Untested Titan Receivers Hoping They’re the Solution for Murphy

Coaching college football may be frustrating, but at least it’s interesting. Just when you find a solution, the problem changes.

Depth has never been a long suit at Cal State Fullerton, but Coach Gene Murphy’s 1985 team was blessed with four talented senior wide receivers. Starters James Pruitt (Miami, fourth round) and Corn Redick (Atlanta, seventh round) were selected in Tuesday’s National Football League draft, and Murphy thinks backups Wade Lockett and Allen Pitts will also play professionally somewhere.

The problem:

For most of last season, quarterback Kevin Jan was unable to get the ball to the outside. The quartet, who named themselves the “Bomb Corps,” were a bit of an early dud. In the first seven games, they caught just six touchdown passes.

The solution:

Jan got hurt and freshman Tony Dill took over. He threw nine touchdown passes to the receivers, and the Titans won their last four games, salvaging a 6-5 record from what might have been an ugly season.

The new problem:

Now that they have a quarterback who has proven he can get the ball to the wide receivers, who do the Titans have to catch it?

The answer--for the time being, anyway--is junior Todd White and sophomore John Gibbs, a pair with a total of four career catches at Fullerton.

“It is an area of big concern,” Murphy said. “Let’s face it, we’ve been spoiled for three or four years. Now, Tony has shown he can put the ball on the money. But Todd and John haven’t had a chance to prove themselves.

“I think the ability is there. I think we have quality at wide receiver, we just don’t have game experience. And there are some things you just can’t tell about a player until he gets a chance to see another color jersey.”

Not surprisingly, White (6-feet, 185 pounds) and Gibbs (6-0, 170) are eagerly awaiting the Titans’ 1986 opener. With 5-4 Ralph Castaneda, 5-5 Mike Sylvester and a few redshirt freshmen backing them up, they haven’t exactly spent this spring worrying about winning starting spots.

White and Gibbs, who don’t have great speed or size, are the starters. But can they catch the ball in a crowd? Can they bounce back after dropping a big pass in a crucial game? Can they remember to change their patterns in the heat of competition?

“We have a lot to prove,” Gibbs said. “Everybody is looking at our segment to be the weakest on the team. We not only have something to prove to the coaches, but we have to show the team that we can carry our share of the load.

“There are a lot of steps to climb, but I learned by watching the ‘Corps’ and now it’s my big opportunity. I’ve always been a game player and I plan to make the most of it.”

White, a holder for two years who has completed more passes on fake field goals than he has caught, is an honor student on schedule to graduate next year. The St. Paul High School graduate has what Murphy calls “the softest hands on earth,” but he doesn’t expect to follow Pruitt and Redick into the NFL.

“I didn’t expect to play much before this,” he said, smiling. “I mean, what are you going to say to the coaches, ‘Play me, a sophomore, over these four seniors who will probably all play pro ball?’ But I paid my dues and now I’m thrilled to death to step forward and take advantage of the opportunity.

“It’s funny, though. I miss them a lot. Just observing them was a lesson. They left me a lot I can take out there (on the field) with me.”

One thing White doesn’t intend to carry with him is the burden of self-imposed pressure.

“Actually, I think there’s very little pressure,” he said. “There’s nothing expected of us. . . I guess we’re already counted out. But I can handle pressure, anyway. I think there was more pressure at St. Paul. We always had 10,000 people at our games.”

The Titans still might not be able to outdraw the Swordsmen, but Dill will likely be providing the spectators who do show up at Santa Ana Stadium with some major-college thrills. The 5-11, 180-pound freshman has a quick release and a knack for eluding the rush.

The Fullerton staff is faced with the likelihood that opponents will be spending considerably less time double-covering the wide receivers than in the past. And eight-man lines can do a lot to take the scramble out of any quarterback’s repertoire.

“We’ll have to be patient as coaches, and we’ll have to be intelligent enough to diversify our passing attack,” Murphy said. “But if we can’t throw deep at all, we’ll see eight-man fronts from everyone and their dog.”

The pleasantly optimistic (Murphy calls him “oblivious”) Dill isn’t worried.

“I really don’t see too much difference,” Dill said. “Playing with the ‘Corps’ was beneficial for me, but having Todd and John out there can be good, too. I think we can learn and grow together and become a pretty good passing unit.

“I don’t think we’ll have that big of a problem with teams not respecting us. We’ve got talent out there and if they don’t respect it, we’ll make sure they notice it in a hurry.”

And that would solve one problem . . . for a while, anyway.

Titan Notes Jerry Brown, offensive coordinator/wide receiver coach, has had yet another title bestowed upon him by Gene Murphy: associate head coach. “It was Gene’s idea,” Brown said. “It’s nice, but it doesn’t mean anything to me. Everybody would like to be great at something, and I’d like to be a great football coach. But a new title won’t make me any better at coaching young men to get doggone good, or help me move the X’s and O’s any better, or make the right decisions.” . . . The Fullerton players got two days off last week, exchanging their pads for comfortable walking shoes as they went door-to-door hawking tickets to the inaugural May Bowl, a glorified spring game designed to boost the Titans’ athletic budget. The intrasquad game is scheduled for May 9 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5. . . . Murphy thinks quarterback Tony Dill may be too talented for his own good. “It’s only his second year of playing quarterback (he converted from receiver after his junior year at Mount Miguel High School) and he’s improving by leaps and bounds. The problem is getting him to understand he can’t do it all himself. He’s still trying to turn disaster into something good and he has to realize that if it takes a perfect pass, it’s the wrong decision. But he’s got so much ability, he succeeds some of the time anyway and figures he can do it every time.” . . . . Murphy says the Titans have the most depth they have ever had at running back and in the defensive line. “I’m talking two-deep quality at each position,” he said. “We don’t go three here.” . . . . Safety Mike Schaffel, a redshirt freshman, has been the most pleasant surprise of the spring, in Murphy’s estimation, and the coach says cornerback Tyrone Pope, a transfer from Colorado State, would “start if we had a game today.” Only two players--fullback Bill Jaquish (knee) and cornerback Rolando Jarin (dislocated shoulder)--have suffered serious spring injuries.