Murray Finds Blitzes Beat Fastballs

Jay Schroeder isn’t the only one who decided that facing quarterback blitzes was easier than facing Dwight Gooden’s fastballs. Turns out that Texas A&M; quarterback Kevin Murray got the same message.

In 1982, as property of the Milwaukee Brewers, Murray got a look at Gooden in the Appalachian League. Gooden struck him out three times in a game. Murray wound up batting .161 that season, and it was back to College Station and into the eager embrace of Jackie Sherrill.

Schroeder, who couldn’t cut it in the Toronto Blue Jays’ organization, wound up as a starter for the Washington Redskins this season when quarterback Joe Theismann went down with a compound leg fracture. Schroeder finished with a 5-1 record.

Murray, in Texas A&M;’s 36-16 win over Auburn on New Year’s Day, set a Cotton Bowl record by passing for 292 yards. The old record of 231 yards was set in 1970.

It was set by Joe Theismann of Notre Dame.

Add Schroeder: UCLA offensive coordinator Homer Smith told Dave Scheiber of the St. Petersburg Times: “Of all the quarterbacks I’ve worked with, he’s the one who has it all. He can see the defense, evade, throw the deep passes, throw on the run. Physically, he can play in the same league as John Elway. If he had stayed with us at UCLA, we might not have lost another game.”

For What It’s Worth: Eric Ball’s four touchdowns for UCLA tied a modern Rose Bowl record, but the all-time record is five touchdowns. It was set by Neil Snow of Michigan in the 49-0 rout of Stanford in 1902. That was the famous point-a-minute Michigan team coached by Fielding (Hurry Up) Yost and led by the immortal Willie Heston. The Wolverines wound up with an 11-0 record, outscoring the opposition, 555-0.

Dieter Brock isn’t making any promises, but he told Jack Sheppard of the Dallas Times Herald: “I think we have to have more balance in our offense. We especially need to throw more on first down.”

Has John Robinson been listening?

Brock didn’t say, but he said, “I have become more vocal late in the season, because I think we have to throw the ball more.”

Eddie Buck, who coached William Perry at Aiken, S.C., High School, was asked if he had ever employed The Refrigerator as a ballcarrier.

“The only time we ever ran him with the ball, we had an intrasquad game, and my offensive coordinator put him in the backfield and sent him up the middle,” Buck said. “I heard a collision and turned around. William had collided with a 180-pound linebacker. I thought the boy was dead.”

Ever wondered how Cincinnati’s Moeller High has been doing since Gerry Faust left to become Notre Dame’s football coach?

Not bad.

While Faust was compiling a 30-26-1 record in five years at South Bend, Moeller has gone 56-4. It just won the state high school championship in Ohio with a 35-11 victory over Canton McKinley.

Quotebook

Texas A&M; linebacker Todd Howard, on the 73-yard touchdown play by Auburn’s Bo Jackson with a screen pass in the Cotton Bowl: “I saw him shift four gears. It was like he was a Porsche or a Ferrari and the rest of us were driving Toyota Celicas.”