the ball at the 30, then outrunning the Gray defense to the end zone. "That was just a matter of seeing where it was and wanting it a little more," he said.

"I got a little aggressive, jumped up, grabbed it and took it to the house. I think a catch like that helps me a lot." The pass from Fresno State's Jim Arellanes broke a 12-year-old record, set when Alabama running back Paul Carruth threw a 60-yard touchdown pass to Rice, who played for Mississippi Valley State, on a halfback option. Blue piled up 419 yards in total offense as the teams combined for 772 yards and set the record for most combined points in the history of the game. NEW YORK (AP) The scouting reports on Simeon Rice said he had loads of natural talent. He simply didn't always apply it.

The reports were wrong. Rice went all-out in 1996, and it earned him the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award, announced today by The Associated Press. The Arizona Cardinals defensive end received 60 votes from a nationwide panel of sports writers. He easily beat Miami linebacker Zach Thomas, who had 16 votes. "The most important thing I've learned is persistence, working to be a champion at this level," said Rice, who had 12 12 sacks, matching the NFL rookie record set by San Diego's Leslie O'Neal in 1986.

"I knew how it felt to win four (prep) state titles and how it felt to go to a bowl game. But forever battling the monotony of pursuing something to be excellent at it, I think that's the biggest thing I learned." The league quickly learned about Rice, an All-America linebacker at Illinois. His final season at Illinois was considered inferior to his previous year, and Defensive rookie votes Simeon Rice, Arizona 60 Zach Thomas, Miami 16 Kevin Hardy, Jacksonville 6 John Mobley, Denver 6 Tony Brackens, Jacksonville 4 Ray Lewis, Baltimore 1 questions arose about his work ethic. Arizona wasn't scared off. "Any time you're picking third in the draft, there's some pretty good football players that you have to consider, and certainly a lot of them were still on the board after we selected Simeon, so we thought he was pretty good or we wouldn't have taken said Cardinals coach Vince Tobin, a defensive coordinator before he was hired in Arizona.

"The thing that we saw in the film was his ability to rush the passer. He's also developed into being able to play the run pretty well." "In a lot of ways he plays like a rookie; he plays in spurts. He'll have a lot of good plays, and then see DEFENSE, B3 three receivers lined up in an I formation. "We run our basic plays off it. It's a different look.

"If we confuse them a little, that's good. -That's what we wanted to do." Weatherbie said the team needed a spark. "We were bogged down. Ben's been in that situation before, so it wasn't anything new to him," the coach said. "There were many ups and downs, but we picked ourselves by the bootstraps and found a way." California coach Steve Mariucci was prophetic.

"The kids on both sides played their hearts out," he said. "But like I've been telling you all week, it would come down to who had the ball last. "In the fourth quarter, they came at us with the weird offense, and they made a couple of big plays off it and got a couple of scores." It appeared the Bears (6-6) were in control with a 10-point lead. "People needed to step up," Mariucci said. "We needed to do that and we didn't do that." HONOLULU (AP) Ben Fay put what he learned about military tactics at the Naval Academy to good use in the Aloha Bowl.

Confuse the enemy and conquer. That's what the backup quarterback did Wednesday, bringing Navy back for a 42-38 victory over California in the Aloha Bowl. With the Midshipmen (9-3) trailing by 10 points heading into the fourth quarter, coach Charlie Weatherbie switched from Navy's spread option attack led by quarterback Chris McCoy to Fay's more conventional drop-back passing. Fay made the move pay off. Although he scored two touchdowns on runs, including the go-ahead 10-yard scamper with 1:41 left, it was his passing that set the stage for the wild finish.

He guided the Midshipmen on drives of 80 and 84 yards to pull out the victory after they trailed 38-28. The biggest play was a 52-yard pass to Cory Schemm with the Middies down 38-35 and two completed five of eight passes for 118 yards. 'It's nothing fancy," Fay said of the triple stack offense, which has minutes left. The play put the ball on the California 15 and set the stage for Fay's game-winning TD. The Middies co-captain Happy Holidays! Smits taking small steps in attempt to return to lineup I 4 4 '--a; 11 H.

IIS i rr, ,111 Ride may await Fontes on coaching merry-go-round PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) Wayne Fontes is a candidate to become the eighth NFL coach fired since the start of the 1996 season. William Clay Ford, owner of the Detroit Lions, has to decide whether to buy out the final year of Fontes' contract and find a new coach, or keep him another year. The Lions under Fontes have had their share of ups and downs, and his record reflects it. His career mark is 67-71, with more victories and more losses than any other Lions coach, and Ford, a conservative man, might elect to stay with someone he'sgrown comfortable with, v.

Barry Sanders, following Monday night's 24-14 loss at San Francisco that left Detroit with a 5-11 final record, said Fontes should be retained. But the feeling wasn't unanimous. A recent poll of the Lions' 53 roster players by Booth Newspapers showed 59 percent favored retaining Fontes. But 32 percent favored his removal, with nine players abstaining from the poll. Fontes guided the Lions to the NFC playoffs four times after replacing Darryl Rogers with five games left in the 1988 season.

But in the NFL, it's often a case of what have you done for me lately. In the case of Fontes, that's not much. The 5-1 1 record included a 1-9 finish. "Don't ask it because I can't answer it," he said when asked about his future. "God bless you.

It's been a long year." If Fontes is fired, he would add to a growing casualty list among NFL coaches. When Mike White of Oakland was dismissed Tuesday, he became the fifth coach in five days to lose his job, joining Dan Reeves of the Giants, June Jones of Atlanta, Rich Brooks of St. Louis and Rich Kotite of the New York Jets. During the season, Dave Shula was fired by Cincinnati and Jim Mora resigned in New Orleans. If Fontes goes, more than one-quarter of NFL teams will have changed coaches'since the start of the season.

as there's progress Smits performed well enough during Monday and Tuesday's practices to keep hopes alive that he'll soon return to action, and teach his rookie stand-in Erick Dampier a thing or two about playing center in the NBA. "He can score from the outside and he has great post moves," Dampier said after Tuesday's workout. "It's going to make me a better player just by coming out and playing against him." Smits' presence helps put things in perspective for Dampier. If nothing else, it reminds him that at 6-11, 260 pounds he's merely an average-sized big man in the NBA. Smits dwarfed him, and despite his limited mobility was able to swat away Dampier's shots.

Brown can't wait for the day when both of them can play in a game. Until then, he figures daily competition will be the best thing for Dampier's development. Thrown into the fire by Smits' surgery, Dampier hasn't been burned too badly he's averaging 7.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocked shots over 20 minutes per game, although he's shooting just 37 percent from the field. His recent progress has been slowed by a cold and a sprained left ankle. "He's going to have a hard time until he gets in shape, and that's up to him," Brown said.

"I've figured out something: Hard work has a way of solving a lot of problems, I don't care what profession you're in. He has to learn that." INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Rik Smits, who's been out of the Indiana Pacers' lineup all season recuperating from foot surgery, is taking his first painful steps toward returning to action. The 7-foot-4 center worked out with his teammates on Monday and Tuesday, the first time he's been able to do that on consecutive days since his Sept. 8 surgery. But Smits' slow recovery will keep him out of action for the foreseeable future, including tonight's game with Detroit and Friday's game in New Jersey.

And Pacers coach Larry Brown, for one, isn't getting his hopes up. "The last time I saw him play a week ago, I thought he practiced better than he did all of last year," said Brown. "Then, lo and behold, he didn't play the rest of the week." Smits' nerve pain is receding, but he still has to deal with the muscle damage that resulted from his surgery, which required 12 stitches in each foot. His doctors recently stopped injecting medicine directly into Smits' feet because the results weren't as positive as hoped. Smits, who average 18.5 points per game last season, played the whole season with nerve pain in his feet.

But he says won't rejoin the Pacers lineup until he can alternately play and sit as he would in a game without long warm ups to regain his mobility. "There's a scar tissue wall that's in there," he said. "It feels like you have a marble in your shoe. It's tough sometimes, but as long AP i Phoenix Suns guard Rex Chapman is fouled on the way to the basket by Shaquille O'Neal of the Los Angeles Lakers during I second quarter action in Phoenix. The visiting Lakers recorded a 108-87 victory..