Titans Try to Beat Tough Odds Against Reno in Season Opener

For a moment, imagine you’re Cal State Fullerton football Coach Gene Murphy. Your team lacks experience, but you figure you have enough good athletes to compensate. You want to break them in easy. Maybe open with a patsy . . . a lower-division team. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Now, let’s say you’re opening your season at 1 p.m. today in Nevada Reno’s Mackay Stadium, against one of two teams that practically made you look helpless and hapless last season. And let’s say it has a busload of players returning from a team that finished 11-2, including a quarterback who’s threatening to turn the Nevada Reno record book into an autobiography.

For the Titans, that’s reality. Welcome to the 1986 football season, ready or not.

“We were beaten badly--I mean just physically manhandled--twice last year,” Murphy said. “Once was at Fresno (a 42-7 loss). The other was at home against Reno.”

The date was Sept 14. The place was Santa Ana Stadium. The score was Nevada Reno 30, Fullerton 3. And this was one case in which the game wasn’t much closer than the final score indicated. Reno finished with 438 yards in total offense. Fullerton had 182. The Titans needed a 52-yard field goal by Len Strandley to avert a shutout.

Eric Beavers, the Wolf Pack’s record-setting quarterback, completed 16 of 27 passes for 205 yards and 3 touchdowns. He went on to pass for 2,617 yards and help Reno reach the semifinals of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.

Murphy doesn’t remember Beavers being the kind of quarterback who makes National Football League scouts salivate. He just remembers him being effective.

“You look at him and he’s not that big (5-10, 175), he’s not that fast and he doesn’t have that strong of an arm,” Murphy said. “But he’s productive. He hits hands. He’s one of the best quarterbacks we faced last year, and we faced some good ones.”

Beavers isn’t Murphy’s only concern. Fullback Charvez Foger, who averaged more than 124 yards rushing per game in 1985, will join Beavers in the backfield. Wide receiver Bryan Calder returns. Injuries kept Calder out of five games last season but he still caught 41 passes for 647 yards and 9 touchdowns. Placekicker Marty Zendejas, who made 19 of 24 field-goal attempts, also returns.

All of this makes it a little hard for Reno Coach Chris Ault to downplay his team, which most preseason publications pick to win the Big Sky Conference. But, like any coach worth his weight in whistles, Ault will try.

“Our backs and skill people are very good,” he said. “But we’ve lost most of our linemen. We’re taking some inexperience and putting it in the trenches, and that’s our biggest area of concern right now.”

For Fullerton, the game represents a chance for retribution and an opportunity for some untested players to get game experience. The secondary--in the post-Mark Collins era--will be targeted early by Fullerton opponents. On the offensive side, the wide receiver spot that has been a strength the past two seasons is now a question mark.

Other questions of interest:

--Can quarterback Tony Dill pick up where he left off last season, when he threw nine touchdown passes in the Titans’ last four games?

--Will running back Rick Calhoun be able to accumulate the rushing yardage the Titans will need to satisfy Murphy’s objective of a ball-control offense?

--Is the Fullerton defense as good as Murphy seems to think it is?

Today, the Titans will start getting answers.

Titan Notes

Coach Gene Murphy had planned on taking only three quarterbacks with him to Reno but couldn’t decide who to leave home. So starter Tony Dill will be backed up by Ronnie Barber, Carlos Siragusa and Rich Sheriff, though not necessarily in that order. Murphy said Barber, who had climbed to No. 2 quarterback, has slipped a notch because he’s still learning the Titans’ system of calling audibles at the line of scrimmage. . . . Today’s game against Nevada Reno was originally scheduled for Nov. 22 but both schools consented to a change, opting to reserve that week for preparation in the event they reach postseason play. . . . Today’s game will be broadcast live on KWOW (1600 AM), with Chris Roberts and Mel Franks, Fullerton sports information director, calling the action. . . . Over the past three seasons, the Wolf Pack is 20-2 in Mackay Stadium. Both losses came to Fullerton. . . . Murphy said the fact that Reno is an NCAA Division I-AA team is deceiving. “I sincerely believe that last year they could have competed in the PCAA,” he said. . . . Natela Calhoun, wife of Titan running back Rick Calhoun, recently gave birth to Tareesha, the couple’s fourth daughter.