raps curfew,
DALLAS—Remember when you were a kid and you had!
to be under the covers at some seemingly ridiculous l
(early ).hour? Or how the lights had to be out at 10:30 p.m. I
when you went to camp? Now curfews are out of the
question. Afterall, if you are old enough to*vote, you’re old
enough to go to bed when you want to, right?
Right—unless you happen to play football for a college
team. Take the Baylor Bears.
Coach Grant Teaff imposed an 11 p.m. curfew on his
players during the season. Yep, the lights were dimmed
each night at 11, but since the Bears won the Southwest
Conference title and a trip to the Cotton Bowl, not much
can be said against the rule. Who can argue with success?
But boys will be boys and the Bear players soon found
ways to beat the curfew. Center Aubrey Schultz said a
favorite method was to turn out the lights until the room
was checked. Then the players pulled the shades, put a
towel against the crack under the door and watched the i
late show on television.
With few exceptions, -Baylor players accepted the
curfew for what it was and played along with Teaff’s
game. One of the few exceptions was Derrel Luce, a
member of several All-Arperica teams and consensus All-
Southwest Conference linebacker. Throughout the season
Luce disagreed with the curfew and the 7 a.m. breakfast
the team was required to attend each day.
It may not seem to be the typical behavior of a team
leader, but Luce, who plans to attend law school after
Bear blockers had their paws full
By DAVE MORRIS
Assistant Sports Editor
DALLAS—When the final gun sounded
in the 39th annual Cotton Bowl Classic, few
people were as disappointed as Baylor’s
Aubrey Schultz.
Throughout the frustrating loss, the 6-1,
240 lb. consensus All-Southwest Con
ference center had problems with the
Penn State defensive charge, especially
from tackles John Quinn and Mike Har
tenstine. The pair continually stunted and
faked their way around Schultz and his
linemates and into the Bear backfield,
forcing a change in offensive strategy.
“The Penn State! linemen compare a lot
to Oklahoma,"Ahe senior center said after
the 41-20 loss.j “They’ve got great speed
and they are quick. They fake you out and
stay on their feet." &
Schultz singled out Hartenstine, saying,
“He is one of the quickest tackles I have
seen. I seldom was able to get to him for a
block. Hartenstine also read the defense
Derrel Luce (46) forces one of two Torr%
Donchez fumbles. Tom looks a bit surprised
Luce hits hard
off field* too;
Dave Morris
Ass’t Sports Editor
well and because of his quickness, he
reacted well.”
Schultz splitrhis blocking time between
Quinn and Hartenstine because of the
shifting on the Penn State line. Schultz had
played against a noseguard all season, so
Paterno and Penn State set out to confuse
the Bears, using a noseguard-type
defense.
Each time Baylor lined up to run an
offensive play, one of the two Penn State
tackles set down directly over center,
shifting back to the original tackle spot
just before the snap of the ball.
“We tried to confuse them with the
stunting,” Quinn said, “f moved too quick
in the first hal: and gave them time to
adjust, but I was holding'on more in the
second half. On one tackle no one touched
me, so I think! the stunting helped.”
The movement on the line of scrimmage
also affected the right side of the Baylor
line—freshman guard Jon JCramer and
sophomore tackle Gary Gregory.
practice
graduation, presented a valid point to support his
dtgument.
; “It’s how much sleep you get, not what time you go to
bed,” he said. “Sleeping from 11 jo 7 is the same as going
to bed at 4 and getting up at 12. Either way you get eight
hours.”
And the curfew isn’t the only thing Luce disagrees with.
In fact, he would like to see several changes made in
college football programs.
For openers, Luce would like to do away with spring
drills.
“Idon’t like spring drills,” the 6-4,224 lb. hitter said in a
pre-bowl press conference. “You forget everything by the
time you come back anyway. I think weight-lifting and
running We better.
“You go out when it’s getting warm and you want to go
to the lake on picnics. You nfeed a vacation other than the
summer, which isn’t reallya vacation because you have
to work on your construction jobs to earn some money.”
That remark brought another question from a reporter.
“Is that what you did in the summer?”
Luce, as though he anticipated the question, stood there
with a sheepish grin on his face and shook his head. “I
decided to use my head instead of my back,” he said. “So
I sold cemetery lots.”
You heard-right. Derrel’s mother manages a-eemetery,
so he worked the summer as a salesman.
“It’s just a selling job, but it’s much better than puneh-
f f-
Kramer had the dubious honor of
helping Schultz keep either Quinn or
Hartenstine out of the Baylor backfield, a
task in which he wasn’t often successful.
Gregory’s assignment wasn’t 'much
better, as he had to key on defensive end
Greg Murphy.
Both players agreed that quickness was
the main asset of the Penn State defense.
But to Gregory, the task of protecting the
quarterback against the Lions wasn’t
different from any other game.
“To me they were no different than any
other ballclub,” he said. “Out there it’s
just hand-to-hand combat. They've been
up against it before and they knew what
was going on.”
The hand to hand combat- was rough for
the Lions at first, as the-Bear line opened
up gaping holes for tiny tailback Steve
Beaird. Beaird picking up 84 yards in 21
carries, most of which came in the -first
half.
‘We adjusted at halftime and toughened
The Daily .Collegian Monday, January 6, 1975 —5B
ing a [clock at 9 a.m.,” Luce said. “I didn’t work very
hard.”
Those are some of the things. Derrel Luce does
atypically, but there are many more. Football players are
students, and students should go to classes and study, so
one writer assumed Luce attended classes regularly, as
his coach mandated.
How wrong the' writer was. He and others soon learned
not to make assumptions about Luce.
“I’m not known for going to classes all the time,” he
chuckled. “Some classes aren’t worth going to if you can
get the notes and everything.”
Luce majors in earth science-geology, which in his own
words, “Is not worth very much of anything unless you
want to teach school.” But Luce doesn’t want to teach, he
wants to go to'law school. .
Above all else, there is one thing in which Derrel Luce
performs typically—football. On the field he is a leader
and a hard-hitter with a nose for the ball. During the
regular season Luce averaged 12 first hits per game and
had a habit of forcing fumbles. In the Cotton Bowl, Luce
was all over the field and once stripped Tom Donchez of
the ball deep in Penn State territory.
The Bears scored but still lost pie ballgame. Derrel
Luce’s collegiate football career is now a thing of the past,
as he prepares for law school and ' the future. There is
only one thing that will keep Luce fr )m attending school,
and that is a chance to play with the; iros.
up on defense,” Hartenstine said. “Their
offensive line moves out very well and we
were worried about the veer. We’re a real
aggressive team and tend to over-react.”
After the adjustments, the , line of
defenders contained Beaird land the
Baylor rushing attack, forcing quar
terback Neal Jeffrey to the air, at which
time Penn State took over control of the
game and rolledvictory.
Photo by Eric Fotack