Birmingham Post-Herald du lieu suivant : Birmingham, Alabama • 13

Ilirmmulium lol -llt iiild Wednesday December 23 1937 SBaI iffAmerl a rilB II I I Hill Another small step for bowl backward By the end of a cool winter evening at Legion Field it appeared the All American Bowl had taken another small step backward That is not to say the 11th annual game was a flop It wasn't It just wasn't a very big hit And with each year one has to wonder about the 1 future of a game that doesn't seem to be getting any better Sure the payout has increased each year So has the corporate sponsorship But judging by the crowd last night watching Virginia's 22-16 victory over Brigham Young it appears the community is sending a message that it really doesn't care PAUL By StrpAra Gain Virginia running back Marcus Wilson breaks through the Brigham Young defensive line during the first half of last night's All American Bowl at Legion Field Records hollow for Covey B4 The statistics B4 Lumpkin: Cougars' AD impressed B5 Fans a study in contrasts BS All American Bowl notebook B5 How they scored B5 Virginia's defense does the job B8 Covey's record performance not enough for BYU FINEBAUM Jim Simmons the executive director of the All American Bowl estimated the crowd to between Later an official estimate of 37000 was announced However an informal poll of veteran observers in the press box put the crowd closer to 25000 may not even be that many" said a member of the news media who has covered football at Legion Field for 30 years That would make it slightly better than last year's crowd of 22584 Remember officials had estimated the night of the game at 35000 When you consider that mine than 65000 tickets were sold for last night's game it was dear the toughest -task in town wasn't getting a ticket to the bowl game Instead it was getting rid of one The biggest surprise of the night had nothing to do with the size of the crowd Instead it was that the i scoreboard clock at Legion Field worked the entire game Simmons who has led the All American bowl the pvt five years still put on a happy face a crowd standpoint I think it's tremendous Obviously we would like to have all 75000 seats filled But lor a Tuesday evening in Birmingham 40-45000 fans bad" Considering all of the tickets sold and how few showed up Simmons was asked how he could be so optimistic saw empty seats at the Alabama-Auburn game People buy the tickets and what they do with them is their decision I wish that everybody would come Fortunately the weatherman cooperated with us the Good Lord was good to us We got a beautiful night fof football And you're seeing two great college football teams The guy that stayed home he's the Apparently if you use the Simmons philosophy there are a lot of losers in Birmingham today Not only did the two teams generate little interest from Birmingham but they also failed to draw many fans from their own towns Virginia had been expected to bring close to 10000 fans Part of the expectation was based on the 13000 it took for its only other bowl appearance the 1984 Peach Bowl However it appeared that less than 5000 fans made the journey from Virginia BYU which was invited because of its appeal sold a little more than 1000 tickets Pete Witbeck assistant athletic director at BYU said the pre-Christmas date took its toll Simmons said the date hurt but also helped a trade-off because this year if we were post-Christmas we would lose the Alabama-Auburn -fans It's pre-Christmas and we have them But we traded that off with the visiting fans came in from Virginia but mainly it's a stag trip I've had many tell me they wanted to bring the family but the wife was home shopping therefore the kids had to stay Simmons said he was undecided about staying with the same date in the future not totally disappointed with this date To tell you the truth I really don't 1 Whether it had been played before Christmas or after the matchup would have done little to create excitment Bowl officials talked about how wonderful it was that BYU had won the national championship three years ago So what? Please tare to FLNEBAUM page B4 4 ball for only 2:06 and did not make a first down But after a long BYU touchdown drive narrowed the gap to 14-9 Virginia rebounded with a touchdown drive of its own on a Secules-to-John Ford 22-yard scoring pass The two teams then traded scores before Virginia's defense stopped final two drives On the first drive Cavalier defensive end Sean Scott stopped Covey inches short on a fourth-and-one scramble Covey's forward progress extended past the first down marker but officials ruled Covey's knee touched the ground inches short "I thought it was a lousy Edwards said was right in front of me He had it all the way" Then after Virginia kicker Mark Inderlied missed a 42-yard field goal with 1:18 remaining Covey threw four consecutive incompletions Secules then dropped his knee to the ground the next two plays and started the celebration as the final seconds ticked off said Scott a senior who started every game but one in his four years at Virginia threw the ball 61 times and we only gave up 16 points We did what it took It wasn't one person in particular It was a great defensive effort all Covey who eclipsed the previous All American Bowl record id 51 passes by Vanderbilt's Whit Taylor in 1982 didn't realize he had thrown the ball that often would have guessed we threw the ball 30 or 40 he what we usually do Circumstances caused us to throw more this Virginia utilized a balanced first-half offensive attact 23 rushes 14 passes to build a 14-3 halftime lead The Cavs would have led by more if not for three turnovers in BYU territory in the second quarter Please lari to BOWL page B4 By Chet Fussman Pmt-Htrald Reporter Virginia's defense withstood a record passing assault by Brigham Young quarterback Sean Covey last night to defeat BYU 22-16 in the 11th All American Bowl at Legion Field Covey attempted a bowl record 61 passes He completed 37 for 394 yards but only one for a touchdown That wasn't enough to overcome an 11-point Virginia halftime lead as the Cavaliers behind an opportunistic goal-line defense held on to win before an estimated crowd of 37000 key thing in the football game is that we did a good job on our goal line" Virginia coach George Welsh said made some big plays down there We stopped them" BYU rolled up 498 yards of total offense 150 more than Virginia but frequently failed to convert on critical plays inside Virginia territory BYU coach LaVell Edwards said the Cougars had only themselves to blame kept ourselves out of the end Edwards said dropped passes one in the end zone picked up some penalties and turned the ban over at critical Virginia quarterback Scott Secules throw nearly as often as Covey but was on the mark when it counted He completed 10 of 19 for 162 yards and one touchdown He also ran for a score and was voted the game's Most Valuable Player made some key pass said Secules a fifth-year senior playing in his final came at Virginia Virginia nose guard Davian Clifton pressures BYU quarterback Sean Covey we did a good job on the ground The offensive line did a great job coming off the ball" The victory enabled Virginia to dose out its season with five straight victories and an 8-4 record The Cavaliers 3-8 last season were picked in the pre-season to finish seventh in the Atlantic Coast Conference The loss was BYU's third consecutive bowl defeat since it won the national championship in 1984 The Cougars finished the season 9-4 Virginia winning its second bowl game in as many tries pulled out the victory even though it ran only five offensive plays in the third quarter The offense held the Alabama must find answers to pass Arkansas test Alabama (6-2) Aritaitiai (7-1) By Ray Melick Poat-Hcrald Reporter When we last left Wimp Sanderson the Alabama basketball coach was looking for answers His Crimson Tide had just beaten Mississippi Valley State 64-46 to improve its record to 6-2 But Sanderson was not a happy man have some real concerns for this team down the Sanderson said got to get Part of his concern was that Alabama had just split games with Mississippi Valley and Montana State The Tide hit only 42 percent of its shots against those two opponents and committed 32 turnovers In the first half against Montana State Alabama got only four defensive rebounds Sanderson started two freshmen Melvin Cheatum and Gary Waites and junior college transfer Alvin Lee against Montana State then shook Jhat lineup by starting Cheatum and freshman Bryant Lancaster center eRoderic Coleman who had eight points and six rebounds against the Tide like to try and intimidate Not only do the Razorbacks like to intimidate but this game will be played in Little Rock instead of on the Arkansas' campus in Fayetteville Ark got a sold-out arena for this Sanderson said are no tickets eavailable That's nice for Arkansas but not nice for us It's going to be like playing at South Carolina (the Tide's first Ion of the season) again 9 a tough place to play and they have a lot of Alabama beat Arkansas 87-76 last sea- son in Birmingham In that game Jim Farmer escored 30 points Jay Jay Jackson 20 ami Derrick McKey 17 for the Tide The Razorbacks gqf- 27 points from Tim Scott nine rebounds from Andrew Lang taking up the slack for Ron Huery one lot the Razorbacks' top scorers who was held to five pants Alabama goes into tonight's game without Farmer Jackson McKey or Mark Gottfried who did an outstanding defensive job on Huery Arkansas on the other hand will start Smith Lang and Huery as well as Stephan Moore and Alii Freeman two returning lettermen are a good Sanderson said were picked No 1 in the Southwest Conference and they're playing that way They have a lot of good players and just about everybody back from last year's team think it will be a good test for us Well esee what happens and hope it's not eThe players know things aren't going right j' Please tun to TIDE page B3 another combination before tonight's game against Arkansas in Little Rock Ark "We're so young and we seem to be so Sanderson said not pleased with the way playing don't know that these kids know what it is to play hard They're trying but we've got four freshmen and two junior college transfers among our top eight or nine players They just don't know what it takes "And goodness knows this team this year has got to play all out every Certainly it will take a better effort against ethe Razorbacks Favored to win the Southwest Conference Arkansas (7-1) is coming off a 91-71 victory over Mississippi Valley State the same team eAlabama struggled against Monday night is a lot more physical than said Mississippi Valley State Oit USA Nrtwwt mt trmtmt rone MUM WEOC i am-no mamiM a pm cst and juco transfer Kemble Smith against Mississippi Valley Yesterday at 16 am Sandson had his team back on the practice floor looking for.