Johnson City Press from Johnson City, Tennessee • 17

I JOHNSON GTY-PRESS-CHRONICLE WHAT THE PEOFlf DON'T KNOW WILL HURT THEM I Sunday Oct 30 1983 Bugs -gain moral won Sim defeat By Keith Kimberlin P-C Assistant Sports Editor GREENVILLE NC Buddy Sasser still doesnt believe in moral victories but after watching his football team Saturday afternoon he couldnt help but be encouraged What the East Tennessee State University coach saw was a gutty performance by the Buccaneers in a losing effort against East Carolina 21-9 This is the same East Carolina team that lost to Florida State by one point beat Missouri and should have beaten Florida "We got in a hole in the first half and we didnt have any field position Sasser said outside the ETSU dressing room "Im still not satisified because we did not win We didnt move the ball like I wanted us to "Were not a team that cant do were a team that has been beating ourself We only had one turnover today and if we had played a team in our league maybe we would have won Despite gaining no first downs in the first half the Buccaneers had their chances to win the game in the fourth quarter Trailing 21-0 at the half the Bucs capped a 14-play 64-yard drive with a 27-yard field goal by Herbie Campbell to make the score 21-3 In the fourth quarter ECU return specialist Henry Williams touched a punt that the Bucs Ricky Noel recovered at the Pirates 6-yard line Frank Armstrong Scored on the first play to make the score 21-9 as the Bucs tried and missed a two-point conversion attempt With 12:05 remaining in the game defensive end David Fer-W rell intercepted a pass and returned it to the Pirates 2 But the Pirates defense stiffened and a fourth-down pass by Walt Bowlin fell incomplete as the Bucs came up empty-handed ECU fumbled on its next possession and linebacker David Vestal recovered at the Pirates 36 But the Pirates once again held as another fourth-down pass by Bowlin was incomplete Starting quarterback Robbie White missed most of the fourth quarter with a bruised shoulder and damaged ribs "He played most of the third quarter with a hurt shoulder Sasser said "But he said he wanted to play and the doctor said it was OK He played with a lot of determination "When he hurt his ribs we felt like we had to take him out ETSUs rock-hard defense limited the Pirates to 62 total yards in the second half The Pirates initial first down of the second half came with 9:50 remaining in the game "Even in the first half we were controlling the line of scrimmage" defensive tackle Danny Carmichael said in the ETSU dressing room "At halftime we corrected a few things and we prevented them from cutting back "They were getting pretty frustrated They were cussing at each other when we would stop them And their quarterback was getting on the linemen after almost A Laserpkoto cannot find an open receiver as two East Carolina defenders close in on him ETSUs Robbie White (11) every play Defensive ends Vestal and Phil Forney led the Bucs with 13 and 11 tackles respectively ECU coach Ed Emory was quick to credit the Buccaneers "Give all the credit to Coach Sasser and his team for having a game plan and being ready to play Emory said "After they were down 21-0 they came back well I told our team at the half that 21-0 was not enough "I take full credit for the losing of momentum or blame for it I wanted to play some young guys 44 pounds per man If starting quarterback Robbie White had not been Hurt the Buccaneers could have beaten the Pirates "They didnt hit us harder than some of the other teams we played ETSU defensive tackle Calvin Thompson said "A couple of times they blew us off It was a challenge playing against them "But I thought we held our own with them We showed that we could play with them and I was proud of the way we played You could see the frustration in their eyes After losing to Florida last week ECU coach Ed Emory and East Carolina not worthy of Top 20 status GREENVILLE NC If East Carolina is a Top 20 caliber football team then Lebanon is a choice vacation site for worldwide travelers Forget it Pirates If you perform against Miami of Florida next week like you played against East Tennessee State University Saturday you will get humiliated Thats not a slap against the Buccaneers ETSU coach Buddy Sasser and his players will be the first admit that they are not ready for Top 20 status In fact they not ready for Top 20 status in Division I-AA ECU has been featured in sev eral national publications recently On Saturday they got dogged by none other than ETSU The Buccaneers shut down the Pirates offense in the second half and moved the ball on their defense This is the Pirate offense line that outweighed the Bucs by and subbed early Things came too easy in the first quarter Then in the second quarter we got down there three times and did not score Fullback Dave Springmeier who replaced starter Vince Redd in the first quarter led the Bucs in rushing with 47 yards "I just tried to do my best with the opportunity Springmeier said "I think our play today was encouraging If we had played like this all year we would have won more games We may sur his players complained of late hits and verbal abuse Florida is nice compared to Miami Coach The Hurricanes rely on physical intimidation If you dont believe it ask Notre Dame or West Virginia both Hurricane victims Notre Dame and West Virginia are both pretty good football teams "Our coaches had a good game plan coming in here said ETSU defensive back Gary Zingler who had an interception in the game "And we probably played our best defensive game of the season They burned us a couple of times but we did a pretty good job in the second half under very unusual circumstances particularly the wind that made it tough for both the passers and the kickers-The Vols had to go only 44 yards for the only touchdown after an exchange of 32- and 24-yard punts by the Vols Jimmy Colquitt and the Scarlet Knights Gary Liska Jones picked up four yards in three carries on the drive and Jim Miller in a leap over the Rutgers defenders scored from the 2 with 7:01 remaining in the first period For the game Jones had all but 38 yards of Tennessees rushing total of 272 Tennessee had only 57 yards of passing offense as Alan Cockrell completed only seven of 17 with two interceptions "No I didnt have a good game Cockrell said "I threw one pass to Clyde (Duncan) and the wind just blew it off course Jones a junior said "Coach Majors told me that Tony Dorsett had carrried the ball for him 39 times and asked me if I thought I could carry it 29 or 30 times I told him I could The Vols were playing without three of their running threats Sam Henderson Randall Morris prise a few people by the end of the year ECU took a 7-0 lead in the first two minutes of the first quarter After a 6-yard punt by Bobby Goodwin the Pirates took over at the ETSU 29 and scored three plays later on a 21-yard run by Jimmy Walden ECU later blocked a punt in the initial quarter to set up a touchdown pass from quarterback Kevin Ingram to Ricky Nichols The rout that everyone had expected was beginning to take form ECU added its third touch "If they dont play any better than this next week Miami could beat them East Carolina turned the ball over seven times including four interceptions by the ETSU defense The Pirates managed only 62 yards in total offense in the second half It got so bad that the homecoming crowd booed their team Members of the press corps were handed ballots to name a MVP for ECU Many writers chuckled for they knew the Pirates really didnt have an MVP In defense of the Pirates it should be pointed out that they were probably looking ahead to and Chuck Coieman "My goal was 200 yards Jones said Jones has already had three games of 100 yards or more against The Citadel Alabama and Georgia Tech yards is more than half as much as his previous total of 456 yards for the season with three Southeastern Conference games remaining after an open date next Saturday The 41 carries also broke Hubert Simpsons previous record of 35 against Kentucky in 1979 Reveiz missed field goal attempts of 45 yards in the first quarter and 33 yards in the final period Colquitt averaged 33 yards on five punts and Liska averaged 38 yards on 10 punts "I cant fault our punter and passer Majors said Key plays in Tennessees touchdown drive were Cockrells 15-yard pass to John Cook and a 13-yard pass to BB Cooper that put the ball on Rutgers 12-yard line "Rutgers was a good team and we knew they were Cooper said "We had to overcome some mental mistakes on offense to win In the third quarter Rutgers moved the ball 34 yards before Tennessees defense stiffened down of the game early in the second period on a 2-yard plunge by Reggie Branch But as the first half came to a close the ETSU defense showed the form it would maintain in the second half Stan Dever and Gary Zingler both intercepted passes for the Buccaneers to stop ECU drives The Buccaneers fell to 2-6 with the loss and will travel to Furman next week ECU still hoping for a bowl bid will travel to Miami of Florida next week the Hurricanes and were flat after the loss to Florida But the Pirates had the pure physical ability to blow ETSU off the field To their chagrin they didnt BUC NOTES: A crowd of 33766 field into Ficklen Stadium for the game to set a new record Despite the record their were still empty seats as they game failed to sell out ETSUs offensive line was once again hit by injuries Starting center Scott Rawlings did not play the second half Stacy Seal who was replacing injured Glenn Hardemann also did not play in the second half Vol win forcing a Liska punt Rutgers Carl Howard grabbed a deflected pass to halt a Tennessee move and the Vols got in more trouble when a 20-yard Colquitt punt gave the Scarlet Knights the ball at Tennessees 48 But the Big Orange defense assured a 7-0 third-quarter lead With 8:44 left on the clock the Vols mounted a 62-yard drive to the Rutgers 16 where Reveiz missed the 33-yard field goal attempt But as it turned out Tennessee didnt need the cushion although Majors said "it was certainly a threat because Rutgers was fighting hard to beat us A 66-yard punt by Liska pushed the Vols back to their 10-yard line and after the Vols were forced to punt the Scarlet Knights were back again with good field position at their 44 But the Vol defenders stopped Rutgers cold ending the final threat of the game Carl Zander led the Tennessee tacklers with 12 hits (five tackles and seven assists) while Alvin Toles had 11 hits including eight unassisted stops Reggie White added seven unassisted tackles Freshmen Terry Brown and Dale Jones contributed eight and nine total hits respectively irsunnong wiig Jones sets rushing mark in shaky Rutgers was a good team and we knew they were By Jimmy Smyth P-C Executive Sports Editor EAST RUTHERFORD NJ Johnnie Jones has been running pretty wild on Tennessees football foes but never so much as Saturday afternoon when he rushed 41 times for 234 yards to carry Tennessee to a shaky 7-0 victory over Rutgers at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands Complex Ironically despite shattering Stanley Morgans previous record of 201 yards Jones had only a minor role in a first-quarter touchdown which the Volunteers protected for their sixth win in eight games this season The wind-blown game played before a crowd of only 19201 fans left the Vols little to cheer about except the "left-side win portion of the won-lost standings which Coach Johnny Majors referred to later "It was a very good win Majors said "Both teams had to play AP Laserphoto Vols White cant stop LaPrarie from passing.