The Pitt
football
experience
With a lean freshman and a go-get-em attitude,
new Pitt boss Johnny Majors is making Pitt a winner
By Rick Starr
The offensive line coach has his charges
over to the house for dinner every
Wednesday night. -On Monday, new head
man Johnny Majors gets together with all
the students on campus that are interested
and shows Saturday's game films,
answers questions and talks Pitt football.
The Sports Information Department is
under siege like a post office a week before
Christmas and the students, some of them
anyway, are leaving the wine behind.
It's what folks have been calling the
Major Change in Pitt football. What it
means is the University's football players
just aren't their old selves any longer.
Everybody's noticed.
These tart new Pittsburgh Panthers will
be at Beaver Stadium Saturday, Nov. 24 to
tangle with the Lions in a joust that should
really get the cat fur flying.
Pitt sports a 5-2-1 mark, is currently
ranked 20th in the AP poll and this week
garnered, every runner-up vote in the
Lambert Trophy balloting. Unfortunately,
there are still contests remaining with
Notre Dame and Penn State, with• Army
sandwiched between.
• Realigtically, as Majors loves to put
things, Pitt hasn't arrived just yet. But
then again, as Majors also likes to put it,
Pitt hasn't anything to lose.
"If Dorsett had been a sophomore and
had some pre-season publicity, he would
be an All-Americi," Irish coach Ara
Parseghian has been saying all week
while preparing his - potential
championship team for its trip to
Pittsburgh today.
This, Parseghian well knows, is not the
time to stumble not with so many bowl
bidders watching.
The Dorsett referred to.is Tony Dorsett,
a super runner who thinks like a senior Many of the football experts, who praise
and runs like a panther. The lean, Ohio State, will laugh at Penn State's
compact freshman already owns one Pitt game against Ohio U. A closer look,
record —most yards in a season. That was however indicates the Bobcats are on par
set last week against Syracuse when he with most of Ohio State's opponents;
picked up 211 yards to boost his season's = including lowa, the Buckeye's foe on the
dividends to 1,139 yards, an average of 142 't„_ same day.
per game. Coach Bill Hess' Bobcats have victories
But Pitt isn't just a few new faces, it's/ over Northwestern, Western Michigan
the program that has been overhauled, a and Bowling Green. The only two losses
complete refocusing of emphasis from suffered by Ohio in their last five games
bigness to quickness. And Majors seems to were close contests against highly
have the program by the tail 'and is regarded iMiami, Ohio (6-10) and South
spreading excitement, around Pittsburgh Carolina (22-38). .
'for the first time in a decade
like candy canes on Romper Room.
Witness the surge in Pitt attendance:
56,000 tomorrow for the Irish, 35,000
average overall. That's up from a sad low
of 19,000 'only a year ago.
Part of the reason is that the' team is
faster, but most of the reason is the team
is winning. Honest to goodness football
games.
"Last year," Pitt quarterback Bill
Daniels recalls, "kids used to come to the
games with a gallon of wine. Now, kids
come to the game to watch it. It's nice
having them behind you."
One of the most accurate measures of
any team's success is the quantity of
kinetic energy its Sports Information
Departglent generates. There's no power
shortage in Pitt's department.
"The difference between this year and
last year is like night and day," Pitt sports
information director Dean Billick
explains. "I've never been so busy in all
my life, but it's more fun now. We now get
writers from Washington, Atlanta,
Indianapolis, Philadelphia, New York,
from all over the East."
Part of the task of getting the Panther
student body into the act is the effort the
assistant coaches make to visit every
fraternity and sorority each week.
But there has also been criticism leveled
at the new program, both in the papers
and on a Pittsburgh TV station.
Billick denies there is any brutality on
the practice field and points to the fact
that every session is open to the media.
Ohio U. is also progressing, however...
Pitt freshman tailback
Tony Dorsett in last
weekend's 28-14
victory over , Syra
cuse. He carried 27
times for 211 yards.
"There have been three negative stories
and all three were done by young men who
had never been to a practice session,"
Billick said. "No one who has covered
practice ever has come away with a
negative attitude.
"The stories done were totally distorted,
totally not Journalism, libelous,
slanderous, and completely inaccurate.
I'm a journalism major and I can judge
that.
"Majors has turned Pitt around 180
degrees. He has changed the whole image
in just six months time. Now we're
respectable, aggressive."
A good share of Pitt's new
aggressiveness is generated by
quarterback, Daniels who seldom thinks
once about tucking it under his wing and
trying to pedal the ball downfield a few
stripes. Although he admits, "when the
real big horses start coming, I usually
slip."
Daniels also commented on the brutality,
trial in the papers.
"We know the only way to get anywhere
is to work hard, but if it was as hard as
they said it was, I couldn't do it myself.
Before the seas: Hess said, "Our kids
hit well, and we hope to improve with each
game."%.
His young team,hasn't disappointed him
too often. After lopsided losses to Kent
State and Toledo in their first two games,
it has improved steadily.
Still the Bobcats are only 3-5 but the
record isn't that bad considering the
schedule is the toughest in Ohio U. history.
The Mid American Conference is ranked
higher than it's ever been before and
Ohio's interconference foes include major
powerhouses Penn State and South
P.S. Friday, November 9, 1973-
I'm no superman. Coach Majors put us
through hard stuff, but if I'd have known
then where we would be today, I'd have
worked a lot harder.
"We've been down so long, even the
littlest reward like the tie with Georgia
gave us so much satisfaction."
Daniels also noted the blocking of what
was supposed to be a very unspectacular
offensive line.
"We have three seniors and two juniors
on the line, and every Wednesday our
offensive line coach, Joe Avezzano, cooks
dinner for the whole line. They used to
stay after practice when we were still at
Johnstown and run up the hills. He
instilled pride in the unit."
Daniels said he got the reward for the
work during the Navy contest. "Against
Navy;! he said, "we played very poorly,
but the fans never gave up they stuck
with us even after we fell behind with
three minutes remaining. They just stood
up and cheered."
"Majors came here with the idea of
building a national champion in the
future," Billick said. "And right now,
we're headed in the right direction."
Carolina
"Our players have named the last five
games our 'second season', "revealed
Hess.
Of course, none of the Bobcats'
opponents could be classed with Penn
State. It would be interesting to hear the
pep talk Hess uses to make his players
believe they have a chance against the
Nittany Lions.
But it won't match the one Paterno will
give the Lions to make them believe the
Bobcats have even the slightest chance.
—Fred Brewer