Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 106

-k College Football 4 Sunday Septernbr 41994 I Fort Worth Star-Telegrctm Section Page 17 I New-look Arkansas too much for SMU McElroy helps Aggies run past stubborn LSU 1 8- 1 3 tt 7411' orVz) (k1) BY WHIT CANNING I Fort Worth Star-Telegram i LITTLE ROCK Ark SMU landed on War Memorial Sta1 dium's brand new grass yesterday determined to make the offense explode The Mustangs had a splendid strategy but there was one small hitch 'The explosion came from the newly garbed Razorbacks who stormed to 561 total yards and a 34-14 victory to spoil the opening moment of what the Mustangs still 1 hbpe will be their best post-death: I penalty season I "We have a lot of work to do" 1 SMU coach Tom Rossley said "but I still saw a lot of positive ij things out there We played pretty well for a first game but Arkansas is just a lot better than we had ex1 pected" The Razorbacks wore their new uniforms with a big hog on the shoulder and something resem! Wing a water wing on the sleeve but after coyly projecting his Four Quarterback Scam all week Danny Ford stuck with the experi- i enced product Barry Lunney Jr Lunney responded with a 264- yard day capped by a pair of scoring tosses to JJ Meadors a 5-foot- 3 156-pound smoke screen The last one covered 79 yards I with 8:06 remaining stretching an Arkansas lead to 14 points and Mustang hopes to the snapping point "A very big play" Ross ley said "Both those big passes Lunney threw to Meadors hurt But they were controlling the line of scrimmage and when you do that you're having a good game We told our kids they would set us up and hit us with the play-action and that's what they did" Most of the setting up was done by Oscar Malone who rumbled through the Mustangs for 151 yards on 19 carries scoring twice For the Mustangs the day took its first grim turn when they asked freshman Anthony Scotti to execute his first collegiate punt from the back line of the end zone surrounded by 51000 screeching Hogs Scotti dropped the snap and wound up shanking a partially blocked kick out to the 21-yard line "I think I was a little psyched out" he said "At least I got the worst out of the way first It felt like a pretty rough situation" "Well it was either him or me" Rossley said "I probably would have dropped it too" On the next play Marius Johnson ripped 21 yards for the score and with 7:51 to go in the first By GIL LEBRETON Fort Worth Star-Telegram BATON ROUGE La Texas meatless football meal laced with the gristle of NCAA probation nearly left the Aggies with a roaring case of indigestion last night Expected to feast on an old and wounded foe Louisiana State the 15th-ranked Aggies instead had to swallow hard to survive 18-13 on Lee land McElroy's 59-yard run in the final eight minutes The Aggies were 712-point favorites but played like it only in teasing spurts As it was McElroy's winning dash to the end zone came after the Aggies caught the LSU defense in a second-down blitz "We pretty much knew their tendencies" quarterback Corey Pullig said "He just broke a tackle and was gone" For self-proclaimed clairvoyants however the offense bore the fingerprints of three hours of confusion The line young and untested played as if it was well young and untested Pullig rose to his line's defense saying "They did a lot of good things 1 felt like they did real real well this game especially for their first time together I think it will be a steppingstone for the rest of the season" The evidence may suggest otherwise McElroy had 91 of his night's 132 yards on two runs both for touchdowns The remainder of the Aggies' running game totaled 101 yards Pullig meanwhile dinked and dunked for 126 yards passing In its previous two meetings with the Tigers rolled up 919 yards of offense Put it another way margin of victory this time was two lengthy field goals 50 and 47 yards by freshman Kyle Bryant "We've got a brand new offensive line" head coach BC Slocum said echoing the political spin of the night "We were concerned about being able to come into the game with LSU blitzing and stunting We were concerned about just being able to line up and run the ball" Professor Slocum therefore gave his young line a roundly passing grade for the evening noting "I was really pleased with the way it turned out" Winners of course get to grade on the curve The losers get to watch a 13-9 fourth-quarter lead melt away LSU only had to march 25 yards to get both of its touchdown Aggie return man Ray Mickens was jettisoned from the football on a second-period punt and four plays later tailback Jermaine Shari raced in from 13 yards out The score was 9-7 in favor in the final seconds of the third quarter when Pullig tried to bootleg to his left side His soft loll for fullback Clif Groce was pickcd clean by cornerback Tory James and returned 24 yards for a touch down From that point though until the final gun the defense the aptly named Wrecking Crew snapped to attention has the nagging burden this season of chasing the stick without the carrot: no bowl game no television no marquee for this team should it blossom to play a champion And next week's "steppingstone" is named Oklahoma Summary PAGE isp Freshmen spark Baylor rout Davis erases question marks statement of the second appearance in the second quarter He went the distance in the second half finishing with 10 completions in 16 attempts for 139 yards including a 12-yard touchdown pass to split end Ben Bronson At least two more passes should have been caught Watson did not throw an interception "I wanted to get him as much experience as we could" Baylor coach Chuck Reedy said of the decision to go with Watson over sophomore starter Lamont Moore in the second half "I thought he got better and better as he went along 1 was really pleased The way our young players played tonight was encouraging" Asked if Watson would start next week at San Jose State Reedy replied "I think you could say yes" That decision caused Watson to raise an eyebrow but he took the news with a twist of maturity "That's a surprise to me and a great compliment" Watson said "But I know I have to step it up This was just one game not the Cotton Bowl or the Super Bowl" I BY MIKE JONES Fort Worth Star-Telegram i WACO Construction crews finished bolting in the last of the displaced aluminum benches in re furbished Floyd Casey Stadium less than 24 hours before last night's season-opening kickoff against Louisiana Tech The good news is that the benches held the crowd of 28769 to satis- faction The better news for Baylor fans is that the Bears' future ap- 1 pears to be just as firmly in place Quarterback of the future Jeff Watson arrived in the second quar- ter and freshman tailback Jerod Douglas showed flashes of the run- fling style that made him the all-time rusher in Class 5A high school 1 history as Baylor rolled over the 0' overmatched Bulldogs 44-3 a I The victory was a Baylor team's biggest margin of victory in a season debut against another college -i team since an 88-0 drubbing of Ste- phen Austin in 1929 Watson who accounted for 103 1 touchdowns passing and running in three years at Consoli- dated sparked the Bears to their i first touchdown of the season in his I players' eligibit ity Dodds said the new develop ments could mean the players' appeal may not be processed in time for them to play next week against Louisville Forgotten at the finish Although he rushed for 25 yards on 28 carries breaking the mark of Tars Jim Swink for most yards gained against a Texas de fense (235 in 1955) Pitt tailback Curtis Martin carried just four times for 17 yards in the fourth quarter Such numbers and confused former Pitt and Dallas Cowboys great Tony Dorsett who was honored at halftime by school officials "He's damn good" Dorsett said of Martin "1 just would like tir3 have seen him get his hands on the ball late in the game But for some reason he wasn't in the game plan in the fourth quarter" Briefly a Four Texas starters left the game with injuries and did not return: linebacker Robert Reed (foot) cornerback Joey Ellis (ankle) offensive tackle Dominic Bustamante (leg) and fullback Juan Kemp (ankle) Defensive coordinator Gary Darnell said Ellis' injury puts him "in dire jeopardy" of not playing next week against Louisville Texas coach John Mackovic on Pitt counterpart Johnny Majors: "1 don't know if I'll ever coach a better game than Johnny Majors did today He did things we didn't expect and made us do things we didn't want to do" The Associated Press SMU receiver Donte Womack is tackled by Arkansas' Philip Hayes quarter Arkansas was ahead to stay With 4:12 remaining in the half Malone rolled 31 yards to finish a 63-yard drive and make it 14-0 Then the Mustangs roused themselves They swept 92 yards behind quarterback Ramon Flanigan (216 total yards) who flipped to Mick Ross ley for the final 13 yards 40 second before intermission It was one of 11 catches for Ross ley for the day totaling 106 yards Lunney whose 10 completions for 203 yards (he also ran for 61) moved him into sixth (completions) and eighth (yards) places on the Arkansas career ledger threw his first touchdown pass to Meador midway through the third period to stretch it to 21-7 Summary PAGE I8B Douglas Class 5A's all-time leading rusher out of Converse Judson also debuted in impressive fashion He averaged 77 yards a carry to lead all Baylor rushers with 92 yards on 12 opportunities Douglas' longest run was for 31 yards Senior fullback Bradford Lewis scored twice and Baylor kicker Jarvis Van Dyke converted three field goals Baylor's attacking 3-4 defense held Tech to only 143 yards total offense battered three quarterbacks and garnered six turnovers including a 22-yard fumble return for a touchdown by linebacker Glenn Coy Nose tackle Steve Strahan also returned a fumble for 24 yards setting up one of two Van Dyke first-half field goals Moore the redshirt freshman couldn't get the offense into the end zone after Strahan's return to the Louisiana Tech 4 or after Scotty Lewis' pickup at the Bulldogs' 8 But on Watson's second appearance Baylor found the end zone as he opened a 72-yard drive with a 40-yard completion to Bronson Summary PAGE 18B' since the Gator Bowl game on Jan 1 1954 The rider and horse circle the field after every Tech score Many former riders were at the game for their 40th reunion The Red Raiders had just kicked a field goal to go ahead 27-17 in a game they would go on to win 37-31 Smart a junior from Dallas was rounding the first turn in the north end zone when she felt the saddle shift "1 really don't know what happened When 1 rounded the corner and was in the process of slowing I felt myself sliding off the horse 1 hit the ground and then stood up and saw the horse running around the stadium 1 got to the tunnel area and saw Double lying there and couldn't believe it" she said us" New Mexico took advantage of Texas Tech fumbles on the first four possessions to build a 17-0 lead Matt DuBuc fumbled a punt that New Mexico recovered at the Texas Tech 12 and Eric Young scored from the 6 two plays later fora 10-0 lead "It was the jitters" Darden said of Tech's penalty-riddled first quarter Summary PAGE 18B Quarterback duo ignites Tech BY JIMMY BURCH Fort Worth Star-Telegram PITTSBURGH Matt Davis entered yesterday as a question mark to Texas fans who knew him only as an eleventh-hour replacement for suspended starter Lovell Pinkney Either that or they remembered his dropped pass in last year's Louisville game that limited Davis' future playing time The Fort Worth native cast himself in a fresh light yesterday grabbing a team-high five passes for 72 yards and one touchdown in the I 9th-ranked Longhorns' 30-28 victory against Pitt With Pinkney and fellow all-Southwest Conference receiver Mike Adams sitting out suspensions Davis became the crunch-time target of quarterback Shea Morenz Davis' second-quarter touchdown a I 5-yard slant over the middle came on third-and-10 In the fourth quarter Davis also had a 12-yard catch on third-and-10 and a 17-yard reception on thirdand-15 to keep alive crucial drives His most important grab however came on Pitt's onside kick Davis hugged it to his chest with 34 seconds remaining to seal the victory "He didn't surprise me at all Matt's a clutch player" Morenz said Davis a Brewer product considers that a minority opinion for now Asked if he felt vindicated by yesterday's performance Davis said "Yeah I do This was very important I wanted to get off on the right foot and not leave any Texas From Page 1 by a Pitt squad and staff that finished 3-8 last season Tailback Curtis Martin romped for 251 yards the most ever against a Texas defense The Panthers generated 489 yards 104 above last year's high-water mark against the Longhorns' new 3-4 alignment which defensive coordinator Gary Darnell dubbed "a disappointment without question" in its debut Yet Texas survived because its defense stiffened in three telling moments: Allen stopped the two-point conversion in the final minute Linebacker Kevin Watler forced a fumble which Texas recovered on a third-and-three play from the Longhorns' I 8-yard line in the final minute of the first half Free safety Victor Frazier intercepted a pass by Pitt quarterback Sean Fitzgerald who was hit on release by defensive end Tony Brackens with 6:03 remaining The turnover set up Phil Dawson's 50-yard field goal giving the Longhorns a 30-22 lead to protect in the A clutch performance against Pitt shines new light on Texas' receiver from Brewer High School doubts in the coaches' minds that I could perform "I felt forgotten last year I didn't want to be judsed on one play" Texas wide receivers caught 11 passes for 143 yards yesterday "I think we proved we can get the job done with this group" Davis said "There was never any doubt in our minds but from what I've heard around campus there was quite a bit of doubt in a lot of other people's minds" Adams-Pinkney update Texas athletic director De Loss Dodds said yesterday school officials would explore the possibility that wide receivers Mike Adams and Lovell Pinkney had a free rental car longer than five weeks in May and June the amount of time initially determined by an in-house investigation Those findings led to both players' suspensions for the season opener According to a report in yesterday's Austin American-Statesman Austin police gave Pinkney a traffic ticket March 12 for making an improper turn in a rented late-model Toyota Texas officials suspended the receivers for one game based on the free use of a rented Toyota Camry for five weeks and must await NCAA rein final 3:36 "We hung in to the very end and sucked it up mentally when we had to We made the plays we had to make" Mackovic said "Games like this are hard on the coach They're hard on the fans" They are no picnic for the players either said offensive tackle Blake Brockertheyer The Longhorns' tri-captain was a key figure in opening holes for runners Anthony Holmes (19 carries 100 yards) and Rodrick Walker (17 carries 89 yards) to spearhead a ball-control attack that maintained possession for 36:59 of 60 minutes despite being outgained 489-370 in total offense Texas converted I 2-of-22 third-down opportunities compared to 3 of 13 for Pitt "Those guys were like a bad nightmare They kept coming back and wouldn't go away" said Brockermeyer an Arlington Heights High School product "But this team has a different attitude Lately when things have been tight you've seen Texas drop down and say 'We're going to lose this game' Not this time" Instead Texas overcame three first-half deficits to build a 21-16 lead at infermission Holmes' 8- yard touchdown run capped a 17- Texas Tech's galloping mascot dies after crashing into wall The Associated Press LUBBOCK An hour before game time they didn't even know who was going to start but redshirt freshman quarterbacks Tony Darden and Zebbie Lethridge combined for 282 yards fueling Texas Tech's comeback from a 17-0 defi- cit for a 37-31 season-opening victory yesterday against New Mexico Suspense built all week as coach Spike Dykes balked on announcing which of three contenders would start at quarterback Darden got the summons about 45 minutes before kickoff Sone Cavazos didn't play Dykes said he gave both quarterbacks one quarter with the wind "I don't know that it was planned that way but that's sort of the way it all transpired" Dykes said Lethbridge was 16 of 22 for 190 yards and Darden 7 of 13 for 92 Darden added a 1-yard scoring run to give Tech a 27-17 lead in the third period Tech was threatening again later in the period when Darden fumbled attempting a pass at the Lobos' 25 Damon Burrest a 350- pound defensive tackle scooped up the ball and ran 75 yards to pull New Mexico to within 27-24 A 6-yard run by Alton Crain his second touchdown of the day restored the 10-point advantage and Jon Davis' third field goal a 22- yarder made it 37-24 in the fourth peria Stoney Case was 16 of 33 for 235 The Associated Press LUBBOCK Texas Tech's mascot a black quarterhorse named Double died yesterday during the game with New Mexico when it threw its rider ran across the playing field and slid head-first into a cement wall The incident happened in the third quarter after Tech scored Rider Amy Smart was guiding the horse on its customary trot around the field when her saddle broke and she fell off When the galloping horse reached an exit tunnel its feet flew out and its head hit the wall University veterinarian Mark Hellman said the horse apparently died instantly Tech has had a black horse and a masked rider as a mascot yards including a 39-yard pass to Gavin Pearlman giving New Mexico a 17-0 second-quarter lead But Case was sacked twice and had three passes intercepted including one that Zack Thomas returned 35 yards for a score to help the Red Raiders get even at 17-17 in the third quarter "That's easy points for them" Case said "That's the difference in the garlic We had a bunch of little mistakes here and there that hurt play 80-yard march and quarterback Shea Morenz (18 of 37 I 79 yards) ended drives of 76 and 80 yards respectively with a I 5-yard scoring strike to Davis and a 3- yarder to tight end Jimmy Hakes Most importantly Morenz said he threw no interceptions after having four in last year's season opener at Colorado The Longhorns in fact avoided any turnovers until the final 1:14 But that one a fumble by Holmes at the Texas 48 with the Longhorns protecting an eight-point lead almost proved deadly Fitzgerald covered the distance in two completions the second a I 6-yarder to Mark Butler Butler's score burned Allen a replacement for injured starter Joey Ellis But Allen wasn't fooled on Pitt's two-point try which foiled any postgame plans to celebrate the 300th game of Pitt coach Johnny Majors' career "That's too bad man Tell him 'I'm not sorry' Allen said "I figured they would come at me since I was the guy coming off the bench and I was ready" Ready enough at the moment of truth Just like the rest of a hit-and-miss Texat defense 1 Summary PAGE 1813.