2B—The Neil Hutton blocks and Duane Taylor attacks The truth DALLAS—“A-what about-a this Italian-a boy, hah?” the writer joked. He must have thought that a big Cotton (Bowl win left room for jokes with Joe Patemo. But the subject was no joke to Patemo. He let an unintelligible phrase slip by. Then, “Hey come on, will ya let me enjoy this one?” The “Italian-a boy” was freshman wingback Jim Cefalo, and since he accounted for one-third of Penn' State’s total yardage in the Cotton Bowl, it was un derstandable that the writer. might want to talk about him. But Paterao’s anguish discouraged such con versation. Even as happy as he appeared on his dripping wet stroll from the showers where he’d been thrown, Patemo must have just"ended a long season. His team had scratched and clawed just as he’d forseen in August. But besides that, he had to do something he never really wanted to do. Joe Patemo, who’d always spoken for the virtues of freshman teams and against the pressures of freshmen in varsity athletics, had to develop his game-breaking threat in a freshman. And Joe Patemo had to look to other freshman and sophomores to fill positions that in other years were easily manned by juniors and seniors. Cefalo was obviously the leader, if such terminology may be used loosely, of the movement. But review the Lions’ season and their lineup changes. Senior Walt Addie was the starting tailback in September. But it was Soph '74 Nits had something to prove DALLAS—Somehow the Penn State locker room at the Cotton Bowl seemed much different than the one in Miami just a year earlier. Then again last year’s Lions were 12-0 and this year’s were 10-2. - - Perhaps the heart of the matter lies there. Last season, Patemo had a team that did everything it was supposed to do. It was expected to go undefeated and to trounce some people. It was expected to have a running back lead the east and make All-America, then the pros. It was ex pected to place a fair number of players in the pro draft and it did just that and more with 11 Nittany Lions being selected. So much happened last year that was forecasted in the pre-season outlook, that no one was really surprised. However, this season has been just the opposite. People expected some things, but not all things like last year. People knew that an unblemished record was not in Joe Patemo’s cards this fall. He had some trump but no meld. SPORTS EDITOR: Jeff Young ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITORS: Tim Panaccio. Dave Moms. SPORTS WRITERS: Rick Starr, Barb Parmer ' anther, Penn <5. on §Jeff Young; Sports Editor Neil Hutton who gained 79 yards in 12 carries |before the Cotton Bowl audience. Senior; Dan Natale caught three passes in the Cotton Bowl, but freshman Randy Sidler’s 10 receptions frbm -the tight end srot during the season helped make Natalets Bowl efforts a reality. Senior fullback Tom Donchez led the Lion rushers; but. soph backup Duane Taylor was right there all the time, picking up nearly half Donchez’ total yards in less than half the attempts. And sophomores Georgp Reihner 1 and Brad Benson found jobs on the offensive line. Now right away one may point to injuries that forced Patemo into substitutions. But the injuries cannot resolve an entire season of experimentation. Seniority has always weighed heavily with Patemo. Where were the seniors What people didn’t jtnow was that Penn State would pull together in this end. What they didn’t foresee was a Cotton Bowl bid. Whiat they didn’t expect was some strong play by a lot of young players. Guys like Jimmy Cefalo, Neil Hutton, Duane Taylor, Tom Giotto and Tom Odell. There was a gap in the offensive line which lost.two All- America’s. A defensive secondary which was inex perienced and untested. Within time, everyone pulled together, much; closer than last season’s Orange Bowl victors. i ! “I think it’s jan outstanding football team,” lauded Paterno. “It took time for those young kids to get better. I think it’ll be a better football team next year.” Last year’s team didn’t have much to prove. This year’s squad had morelof the same than it probably wanted. The result was a successful cohesion of talent thajt earned its ink without relying week in and week out. on explosive offensive performances by John Cappelletti. I Maybe that’s jwhy the Penn State locker room was so much more vibrant this year. Maybe that helps explain Joe and the rest 1 of the coaching staff getting tossed about in a shower, along with Gov. Milton J. Shapp. Maybe that’s why everyone enjoyed themselves more this year and-in particular, this'Cotton Bowl. they got the chance to attack a Penn State trad / State youth who.didn’t play in the Cotton Bo- ri, who didn’tplay in the late games of their final college season, after the team had performed well enough to receive a bowl hid? They were on the sidelines. And the reason they were there is that perhaps there was someone stronger, someone quicker or more agile. Someone who could in any way bring Penn State closer to a win. And by no means was that person necessarily a senior. © Last year’s Nittany Lions started nohrie in the entire 22 -positions of younger than junior class. The team finished with a 12-0 record and an Orange Bowl victory. This year’s team for whatever reasons played freshman and sophomores in key positions and finished 10-2 with a Cotton Bowl victory. Last year’s post-Orange Bowl quotes were dotted with ‘No. 1’ claims. This year’s post-Cotton Bowl quotes had none of the same, but the players talked and acted as though they had accomplished just as much. Paterno has ballyhooed this team as having played to its potential more than any he can remember, but what would that potential hkye been had the youngsters not had their chance? Care to! speculate on the NC State game without the rushing of Taylor, Hutton, Cefalo? How about the Syracuse or Pitt contests? One memo: No matter what a coach professes to believe in, and whatever he says he wants to do, what he” really wants is to have more points than the other team when it’s all over, and to have that situation as often as possible. Happy New Year. JOQM Tim Panaccio Ass ’ t Sports Editor “We had a great time, I mean that,” said Paterno in his locker room cubbyhole in Dallas. “You can say what you want about a lot of places, but yOu couldn’t have had a better time anywhere but here, especially in the player’s cases.” It was more relaxed this time around. There wasn’t any needless pressure about remaining undefeated or whether or not Penn State would ever finish number one in the nation. /The mystical spell of 1973 had been broken in a driving rainstorm against Navy. After that, it all boiled down to one thing: Proving to yourself you could do what others thought you doing, Photo by Eric Felack
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers