Recovering from the Rubble at Northridge

Dark clouds filled the sky above Cal State Northridge earlier this week. But down below, on the practice field adjoining North Campus Stadium, the bad weather seemed to be long gone.

Watching the calm of spring practice, broken only by the grunt or groan of a Matador player busting his rear end to impress a coach, it is hard to remember the storm of controversy that blew through here just three months ago. The furor threatened to rip apart the football program.

It was the low point of the 23 years football has been played on this campus. Losing record? That can get a team down. Losing a coach? That will do it. Recruiting violations? Another morale killer.

Add all three together and you’re talking major debacle.

So when Bob Burt came marching onto campus in January as the new football coach--a big smile creasing his face--the inclination was to wonder how long he’d be able to keep it from turning into a frown.

He took over a team that was 4-7 last year, inheriting a program that had produced only five winning seasons in the past 16 years. Tom Keele, head coach for seven years, was fired in December. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that he invited prospective punters for a tryout, a procedure prohibited by the NCAA.

Last season was not a happy one for the Matadors.

One team member told tales of players laughing and joking, and having a grand old time on bus rides home from losing games.

Such tales might cause an incoming coach to wonder just what the heck he’d gotten himself into.

Eleven weeks later, Burt is still smiling. Of course, he hasn’t had to play anybody yet. But he can’t wait.

He wakes up every morning at his home in Upland, jumps into his car for the 60-mile trek to Northridge and says, “I’m loving every second of it.”

He won’t even describe the last 11 weeks as being hectic, because “that is a negative word.” None of those thoughts around this man, please.

Others may see the Northridge program as a crumbling edifice, but Burt merely assessed the damage to his team and began rebuilding.

Several players described Burt as a man with a “Division I attitude.” To them that means all business, an attitude in contrast to the easy-going Keele. The players like the change.

Burt, a former Cal State Fullerton assistant, went to work right away, recruiting players from Ganesha, Upland and Chaffey high schools, his old area. He can’t stop raving about Sherdick Bonner, who is coming to CSUN from Azusa High. Bonner was a basketball star and combination wide receiver/quarterback at Azusa. After looking at him on film, Burt declared, “He will play quarterback.”

Next, Burt put together a coaching staff he feels comfortable with. Offensive coordinator Rich Lopez and defensive coach Mark Banker are returnees. He has added to that core three full-time assistants, five part-timers and a couple of graduate students.

Burt took one look at Keele’s complicated run-and-shoot offense and decided it ought to be shot. He has installed a more standard offense that will include two backs and multiple formations.

Oh yeah, and one other thing. He told his team he had heard all the stories about the laughter on the bus. And he didn’t see anything funny about it.

“If that was true, it was the players’ fault,” he told a reporter while pausing in the middle of a practice. “But there’s an easy way to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

“I equate it with having a garden. If you just run a rake through it and water it a few times, then you’re not too disappointed when you don’t grow anything. But if you’re out there in 100-degree weather working that garden every day, and you don’t get something to eat out of it, then it hurts.

“We are going to make sure it hurts to lose. If you put nothing in and you get nothing out of it, what have you lost? By the time we line up for our first game, these players will have so much time involved in this team, it’ll bother them too much to come up short.

“Sometimes, change in itself can be a very positive thing. I want these guys to feel better about themselves. Nobody wants to be anybody’s doormat.”

At that point, Burt excused himself and returned his attention to practice. He showed a defensive lineman how to get into the opposing backfield, then fielded a punt while imploring the defenders to come after him, before moving on to the next group.

“They are not sure what I’m all about yet, where the lines are drawn,” he said when he returned to the sidelines. “But time is one thing we have on our side. We don’t have to play anybody yet.

“But by the time we play Sonoma State on Sept. 13 in our first game, these are going to be very hungry guys.”

He was smiling no longer.