The Talk of the South : Alabama Seems to Be a Bit Thin on Linemen

Sports smorgasbord:

Alabama football coach Ray Perkins says the Crimson Tide, trying to bounce back from its first losing season (5-6) in 27 years, will be short of depth in both the offensive and defensive lines next fall. “We’ve still got a long way to go,” Perkins said midway through spring practice. “We have a lot of work to do with people who will be backing up our front line people. We’re not sure how we’ll be from a depth standpoint at three or four positions.” . . .

Auburn, which lost to Alabama last fall, also is in spring practice and coach Pat Dye is complaining about the Tigers’ attitude. “We’ve got a few players who know what it takes to win, but not near enough,” said Dye. “We’ve got some with the ability to win, who don’t know what it takes; a few others who ought to be great players, but are so overweight they hardly can play at all; and some with borderline ability who could be winners, but are unwilling to extend themselves.” . . .

John McEnroe, upset last week in Dallas, will be the overwhelming favorite next week in Atlanta. Top-ranked, McEnroe is the only one among the top seven tennis players in the world entered in the 1985 WCT-Atlanta Championships which begin next Monday at the Georgia Tech Coliseum . . .

On another tennis note, Bryan (Bitsy) Grant, runnerup in the 1930 NCAA singles while playing for the University of North Carolina, will be inducted 55 years later into the Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame. The ceremony will be May 22 during the 101st NCAA Tennis Championships at Athens, Ga.

Today’s Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Games claim to have the strongest gathering of international high jumpers ever assembled outside an Olympics. The group includes Dennis Lewis--who broke Dwight Stones’ outdoor American record earlier this month with a jump of 7-8 , Stone, Tyke Peacock--who was the record-holder in 1983 when he jumped 7-7 3/4, and Poland’s Jacek Wzsola--the 1976 Olympic champion . . .

The two most competitive events in next month’s Southeastern Conference track championships at Starkville, Miss., should be the 100-meter dash and the 400-meter relay. Six SEC performers--led by Georgia’s Norm Edwards at 10.16--have bettered the 100-meter mark (10.33) needed to qualify for the NCAA championships . . . and four schools have bettered the NCAA standard (40.00) for the 400-meter relay . . .

The PGA Seniors’ Championship at Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., has been rescheduled. The tournament--one of the most prestigious on the 50-and-over circuit--has been switched from Dec. 5-8 to Feb. 13-16 . . .

With all the excitement surrounding the Masters golf tournament and the Atlanta Braves getting off to a fast start, few noticed when the Atlanta Hawks wound up their season as only one of seven of the 23 NBA teams that didn’t make it to the playoffs. The Hawks, with a 34-48 record, finished 25 games behind Milwaukee in the NBA Central Division; two games behind Cleveland in the battle for a playoff berth . . .

The New Jersey Generals have Doug Flutie and Herschel Walker, but the South has the top two teams in the USFL Eastern Conference. The Birmingham Stallions--currently looking for a new owner--and the Tampa Bay Bandits are both 6-2, a game ahead of the Generals and their two Heisman Trophy winners . . .

The South Carolina Gamecocks are making a run at the NCAA home run record. At the midway point of their season, the Gamecocks had hit 73 in their first 31 games. The NCAA record is the 131 homers Florida State hit in 1982 . . .

Georgia Southern claims the top relief pitcher in college baseball. At last report, senior Kenny Roberts was 7-0 with three saves after just a dozen appearances . . .

Belated notes of Southeastern Conference basketball: Alabama senior Bobby Lee Hurt wound up his college career with the highest field goal percentage in SEC history--making 63.1% of 1,024 shots. No other SEC player who took more than 1,000 shots ever connected on more than 60% . . . Kentucky junior Kenny Walker was the first player since Bernard King (current NBA scoring leader) in 1977 to lead the SEC in both scoring (22.9) and rebounding (10.2).