Loss of Damon Allen Has Been the Biggest Difference for Titans

Even the most casual observer of Cal State Fullerton football can tell you what’s wrong with the Titans this year: They don’t have Damon Allen.

Fullerton was 11-1 last year with Allen, who is starting quarterback for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. This season, the Titans have staggered to a 2-4 record and the two games they won were by two-point margins.

Allen is the kind of quarterback few are lucky enough to coach. And, of course, what made him great can’t be taught. He was blessed with a strong and accurate arm, could do a great imitation of his NFL superstar brother, Marcus, when he decided to scramble and set an NCAA record for lowest interception percentage (.009) when opponents came down with just three of his 330 passes in ’84.

Senior Kevin Jan got the unenviable task of trying to keep Fullerton--11-2 in Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. play the last two years--among the conference’s elite this season.

Predictably, he hasn’t been able to match Allen’s accomplishments and the Titans have suffered greatly.

At the season’s halfway point, Jan has completed 65 of 142 passes (46%) for 743 yards and 5 touchdowns. He’s been intercepted only three times, which looks OK until you start the inevitable comparisons with Allen. In 1984, Allen completed 54% of his passes for 2,469 yards and 20 touchdowns.

Allen, who gave new meaning to the term “mobile quarterback,” had the ability to make great coverage a defensive liability. His scrambling, and the threat it posed, could turn defensive game plans into mush.

Jan, on the other hand, is a statue in the pocket. If his receivers are covered, it’s sack city. Jan is minus 100 yards rushing so far. Allen gained 220 yards rushing last season.

“Kevin’s improved,” Jerry Brown, the Fullerton offensive coordinator, said. “He’s more confident in what he’s doing and that’s a major plus. He’s developing poise and that’s a must for him to reach his potential.

“Everybody’s going to point their finger at the quarterback. It’s the nature of the position. Nobody ever looks up and down the line and at the perimeter people to see who else is messing up.”

Jan isn’t looking for excuses or testimonials, for that matter. He says shouldering the blame for losses “comes with the territory when you’re a coach or a quarterback.”

“I’m feeling more relaxed now. I was pretty nervous at the beginning of the year,” he said. “I think we’ve matured as a team and the defense has done a good job. Now we (the offense) need to come together and hold up our end of the deal.”

Clearly, the offense has struggled. The injury-riddled defense has played well, but the offense has been unable to control the ball or get in the end zone often enough.

Senior wide receiver Corn Redick, sitting out a bye-week practice with a minor injury, was asked the difference between the 1985 Titan offense and the last two championship units.

He shook his head and laughed.

“Are you kidding, man?” he asked incredulously. “Damon Allen . . . Damon Allen, man, that’s the difference.”

Fullerton’s problems this year cannot be pinned on Jan alone, though. Quarterbacks like Allen come around once a decade and most successful programs manage to win with less-than-spectacular quarterbacks.

Did Allen single-handedly elevate the Titans to near-unbeaten status in ‘84? And does his absence reduce them to a .333 (at least so far) club in ‘85?

Not likely.

Allen was not the only member of last year’s squad to make the jump to pro football (five other Titans made their professional debuts this year). Fullerton Coach Gene Murphy, in the same position as many of his peers, was faced with filling a number of holes.

His major concerns going into the season were quarterback, linebacker, kicker and punter.

Here is Murphy’s observations on the progress at those four key areas:

Quarterback--”The word inconsistency pops up. Still, he’s doing some very positive things. You can’t compare Damon Allen and Kevin Jan. Kevin has proven he can win at the Division 1 level. That’s the way I look at it.”

Linebacker--”We lost a five-year guy (Russ Maybury underwent knee surgery) for the year and we’ve had our share of problems on the field. Brian Riggs (a transfer from Grossmont College) has been hurt and is still making mental mistakes. But on the bright side, Bill Bryan (Alta Loma High School) isn’t playing like a freshman anymore.”

Kicker--”We were spoiled with (the graduated Greg) Steinke, but (Len) Strandley has been lacking consistency, both on field goals and kickoffs. We’ve got to make PATs (Strandley has missed two), 29-yard field goals (Strandley missed one) and a high percentage of the 40-yarders (Strandley is 6 of 11 overall and 3 of 7 outside the 40).”

Punter--”All Jim (Sirois) has done is the job (he’s averaging 40.9 yards per kick). His 52-yard punt against Utah State was the most important play of the game. It pinned them down and gave us field position for our final (game-winning) drive.”

So Murphy had reasons to be concerned before the season and better ones at the halfway point. Success in one out of four crucial aspects of the game does not a championship team make.

Remarkably, however, Fullerton is still very much alive in the PCAA race. The Titans are 2-1 in conference and can keep their title hopes alive with a win Saturday at Fresno State, 4-0 in league and 6-0-1 overall.

“We’ll stop thinking about the conference championship when we’re mathematically out of it,” Murphy said. “We’ve improved over the last three games, but it seems like we either score 30 points or three points. We haven’t scored a touchdown at home yet and that’s killed us.

“We’ve got an awful lot of people out and a lot playing in pain, but I still see improvement in a number of places.”

The comparison may be tired, but football and war have more in common than just terms like “blitz,” “aerial attack,” and “bomb.” In the final analysis, both often come down to a battle of attrition.

So far in 1985, it’s a battle the Titans are decisively losing.

After losing to Nevada Las Vegas, 10-6, on Oct. 19, Murphy didn’t say the Titans should have won because Strandley missed two field goals, or because the Titan offense could not get in the end zone after penetrating the Rebels’ 20-yard line three times.

“We really needed the win at this point in the season,” he said later, “because, the way things are going, I’m not sure we’ll have enough people to win down the line.”

In 1984, not a single Titan was lost for the season because of injury. Only five were out for two or more games and all played different positions.

Halfway through 1985, Fullerton has lost its best linebacker (Maybury), its best defensive lineman (Ron McLean), its best tight end (Bob Kent) and its No. 2 quarterback (Whit Brown) for the year because of knee injuries.

And the timing and positions affected has been most unfortunate. The defensive line has been hardest hit and an offensive tackle (Kelly Gogerty) has been pressed into service at defensive tackle.

Nose guard Jim Baioa (out two games), defensive tackles Ruben Lizarraga (four) and Jeff Taylor (three) have all been sorely (excuse the pun) missed.

Both starting safeties went down against Wyoming. And both the starting and backup fullbacks went out in the first quarter against Las Vegas.

All football coaches have to deal with injuries, of course, but Fullerton is particularly ill-equipped to survive them. Depth is not a Titan long suit and it’s only reasonable that they would have a much greater degree of success in relatively injury-free seasons.

The only saving grace has been the schedule, which has allowed time to tape up the walking wounded and get them back in the lineup. Whoever arranged this year’s schedule must have known what was coming. In Murphy’s own words, “The schedule couldn’t have been more favorable, in terms of giving us a chance to win the conference again.”

The Titans, with a rookie senior at quarterback, opened with three nonconference games--Montana, Nevada Reno and Wyoming--and lost them all.

“We didn’t deserve to beat Reno or Wyoming,” Murphy said, “and, physically, we would have beaten Montana if we hadn’t played so pathetically.”

Then Fullerton, which hadn’t had a bye since 1982, got the first of two off-weeks this year. Propitiously, the first came right before the first conference game.

Murphy used the time to refine his “squirrel derby” gimmick offense and the Titans scored a touchdown on a 60-yard flea-flicker en route a 20-18 win over San Jose State in the PCAA opener. Then they beat Utah State, 32-30, on Strandley’s 39-yard field goal with 10 seconds remaining to go 2-0 in conference before losing to Las Vegas.

Bye No. 2 came last week, allowing Fullerton to heal and prepare for the most important conference game of the season in Fresno.

“We can’t have had the byes at better times,” Murphy admitted while running his players through a punting drill.

“Because we had so many people hurt we took three days off last week, but to tell you the truth, I was getting bored. This is the fun part . . . the practices, the games. This is what it’s all about, what coaches go through all the other stuff for.

“There’ll be 32,000 screaming fans in Fresno and the challenge is to do our best out there. But whether we’re winning or losing, I’ll be saying to myself, ‘God dang , this is fun.’

So, at least in one sense, 1985 has been a rousing success for Murphy and Co. Maybe the Ws and Ls aren’t everything, after all.

Three Years With the Titans

1983 1984 1985 (5-1, 7-5) (6-1, 11-1) (2-1, 2-4) Yards Rushing per game 106 171 127 Yards Passing per game 132 214 153 Yards per game 238 385 280 Yards allowed per game 329 354 332 Average points scored 16.9 28.1 16.5 Average points allowed 21.9 17.6 25.0 Punting average 38.2 41.1 40.9 Field goals 13 of 23 15 of 21 6 of 11 Turnover margin +1.36 +2.25 +0.67

Note--The Titan statistics in 1985 compare favorably to their 1983 PCAA championship season. In 1983, however, Fullerton won seven games by margins of 3, 6, 1, 8, 9, 1 and 17 points. It lost five times by margins of 27, 33, 27, 13 and 7. So far this season, the Titans have split the close games, winning twice by 2 points and losing by margins of 1, 4, 23 and 27.