The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 19

Chattanooga tumbles Redbirds, 24-0 By Steve Adams SIPflDDRTTS Bloomington-Normal, III. Sept. 12, 1976 SECTION 44444444444444444444444444444444444444444004444444444444 I I 6 QUI HQ thrOUOh 57 .57 Dorsett rampage lifts Pitt past Notre Dame Assistant sports editor It was what you would call a rather crummy way to start a football season. You would hope for something better after last year. The memories of those 2-7-1 records have a tendency to linger.

But Illinois State University's football team sang pretty much the same song Saturday night, dropping a 24-0 decision to the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before a Lettermen's Night crowd of 10,500 at Hancock Stadium. The Redbirds played awfully well for two quarters and they played awfully poorly for the other two. The two good ones were not enough. "We certainly had a number of good plays," said ISU head coach Gerry Hart. "But we had a number of bad ones, too, and those bad 'ones negated the good ones." The 'bad plays came mostly in the form of four pass interceptions by the Chattanooga team which won its season opener for the first time since 1968.

One of the interceptions doused an ISU scoring opportunity in the final seconds of the first half and two others both in the third quarter led directly to Chattanooga touchdowns. "There was not really one part of the game when we didn't move the football," said Hart. "We beat ourselves with our own mistakes. You can't have that many bad plays and sustain an offense." The bulk of the Illinois State offense was comprised of the excellent first-half passing of senior quarterback Bob Lopez. Lopez hit on 12 of 17 attempts for 138 yards in the first half and had the Redbirds knocking on the door.

But he cooled off in the final two periods, making good on only 4 of 10 for 37 yards. ISU went into that second half trailing just 7-0. And at that time, Hart was optimistic. "I thought we could score two or three touchdowns in the second half," he said. Instead, it was the Moccasins who scored two plus a a field goal to send much of the good opening night crowd home early.

Tight end Mitch Gravitt broke loose on a fancy reverse play for a 38-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, giving Chattanooga.a 7-0 lead at the 8:39 mark when Rod Ledford kicked the extra point. But that was the only real damage the Moccasin offense could do. The rest of th'e time, it was helped by ISU offensive mistakes. Defensive back Russ Gunter picked -off one Lopez pass late in the third quarter and set up the winners at mid-field. Five plays later, Joe Zeman booted a field goal and Chattanooga had a 10-0 lead with 4:24 showing on the clock.

That was only the beginning of the Redbird woes. After a two-yard rushing loss by fullback Bill Yocius, Lopez again fired an interception this time to Stan Eller who returned the ball to the ISU 33. From there, it took the Moccasins eight plays to score as quarterback Doug Elstad went in from the three. Ledford kicked the extra point as the clock showed only one minute gone in the fourth quarter. Elstad also scored the final Chattanooga touchdown on a two-yard run' after ISU fumbled on its own 10 yard line.

It came with 3:12 left in the game. "It is difficult to turn the ball over in the situations we turned it over in in the second half and expect the defense to hold," said Hart. "I thought we gave them 17 points. I knew we gave it to them three times inside the 30 yard line." Still, Hart saw some bright spots. "I feel we're a much improved team from last year," he said.

"We had two Schedule-makers are people who make it possible for all four Intercity football teams to be at home one Friday night and then all play on the road the next week. Remember when the grandest of contact sports used to begin the middle of September and compete only with cross country during a nine-week schedule. So when Illinois State University sports information director Roger Cushman told me the Redbird football team played its first game on Sept. 3 next season, I threw in the towel. I admit to wondering if the powers-to- be were more interested in building bank accounts than character when the Illinois High School Assn.

decided to have its football playoffs Thanksgiving weekend, right in the middle of the Turkey Trot basketball tournaments. It just might be possible for the ISU-football team to complete its schedule before the fall baseball team plays its sixth straight doubleheader against Indiana State. The high school football player who signs a national letter of intent with ISU will graduate one day and catch the bus to Normal the next. The football-baseball player combination is out of. luck.

Suppose he wants to play in a summer collegiate league? He might come to bat with the bases loaded and the scbre tied only to learn he's already missed two weeks of SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) For Tony Dorsett, the good news is that he needs only 86.2 yards per game in Pitt's 10 remaining regular-season contests to catch Archie Griffin's as college football's all-time rushing leader. The bad news is that he won't have Notre Dame to kick around anymore. In 88 years of Notre Dame's proud football tradition, no one ever picked on the Fighting Irish the way Dorsett did. He rushed for 181 yards Saturday in leading ninth-ranked Pitt to a 31-10 rout that marked llth-ranked Notre Dame's first opening-game loss in 13 years.

"I just try to contribute my share," Dorsett said above the din in the noisy Pitt dressing quarters. "My goal is 100 yards a -game. If I have 80 yards over that, it's just icing on the However, Dorsett had a slightly different target Saturday and, although he fell a bit short, he provided a firm reply to those critics who said he couldn't run as well on grass as he does on artificial turf. "My goal was to get 200 yards today," he confessed. "I knew the defense was out to get me and they said I couldn't run on grass.

This was my last time against Notre Dame and I wanted to go out giving them something to remember me by. "I didn't accomplish what I wanted, but I think they'll remember me for a couple of years." While Dorsett was tormenting the Irish for the third time in four years, Pitt quarterback Robert Haygood scored on a pair of one-yard dives just two minutes, 11 seconds apart early in the second quarter after LeRoy Felder and Jeff Delaney intercepted passes by Rick Slager in Notre Dame territory. A swarming Pitt defense led by tackle Randy Holloway stiffened after Notre Completions of nine and 12 yards to Gowan and some fine running by senior tailback Larry Spinks (who had 108 yard rushing in 24 carries) moved ISU deep into Chattanooga territory in the first quarter. But L'opez lost 13 yards on a Moccasin sack and a pass on a fake field goal failed to get the first down at the Chattanooga seven yard line. The Redbirds were down close again in the second quarter, moving from their own 32 to the Moccasin 15 on four Lopez pass completions.

But the interception by Eller 22 seconds before the intermission closed the door. Chattanooga Illinois State 7 0 3 14 -24 0 0 0 0 -0 SCORING SUMMARY: Chattanooga Touchdowns Gravitt (38-yd. run) Elstad 2 (3 and 2 yd. runs). Points After Touchdown Ledford 3 (kicks).

Field Goal Zeman (42 Individual statistics CHATTANOOGA RUSHING Name Art. Gain Loss Net Mitch Gravitt 4 61 0 61 Tim Lawson 13 60 0 60 Doug Elstad 15 56 1 55 Harry McCall 8 30 0 30 David Bohannon 8 34 i 29 PASSING Name Comp. Doug Elstad 3 PASS RECEIVING Name Larry Stokes Mitch Gravitt PUNTING Name Greg Cater ILLINOIS STATE RUSHING Name Larry Spinks 24 Bill Yocius 11 Bobby Lopez 5 Butch Monaghan 4 PASSING Name Comp. Lopei 16 Monaghan 0 PASS RECEIVING Name Jeff Gowan Mark Austin Tim Rooney Mike Schneider Dale Greiman Alt. Int.

Yds. 7 0 17 Rec. Yds. T.D. 2 5 0 1 12 0 No.

Ave. 7 43 7 Gain Loss Net 108 0 108 38 3 35 2 39 -37 2 21 -19 Att. Int. Yds. 27 4 175 2 0 0 Rec.

Yds. T.D. 10 93 0 2 93 0 2 28 0 1 4 0 1 21 0 PUNTING Name No. Ave. Jim Olivierl 7 Dick Kurtenbach, 88, of Illinois State goes low in tackle attempt on Tennessee- Chattanooga tight end Mitch Gravitt, 22.

ISU lost season-opening game Saturday night, 24-0. (Pantagraph photos) Yankee Stadium in 1946, there were six Heisman and Outland trophy winners playing that day. Notre Dame quarterback John Lujack won the '47 Heisman, teammate George Connor won the '46 Outland, and teammate Bill Fischer the '48 Outland. Army's Glenn Davis won the '46 Heisman, teammate Doc Blanchard won the '45 Heisman, and teammate Joe Steffy the '47 Outland. Attendance Seven major conferences drew at least one million in football attendance each of the first six years of the.

Seventies. The Big 10 led the way with a home-average per game of 57,760. Next was. the Southeastern with 49.670. The Big 8 was next with 48,600.

The Big 10 drew at least three million." per year for the first six years. Michigan, not Ohio State, leads the list in attendance with an average of 87,189 per game. Ohio State is second at 86,411.. Wisconsin is fourth, Michigan State seventh, Purdue 13th, Illinois 21st, and Iowa 23rd. Illinois ranks sixth among those schools with the biggest increase in per-game average from 1970 to 1975.

The Illini averaged 37,659 per game in They averaged 54,689 in 1975. Yardstick T-C ISU Total First Downs 14 11 By rushing 12 By passing 1 9 By penalty 1 1 Net yards gained from scrimmage 252 262 By rushing 235 (7 By passing 17 175 Passes attempted 7 29 Completed 3 16 Intercepted by 4 0 Number of punts 7 7 Average distance 43 7 38 7 Number of fumbles Own fumbles recovered 0 1 Yards penalized 75 67 444444444444444 44444444444 scoring opportunities in the first half and didn't take advantage of them. "We're an improved team but 24-0 is not indicative of the type of defense we played." Much of the problem was that the defense played far too much in the second half. ISU ran off 42 plays to 25 for the visitors in the first half but lost the edge in the second. The Redbirds had 195 yards total offense to 136 for the winners in the first half but managed just 67 in the second half to 116 for Chattanooga.

"There's no question in my mind that Illinois State is a good football team," said Chattanooga head coach Joe Morrison, the former New York Giants fullback. "We knew they'd be a whole lot better than they were last year and they certainly were." Morrison was most impressed with his team's ability to play well on defense in the pressure situations. "We knew we were inexperienced on defense, so we knew we had to put some pressure on them," said Morrison. "We did this and when we did, Lopez made some mistakes. When he had time, he usually completed them." Lopez' favorite target was junior split end Jeff Gowan who had an excellent game with 10 receptions for 93 yards.

It was that Lopez-to-Gowan combination which had the Redbirds moving in the first half. Hlttirtn lri nil TlUy I OW Second Guessing If he stays around until the ninth inning, he could miss the first two games. Ice water and salt tablets will be the main fare at the concession stands, not hot dogs. The town of Normal could kill two birds with one stone and hold the Fourth of July fireworks display over for a few weeks. ISU could really promote that one.

Every child who attends with a ticket-purchasing adult gets in free and receives a giant firecracker and a match. Alternate bleacher seats would be red, white, and. blue. Free swimming tickets for the Normal Pool could be taped under some seats as an added incentive. A little education is indeed a danger ous thing.

Stars When Army and Notre Dame battled to a scoreless tie before 74,121 people at 2 A quarterback Bob Lopez, 5( carries out' a iessee-Chat- After Haygood passed 11 yards to Gordon Jones, Dorsett circled right end for seven and left end for 14 more and a first down at the one. Haygood promptly leaped across for his second touchdown, making it 21-7. Notre Dame's only other points came on a school record 53-yard field goal by Dave Reeve late in the half, but Pitt's Carson Long matched that with a 34-yarder early in the final period. After picking up 122 yards on 13 carries in the first half, Dorsett rushed only twice in the third period. But shortly after Long's field goal, he uncorked a scintillating 28-yard sprint to the Notre Dame eight after breaking several tackles at the 25.

Substitute quarterback Matt Cavanaugh notched the remaining eight yards to wrap up the scoring. A capacity crowd of 59,075, plus an ABC-TV audience that covered most of both coasts and the midwest, watched Notre Dame self destruct the few times it had favorable field position. Once, Reeve missed a 44-yard field goal attempt and another time Al Hunter was unable to hold Slager's poor pitchout and lost the ball at the Pitt 42. Pitt Notre Dame 7 14 0 1031 7 3 0 0-10 ND MacAfee 25 pass from Slager (Reeve kick) Pitt Dorsett 5 run (Long kick) Pitt Haygood 1 run (Long kick) Pitt Haygood 1 run (Long kick) ND FG Reeve 53 Pitt FG Long 34 Pitt Cavanaugh 8 run (Long kick) A 59,075 INDIVIDUAL LEADERS RUSHING Pitt, Dorsett, 22-181. Notre Dame, Heavens, 24-93; Hunter, 13-39.

RECEIVING Pitt, Corbett, 4-72. Notre Dame, McAfee, 4-70; Kelleher, 2-25. PASSING Pitt, Haygood, 5-12-0, 83 yards; Cavanaugh, 1-1-0, 4 yards. Notre Dame, Slager, 6-22-2, 85 yards; Forystek, 5-16-2, 99 yards. "They have a tough defense.

They-have a lot of cheap shots too. "We ran the option just two, three, or four times and we planned to use it more. But they had an outside flow and this left the inside open. "Our offense was a little inhibited at first but we gradually built it up. I don't think my play selection was that bad." Steger says he doesn't care who he throws to but likes to see tight end Marty Friel in the game in crucial situations.

"I know he can catch the ball," said Steger. "And I know if I throw a bad pass, he'll still catch it." Steger's only touchdown pass was a six-yarder to Jeff Stewart in the second quarter. "It was a sprint out pass to the left," explained Steger. "The two outside receivers run cross patterns. Jeff told me later he didn't think he was open but that he thought Fuzzy was.

But Jeff was wide open." Fuzzy is split end Frank Johnson. Steger also admitted the Illini might have been looking ahead to Missouri which they play in Columbia next Saturday. "It's a revenge factor with us," said Steger. "We want to make up for last year when we had them and then let them up." Early start Now that the schedule-makers are turning football into just another sport, what's left? ovu kup, fake. Moving for Tenn tanooga is Bill Robbs, 93.

I I. am r4 Yardstick Pitt Notre Dame First downs Rushes-yards Passing yards Return yards Passes Punts Fumbles-lost Penalties-yards 12 20 53-191 50-106 87 184 55 27 6-13-0 11-38-4 10-43 9-36 4-3 2-1 6-50 6-73 4444444444444 Dame stormed 86 yards on 11 plays following the opening kickoff. Slager, who completed all three passes on the drive for 52 yards, threw 25 yards to tight end Ken MacAfee, giving Notre Dame a 7-0 lead with less than five minutes gone. However, Dorsett, who stunned Notre Dame with a record 209 yards as a freshman in 1973 and eclipsed that with 303 a year ago, quickly swung the momentum to Pitt. On the Panthers'- first play from scrimmage, he burst through the right side for a 61-yard gallop to the Irish 23.

Five plays later, he tied the score 7-7 with a five-yard dash around right end. In four games against Notre Dame, Dorsett has rushed for a record 754 yards on 96 carries. He rushed 22 times Saturday. The Irish were hampered by poor field position throughout the first half. Early in the second period, under a strong rush from tackle Don Parrish, Slager threw a fluttering pass which Felder picked off at the Notre Dame 30 and returned to the two.

Two plays and 36 seconds later, Pitt led 14-7. The Irish, getting desparate early, ran one play for a two-yard gain after the ensuing kickoff. Then Slager fired over the middle directly into the hands of Delaney at the Notre Dame 33. Kurt Steger with a play, we stick with it. You figure that you need 10 yards for a first down and three and one-thirds yards per play.

"I could get bored very easily with that because I like tohave a little fun." Steger is the first to admit the ulini passing offense could have been better in Saturday's victory. "It was realy windy on the field today," said Steger. "And it probably will be windy every Saturday. It was hot during the pre-season but not that windy. So I have to start driving the ball more.

"I also got hit a couple of times when I was throwing. When asked why the Illini running game gained just 62 yards rushing the -first half, Steger replied, "They were in a 43 defense and we don't face it all year except for Texas I'm not saying it was our line's fault we didn't move the ball well. Illinois 9TT TUIIDaCK Dill TOCIUS, JJ, char9 into behind tht block of teammate Dave Rumzit as Redbird slSflll 4444444444444444444444444444444444444 Three yards, cloud of dust no fun-Steger By Jim Barnhart Pantagraph sports editor CHAMPAIGN Based on his passing and leadership performance as a sophomore, quarterback Kurt Steger has been classified as a modern-day Moses; a man to lead the University of Illinois out of the football wilderness. But if Steger has his way, he won't always take the conservative ground-game route. The 6 foot 3 inch, 218-pound junior from Roselle (Lake Park) performed admirably as a sophomore and finished with the best-ever showing by an Illini second-year man when he completed 80 of 166 aerials for 1,136 yards.

Kurt's favorite athlete is Joe Namath and they do have one thing in common 1 in that they speak their minds. "I've got to open up more," said Steger after he completed just 5 of 16-passes against Iowa Saturday. The Illinois offense was short of being an artistic success, on the ground and in the air. However, receivers did drop three passes that should have been caught. "I wasn't satisfied because my passes were wobbly," said Steger.

"I was throwing off balance although I didn't get pressured more than usual. "Last year, the coach (Bob Black-man) liked to stick to the conservative ground game," said Steger. "But that's no fun. "If we can gain three to four yards 00004040004040000004000000i 4404440400040000t 04000440000000440400040004444004444040404444000400004004444444444444440040000004.