Raider Camp : Talley Knows He Will Never Be Another Guy

The search for another guy to punt, as distinguished from another Guy, continues in the Raider camp, as it has for a month.

For the first time in 15 years, Ray Guy is home in Hattiesburg, Miss., while the prime candidate to succeed him tries to emerge from a slump and Raider officials keep a watchful eye on the waiver wire.

The front-runner is Stan Talley, a personable young man of 6 feet 5 inches and 215 pounds who led the United States Football League in two of its three seasons.

He wowed ‘em all through the off-season at El Segundo but has spent recent weeks spraying line drives around the practice complex, which is what you might call bad timing. The next thing you knew, Jeff Hayes, who punted in the 1983 Super Bowl for the Washington Redskins, arrived in camp to carry the competition into its next phase.

“I think it happens to everybody,” Talley said. “I’ve had slumps before. Usually it’s a day or two, sometimes a week. It’s frustrating.

“I really feel like it’s coming along, but it’s been too slow a process for me. You want to be good on the first day.”

You need to be, actually, or face the old audition circuit. One, two, three, punt, thanks for coming.

Ask Talley.

A graduate of West Torrance High, a star at Texas Christian, he went to camp with the Atlanta Falcons in 1981, where the competition came down to him and John James. Talley went in the last cut. A year later, with the New Orleans Saints, it came down to Talley and Russell Erxleben. Again, Talley went in the last cut.

In the Oakland Invaders camp, however, someone else went in the last cut and success beckoned. Talley led the USFL in punting in 1983 and 1985. In ‘83, he had a long kick of 89 yards. In ‘85, opponents could return only 36 of his 66 punts.

When the USFL, itself, was unable to return, Talley went to the Cleveland Browns camp. It came down to him and Jeff Gossett. Talley went in the last cut.

“Jeff had an outstanding camp,” Talley said. “I think his main thing was his get-off time. He’s very quick. He’s never had one blocked. I think that was the main difference between us.

“I went home (to Dana Point) last year about this time of year. My wife had an opportunity to land a teaching job. We have a son who was 4 months old then. I was Mr. Mom for several months until I figured out what I was going to do.”

What he was going to do was continue auditioning. Each week through the National Football League, the calls go out for kickers, whether a team is actually interested, or just wants to get a line on the available free agents, or has a slumping veteran--as was Guy last season--and wants to be ready just in case.

“I went to one with the Raiders, the Chargers, Detroit, Minnesota, Houston,” Talley says. “This was all in a seven-week period. It seemed like every Tuesday, the day the players are off, I was going somewhere.

“Lots of times you don’t know why you’re going. It’s just in case their guy gets hurt. It’s just a long trip with no hope.

“Usually there are two or three other punters there, from all over the U.S. It’s like a magnet--whoosh!--in for a 10-minute tryout.

“Did I ever turn one down? Never. ‘Cause you just never know if this is the one. But after three or four, I did start thinking, ‘Another one? C’mon.’

“How many can you go to? I won’t pursue it much longer.”

If the Raider opportunity promised more than a quick look, it carried with it its own particular pressure, that of following the legendary Guy, the first punter picked in the first round of the draft, the man who hit the Superdome ceiling, the punter whose football was seized and sent to Rice University by Bum Phillips to see if there was helium inside.

Even in Guy’s later years, his punts remained hard to return. His average dropped to 40.1 yards last season, but opponents ran back only 42 of 90. Had Guy wanted to return, he might have had to win the job for the first time in his career, but the Raiders would have been glad to see him.

But Guy decided that he was no longer meeting his own standards and retired. Coach Tom Flores cautions everyone not to expect another Raymond soon.

“Was I a Ray Guy fan?” Talley asked. “Always. . . . That follow-through where he kicks his leg so high? I’ve seen that in many pictures. There are several guys like that now. I think when he came in, there weren’t any (other) guys with the Ray Guy follow-through.

“They expect excellence here because they’ve had it so long. Maybe it makes you try to be too perfect and leads to mistakes. But I’m not trying to be another Ray Guy, because there never will be one.”

Raider Notes

Chris Woods’ bruised left knee looks more serious then first believed. The Raiders are now calling it a “strain” and more tests were scheduled Monday night. . . . Coach Tom Flores made it semi-official: Marc Wilson will probably play at Dallas, and Steve Beuerlein might, too. Out of the rotation is Ed Luther. Remember Bob Buczkowski’s illness? The Raiders said it was flu. Buczkowski says it was hepatitis. “At first they thought it was the flu,” Buczkowski says, “and then I turned yellow.” He’s back in camp but is still weak and can’t practice.