PCAA Notebook : Eight-Year Streak Ends in Pacific Win Over Utah State

The University of the Pacific football team hadn’t beaten Utah State in eight years, but the Tigers finally broke the spell in convincing fashion Saturday night with a 33-7 Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. romp in Stockton.

Last year, Utah State won only one game and the Aggies embarrassed UOP in the process, 41-14. Utah State was the worst defensive team in the nation entering that contest--allowing 516 yards per game--but they shut down Pacific to keep from going winless.

The Tigers returned the favor Saturday with a physical defense that forced seven turnovers--three interceptions and four fumbles--and knocked a number of Aggies out of the game.

“In losing streaks, usually the team that plays the best wins,” UOP Coach Bob Cope said. “Utah State played better for eight years and we played better tonight. There’s no such thing as a jinx in football.”

The Tigers, 1-0 in conference, are in first place for the first time since Cope’s first year, 1982, and that was after just one game, too.

What Might Have Been Dept.: Gene Murphy is not the type to spend much time or energy worrying about what might have been, but the Cal State Fullerton coach can be excused if he has been daydreaming just a bit on Sunday mornings after reading the Utah results.

Last winter, the head coaching job at Utah was Murphy’s for the asking, but he decided to try for the Missouri post, didn’t get it and ended up back at Fullerton.

Utah was so impressed with Murphy that the school president canceled a trip to Boston so he could have Murphy over to his house for dinner to try and talk him into taking the Utah job.

Former Anaheim High School and Fullerton College quarterback Jim Fassel got the job--his first head coaching position--and the Utes are flying high. They routed Texas El Paso on Saturday, 55-19, to run their record to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the Western Athletic Conference.

There seems to be little doubt that Fresno State is the class of the PCAA at this point in the season and the Bulldogs look as if they may roll straight into the California Bowl on Dec. 14 in their own stadium.

Fresno beat Nevada Las Vegas--the team which was supposed to battle the Bulldogs for PCAA supremacy--in the season opener. There is still a long way to go, of course, and the Bulldogs must face Cal State Long Beach, Utah State and Pacific on the road, but they seem to have everything going their way now.

Fresno, 3-0 overall and 1-0 in conference, is leading the PCAA in total offense (376 yards a game) and total defense (299 yards). The Bulldogs, who breezed past Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 59-10, Saturday, have been forced to punt just 10 times this season.

Probably the most impressive statistic, however, is Fresno’s conference-leading rushing average of 206 yards a game. The Bulldogs, led by quarterback Kevin Sweeney (son of head coach, Jim), were supposed to pass their way to the conference title. But their ground game has been so effective, the junior quarterback hasn’t been throwing as often as expected.

It wasn’t exactly the same as a network switching to a movie in the middle of a crucial NFL game, but the debut tape-delayed broadcast of Fullerton’s 1985 home football games was as shaky as the Titans’ start.

Fullerton lost its home opener to Nevada Reno, 30-3, but at least the Titans stuck around until the end.

The game, shown on Titan Cable Sports (Channel 33 on a number of North Orange County cable systems), started at 7:30 p.m. as advertised, but, after the first three quarters, a community billboard segment appeared and the fourth quarter disappeared.

“They had hired a Vietnamese student as a technician,” color commentator Bill Robertson said, “and he thought football games only had three quarters.

“We promise to show the whole game from now on.”

If the Titans don’t play better than they did against Reno, nobody will want to watch, anyway. Fullerton was down, 23-3, after three quarters.

A word from someone who saw the fourth quarter: Maybe that technician was smarter than you think.

PCAA Notes

Cal State Long Beach quarterback Doug Gaynor, who orchestrated a second-half rally that propelled the 49ers to a 28-24 come-from-behind win at Las Vegas on Saturday, was named the PCAA Offensive Player of the Week. Gaynor completed 26 of 37 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns and the senior needs just 150 yards to break into the conference’s top 10 in career passing. . . . Pacific’s Tommy Purvis was selected Defensive Player of the Week after intercepting two passes against Utah State. Purvis returned one 66 yards for a touchdown and also recovered a fumble in the UOP end zone. . . . Utah State’s sophomore kicker Dene Garner has only played in four PCAA games, but he has already established one record and tied another. Garner had five field goals against San Jose State to tie a conference mark and also kicked a 58-yarder to set the record for distance. . . . If Fresno State maintains it’s rushing average, the Bulldogs will be the first PCAA team since 1978 to average more than 200 yards per game. In ‘78, a 5-7 Fullerton team averaged 303 yards a game, paced by halfback Obie Graves, who still has the conference single-season record of 1,789 yards, and quarterback Dale Bunn, who is now a Titan assistant coach.