Birmingham Post-Herald from Birmingham, Alabama • 13

B1 Birmingham foet-Herald Monday January 3 1983 -ILJSIFIL UDMififr Stallions aren't after a 'franchise' player Birmingham Stallions coach Rollie Dotsch (right) says his team will be seeking linemen in USFL draft which starts tomorrow This draft not like NFL version By Mack Shoemaker 1 Poat-Hcrald Reporter When draft time rolls around teams often look for franchises players who have the right sports genes talent leadership and even a little showmanship The is usually the flamboyant type the player who throws the ball the player who catches it or the player who runs with it Admitting it would be nice to land that kind of player Birmingham Stallions coach Rollie Dotsch said his team will not be after a when the US Football League opens its first draft tomorrow in New York Instead Birmingham will go for players who Dotsch feels are a rare breed first priority is defensive linemen and offensive Dotsch said "In my opinion these are the guys hard to find course you always look for the impact player the quarterback the running back the wide receiver somebody who can be an instant hit" The draft process new to Dotsch He sat in on 12 as a Pittsburgh Steelers assistant in the National Football League so he knows what to expect Almost was heavily involved in 11 of those 12 drafts A lot of leg work goes into it But this (USFL) being a new draft kind of unknown how going to go we know what we are looking for Bob Gates our director of player personnel has been and still is working on obtaining current facts on players so we pretty well know about players in oqr territorial USFL teams will draft up to 50 players in the two-day draft which takes place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York Selecting 50 choice college seniors sounds good but a hitch The team must then sign them Odds are heavy that the USFL will lose most of the picks to the established NFL "How many do we hope to sign? Realistically? I'd say somewhere between six and 15 of the 50" Dotsch said a big question We just know bow many we will be able to sign because obviously the NFL is not going to sit there and suck their The order of draft was determined by lot during a league meeting last month The Los Angeles Express gets first pick Birmingham selects fifth behind the Arizona Wranglers New Jersey Generals and Washington Federate Other teams picking in order are the Chicago Blits Oakland Invaders Philadelphia Stars Denver Gold Michigan Panthers Boston Breakers and Tampa Bay Bandits Teams are allowed to pick 26 players in the territorial phase and 24 in round-byround The USFL is not expected to get into a bidding war with the NFL for talent a move that destroyed the old World Foot- ball League Each team is budgeted for maximum salaries totaling 2 million Teams will be allowed eight minutes each for its first round pick The same time is allowed for the second round with five minutes allowed during rounds three-through-five and three minutes for rounds' six-through-24 not a lot of time But like everybody else we'll just have to do the best we Dotsch said excited but I'll be a lot more excited when I can get out on the field when I like Dotsch will get his wish soon The team will hold a mini-camp later this month before moving to Florida for the big camp have already signed over 100 players and will sign a lot Dotsch said "We will hold a mini-camp (Jan 24-26) at Legion Field make some judgements at that time because I want to carry more than 100 players to Florida got some pnuining to The camp will be at Pelican Bay Resort in Daytona Beach the spring training site of baseball's Montreal Expos The Stallions have been low key in recent weeks It was planned bowls (Hall of Fame here Liberty with Alabama Tangerine with Auburn) have not affected us We have been low key with our ticket sales but start seeing a major push from mid-January until opening game along our position has been that fall is for the colleges That's their time of season and we feel strongly about it That's the way it should be in the best interest of our football coaching staff still complete There are two openings which he hopes to fill soon One is expected to come from the pro ranks the other from the college level I give names because they are still involved in their seasons (bowls and Dotsch said he is not considering picking up any of the Alabama assistants not retained by new Tide coach Ray Perkins coaches are guys I have known for a long he said The Stallions open their 18-game season March 7 at Legion Field against Michigan It's a night game kicking off at 8 The rest of the schedule March 13 at Oakland March 21 Philadelphia home 8 March 26 Arizona home 7 April 3 at Boston April 10 at Chicago April 17 Denver home 12:30 April 24 Oakland home 12:30 May 1 at Washington May 9 at New Jersey May 14 Los Angeles home 7 May 23 at Michigan May 27 at Denver June 5 at Tampa June 12 Boston home 12:30 June 17 Chicago home 8 June 26 at Philadelphia July 2 Tampa hone From Reports NEW YORK Hoping to get the negotiating jump on the NFL the United States Football League holds its inaugural college draft tomorrow with a selection process sporting a few new wrinkles A total of 600 players will be Involved in the USFL draft which begins at 7:30 am (CST) at the Grand Hyatt Hotal with the announcement of the 26 eligible college seniors on the protected list of each of the 12 teams in the spring league The formal draft of the remaining 288 players will begin a half hour later with the proceedings open to the press but not the public Peter Hadhazy director of operations for the USFL which will open its first regular season March 6 and conclude with a championship game July 17 explained the reasoning behind the territorial list of 26 players from each team "This method' has two Hadhazy said first is to provide a methodical organized list for our teams in the first year of the league The second point is that a player from that school will have the opportunity to play in the same city he went to school in or lives in thought that would be very alluring to a college senior" Each of the league's 12 teams has been allocated five colleges from which to choose a total of 26 eligible seniors to protect Those names will be announced prior to the formal draft No other USFL team but the franchise involved can select a particular player on the territorial list unless the negotiating rights are traded For example the five regional schools for the Chicago Blitz are Notre Dame Illinois Northwestern Northern Illinois and Western Illinois The Blitz is entitled to freeze 26 players from those schools and has sole draft access to them With only 60 colleges involved in the territorial lists some of the nation's major universities including Pittsburgh Texas Ohio State and Southern Methodist are open game for each of the USFL's 12 franchises that way we are guaranteed that at least some players announced in the formal draft will be big Hadhazy said There will be a time limit of eight minutes per club during the first two rounds dropping to five minutes for rounds 3-5 and three minutes in rounds 6-24 The draft will continue until 9 pm tomorrow and any remaining rounds will be resumed the following morning The order of selection for the league's first draft is: Los Angeles Express Arizona Wranglers New Jersey Generals Washington Federals Birmingham Stallions Chicago Blitz Oakland Invaders Philadelphia Stars Denver Gold Michigan Panthers Boston Breakers and Tampa Bay Bandits The Bandits owned by actor Burt Reynolds and John Bassett one of the founders of the old World Football League also get the 13th pick as the order of draft is reversed for each of the 24 rounds Each of the teams can draft up to 50 players 26 in the territorial phase plus 24 in the round-by-round lake the NFL the USFL will not draft anyone but college seniors so the top pick in the round-by-round phase is likely to be Dan Marina the University of Pittsburgh quarterback It is unlikely that the USFL heeding the financial disaster of the WFL will enter a bidding war with the NFL for top talent The league's master plan has each team budgeted for maximum salaries totaling f2 million When the ABC-ESPN contracts were announced last summer none of the USFL teams had signal a single player or coach and most didn't even have nicknames or playing sites Since then full front-office and coaching staffs have been installed and the clubs have signed dozens of free agents with Chicago topping the list George Allen the one-time NFL wheeler-dealer who is now coach and general manager of the Blitz reportedly has 250 players under contract Philadelphia meanwhile says it has signed 135 free agents There will be no live television coverage of the draft somewhat unusual considering that $35 million contracts with ABC and ESPN to telecast the spring-through-mid-summer season helped give the USFL instant credibility last June The NFL draft is carried live on ESPN the all-sports cable network where Chet Simmons USFL commissioner used to be the boss The USFL opens training camps Jan 31 '10 Most Wanted' Jarvis is No 1 on prospect list Penn State finally No 1 From Pm Kcparti Penn Stale a school which has been playing intercollegiate football since 1887 has finally won the national championship for the first time By defeating No 1-rankcd Georgia 27-23 in Saturday's night Sugar Bowl showdown Penn State moved up from the No 2 position in The Associated Pros poll to claim the national title with an 11-1-0 record Penn State also claimed Na 1 in the UPI poll finishing ahead of Southern Methodist In the AP poll Penn State received 44 of 55 first-place votes and 1089 of a possible 1100 points from a nationwide panel of sports writers and sportscasten SMU which posted the only unbeaten record in the nation at 11-0-1 received nine first-place ballots and 1023 points following a 7-3 triumph over Pitt in the Cotton Bowl The other two first-place votes went to Nebraska which held onto third place with a 21-20 victory over LSU in the Orange Bowl The Cornhuskers 1 1-1 and beaten only by Penn State polled 978 points Georgia dropped from first to fourth with 953 points while UCLA remained No 5 with 894 points by defeating Michigan 24-14 in the Rose Bowl Arizona State a 32-21 winner over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl vaulted from 11th to sixth -with 729 points while Pitt the preseason choice for the national championship fell from sixth to 10th Washington which nipped Maryland 21-20 in the Aloha Bowl climbed from ninth to seventh with 679 points Clemson the 1981 national champ but ineligible for a bowl game this season slipped from seventh to eighth with 656 points followed by Arkansas with 611 points and Pitt with 593 Arkansas Na 14 in the final regular-season poll moved up thanks to a 28-24 Bluebonnet Bowl victory over Florida In the UPI ratings Penn State picked up 33 first place votes and 551 points while SMU had 514 points Nebraska was third followed by Georgia UCLA Arizona State Washington Arkansas Pittsburgh and Florida State Auburn finished JNth in both polls and Ala-' bama was tied for 17th in the AP poll By Rubin Grant Post-Herald Rapartar It take a computer to figure out who the top college football prospect is in Alabama this year Simply ask a few college recruiters and they will tell you without a doubt Gardendale's 6-foot-S 260-pound lineman Curt Jarvis So when it came time to select the 1982 Birmingham Post-Herald "Ten Most Wanted" prospects who else but Jarvis could head the list? The list is chosen by a survey of Southeastern Conference scouts In terms of prospects in Alabama one recruiter said "the year is better than what it was thought to be but it's still not as good a year as last year" Another said "It's a good year not outstanding or great But there are definitely some top players Jarvis definitely fits that category head and shoulders above everybody one recruiter said Gardendale coach Eddie Bruce simply calls Jarvis great football Jarvis was awesome both offensively and defensively at guard for Gardendale this season His size strength and quickness enabled him to demolish opponents He runs a 48 40 and bench presses 380 pounds Brace said someday Jarvis will be seen on Sunday in the NFL Yesterday Jarvis was named to the Parade Magazine All-American team Two weeks ago Jarvis was named to USA high school All-America football team At the moment Jarvis is still undecided about where he will play college football Auburn and Alabama are his top two choices but also going to visit Louisiana State Tennessee and Georgia He said he will not hesitate to sign with an out-of-state school if he liked it This year's "10 Most is divided evenly between backs and lineman Since the national signing date until Feb 9 none of the prospects have made a commitment jJere'i a look at the Other prospects: swrpkM Ensley running back Cornelius Bennett one of the "10 Most Wanted" prep football prospects in state Cornelius Bennett Ensley i Before this season hardly anyone knew about Bennett a 6-3 218-pounder As a junior Bennett was shuffled from tight end to linebacker and finally to running back He settled in at running lack this year and gained 1099 yards on just 109 carries an average of better than 10 yards per carry He also scored 16 touchdowns the best running back in the state" said one recruiter Another said he liked Bennett's versatility Ensley coach Steve Savarese described Bennett as a strong hard punishing runner He also has good speed clocking 45 in the 40 Beaaett las hands (he caught 16 passes for 268 Savarese said and could play tight end in college He is being heavily recruited by Alabama Auburn Tennessee Oklahoma LSU Notre Dame Duke' and Florida State Beauford Parkins Vigor Perkins a 6-5 290-pound offensive tackle is an awesome blocker so big he just overpowers Vigor coach Harold Clark said a capable kid Intelligent" See PROSPECTS page B9.