Cal State Fullerton Notebook : Murphy Confirms What Was Already Known: Speltz No. 1 Quarterback

That standard ritual of Cal State Fullerton’s preseason football camps--the battle for quarterback--is officially over.

The only question may be whether it was ever really in doubt.

“There’s not a battle,” Titan Coach Gene Murphy said after watching a scrimmage Saturday. “It’s Speltz.”

In truth, Dan Speltz, a transfer from El Camino College, won the position in spring practice.

That’s if his numbers alone didn’t win it the day he signed with the Titans. Speltz, a 6-foot 3-inch, 200-pound junior, passed for 2,342 yards and 25 touchdowns last season at El Camino College, leading the Warriors to an undefeated season and unofficial national junior college championship.

But until Saturday, Murphy had withheld any pronouncement, probably out of consideration for Tony Dill and Carlos Siragusa, the two veterans who have been battling each other for several years.

Murphy apparently also wanted to give a chance to Siragusa, who missed spring drills because he was suspended from the team until he was exonerated, along with receiver John Gibbs, for involvement in a fight in which an El Toro Marine sustained fatal injuries.

If any doubts remained, Speltz dismissed them Saturday, completing 6 of 7 passes in the most formal intrasquad scrimmage of preseason camp.

“The only battle is for second,” Murphy said.

Dill, the Titan starter in late 1985 and early 1986, completed 3 of 6 passes. Siragusa, who backed up Ronnie Barber last season, completed 4 of 9. Sophomore Paul Schulte completed 2 of 3.

The statistic that earned the most attention Saturday was the most basic, the score: 0-0.

The defense is clearly the strength of this team. But is it tha t good? Or is the offense that bad?

Likely some of each.

The offensive line remains the focus of concern. Saturday, quarterbacks were sacked seven times.

Granted, the line was without center Marc Hauser, who sat out to avoid aggravating a slight injury. But Murphy was concerned.

“Like baseball, you’d better be strong up the middle,” he said. “I’m not saying we’re weak, but we’ve got some work to do.”

The defensive coaches heartened their unit with this logic: If you don’t allow the opponent to score, the worst you can do is tie.

The defense, led by A.J. Jenkins, a first-team All-Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. end last season, has been bolstered by two transfers from four-year colleges who walked in unrecruited.

When the Titans open against Southwestern Louisiana Sept. 3, both are expected to start.

Alex Stewart, a 6-4, 265-pound lineman, transferred from USC, where he was second string. Stewart, a senior, said he left USC because of a dispute with Coach Larry Smith over playing time.

“I didn’t see much future for me there,” he said. “I thought about Fullerton and San Diego State, and since Fullerton was not far from SC and still Division I, I came here.”

Stewart, described as having one of the most impressive builds of anyone ever to play at Fullerton, set a Titan bench-press record of 485 pounds.

Another transfer, Jerry Leggett, a 6-5, 255-pound linebacker, came to Fullerton from Mississippi State, where he was a starter. Leggett said he left because he was asked to move from linebacker to defensive tackle.

A cousin of the Rams’ Charles White, Leggett said he became interested in Fullerton after watching the Titans work out last year after a visit to the Rams’ Fullerton training camp.

“I was intending to try to walk on at SC,” he said, “but I saw greater opportunity here.”

Both attended Fullerton last season but sat out as required by NCAA regulations.

Titan Notes

While the Rams were holding their Fullerton training camp, Titan players were able to use the Rams’ training equipment. But when the Rams left, so did the the equipment, including the recumbent stationary bicycles that impressed Coach Gene Murphy and the training staff. Now the Titans have purchased five cycles of their own from a Santa Ana-based company at a confidential price to fit the Titan budget. . . . Mike Kent, a freshman tight end from Esperanza High School, may be in a position to make the traveling squad rather than be redshirted. Kent lined up with the first string Saturday because of injuries to Buford Halton and James Noel and Bill Brennan’s resignation from the team. . . . Freshman quarterback Joe Mauldin of San Fernando High School is the only player to be declared ineligible under Proposition 48.