ROAD WARRIORS : Murphy Casts His Titans in Role of Underdogs as They Prepare to Play at Reno in the First of Nine Away Games

Cal State Fullerton football season ticket holders, mark these dates on your calendar in red ink: Sept. 13, Oct. 18 and Nov. 8. Those are the only days this autumn on which the Titans can call the home field advantage their own.

Coach Gene Murphy’s road show opens Saturday in Reno. Stops on the tour include Las Vegas, Honolulu and a televised game in Tulsa, Okla.

Of the 12 games on Fullerton’s schedule, nine of them, including a Fresno State game that was supposed to be the Titans’ homecoming, will be played in the opponent’s stadium. The season hasn’t started, but Fullerton already leads the nation in one category--road games.

Crazy? Scheduling hara-kiri. One might think so. The average college football coach would cringe if his athletic director presented him with a schedule that called for his team playing three-fourths of its games on the road. But Murphy just grins and says: “That’s us,” the words he and his staff routinely use to explain away the problems encountered at a school that lacks the resources to compete with the USCs and UCLAs of the world.

One resource lacking is a home stadium. The Titans play their home games at 12,000-seat Santa Ana Stadium, one of the best facilities in Orange County for a high school or community college game. But for luring major college football programs into scheduling agreements? Nope. So, the theme song for the Titans this season is “On The Road Again”. . . and again and again and again.

“I know (Brigham Young Coach) LaVell Edwards very well,” Murphy said. “He’d come here and play, but where are we gonna play him? If we had a stadium here, we could entice a team like that to come here. But until that happens, we’ll spend most of our time on the road.”

The schedule has made the Titans underdogs again. That means Murphy has got them right where he wants them. In his six seasons as Titan coach, he has tried to use every disadvantage to his advantage. He tells his players that it’s them against the world, and the world is favored by two touchdowns. And it seems to work.

Said senior linebacker and co-captain Sean Foy: “We thrive on adversity, and that adversity brings us closer together. I really think being on the road’s a plus. We do like being the underdog.”

As underprivileged as Murphy may make the Titans out to be, they don’t enter the 1986 season without the talent to win. The departures of three-time All-Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. cornerback Mark Collins and wide receivers James Pruitt, Allen Pitts, Wade Lockett and Corn Redick have left some cavernous voids. But there is a solid foundation returning from a team that won its last four games after stumbling to a 2-5 start.

Throughout preseason, Murphy has repeatedly said he expects defense to be the Titans’ strength. Collins is off trying to work his way into the starting lineup of the New York Giants, but an experienced group of interior linemen and linebackers will help ease the pain of his absence.

Tackles Ron McLean (6-4, 255) and Jeff Taylor (6-3, 250) and nose guard Quinton Knight (6-1, 255) will make up the defensive line. Reserves Kelly Gogerty (6-3, 255), Dan Unger (6-5, 260) and Harold Jones (6-2, 220) should all see substantial playing time.

Foy, the Titans’ leading tackler in ‘85, will be joined at linebacker by Ted Hinton (6-2, 215), Bill Bryan (6-2, 225) and Bryan Riggs (6-2, 228). “You’re talking about four people who have the ability to not only go out and play, but to win for us,” Murphy said.

Murphy compares Hinton to Eric Emery, a former Titan linebacker who went on to play in the Canadian Football League. Bryan, who was forced into action as a freshman last season because of injuries, emerged as one of the Titans’ most pleasant surprises. Riggs was in on 50 tackles, and Fullerton coaches expect him to be one of the team’s most improved players.

Murphy hopes his secondary players have the ability to make up for their inexperience. Free safety Tom Phillips is the only returning starter. He’ll be joined by senior Trent Baker, sophomore James Howard and Tyrone Pope, a transfer from Colorado State. “You don’t lose Collins and say you’re going to replace him,” Murphy said, “but I think we have some pretty good personnel back there.”

Sophomore Tony Dill is back to run an offense that he joined through attrition last year. Dill was expected to be redshirted, but became the starter after season-ending injuries to Kevin Jan and Whit Brown. Dill started the last four games, during which he threw nine touchdown passes. He’s back to prove it wasn’t all just beginner’s luck.

“I felt lucky that I got a chance to play last year,” Dill said. “I didn’t doubt my ability, but I knew I had to learn a lot right up front. I feel a lot better with the system now. It’s become second-nature to me.”

The receivers he had to choose from made Dill’s initiation considerably easier. But wide receiver is probably Murphy’s biggest concern this season. Pruitt, Pitts, Lockett and Redick combined for 64 receptions last season, 14 of which went for touchdowns. Junior Todd White and sophomore John Gibbs, the Titans’ only returning receivers, caught four passes between them in ’85. White and Gibbs will start, but they’ll be backed up by Carlos Ward and Mark Hill, both freshmen.

“We might just go back to the ’83 philosophy of controlling the football until the receivers come into their own,” Murphy said.

That will mean plenty of carries for senior running back Rick Calhoun. Calhoun was Fullerton’s leading rusher (747 yards, 300 of which came in the last two games) last season. He returned two kickoffs for touchdowns and is considered by Murphy to be “one of the best kickoff return men in the country.”

Junior Tracey Pierce, a community college transfer who attended Arizona State on a track scholarship before transfering to Phoenix College to rekindle his football career, will back up Calhoun. Mark Hood, who worked his way into the starting lineup midway through last season after starting at the bottom of the depth chart, returns as the starting fullback.

The offensive line has size and experience, reaffirming Murphy’s faith in ball-control football. Guard Mark Stephenson (6-3, 270) returns after being selected All-PCAA and All-West Coast in ’85. Fifth-year senior Joe Florentine (6-3, 265) will start at the other guard spot. Phil Benson (6-1, 260) will play center, with Matt Fitts (6-4, 270) and Ed Gillies (6-5, 260) at tackles.

Tight end Jim Thornton, who came to Fullerton as a quarterback, has recovered from preseason injuries and illness to be named the starter. Murphy said: “We had to get that quarterback mentality out of him, but I think he has the ability to be one of the best tight ends we’ve had here.”

Senior Len Strandley will do the placekicking. Strandley hit 8 of 15 field-goal attempts last season, including a 52-yarder. Punter Jim Sirois returns after averaging 40.9 yards per kick in ’85.

Much of how all this comes together may depend on:

--How the Titans deal with jet lag.

--How much they learned from last season’s horrendous start.

After putting together the best record (11-1) in the school’s history in 1984, Fullerton lost its first three games of ’85 and forced Murphy to make some attitude adjustments.

“I think you really don’t appreciate winning until you’ve had the dog beaten out of you,” Murphy said. “We lost a lot of people who went through the lean years here. In fact, I think on our team right now, we have seven players who were part of losing seasons.

“Through the first five games (last season), I think we had a group of guys who thought they could walk between those lines and just turn it on, and it was going to happen for them. Maybe complacency is the word, but it just didn’t happen.”

Foy said: “The team attitude was almost complacent in a way. It was like, ‘We’re living off the glory of ’84. We don’t have to work as hard, we just have to walk onto the field and we’ll win.’

“When we started out 0-3, we learned real quick that it doesn’t work that way.”

For the first few weeks of the 1985 season, the Titans forgot to play the underdog. This year, the schedule will serve as a constant reminder.