Titans Take What Solace They Can in 45-10 Loss to West Virginia

By now, Cal State Fullerton has spent enough occasional days in the big time to know that a team sometimes must take its pleasure in little things.

Against West Virginia on Saturday, the Titans played with dry footballs, watched Michael Pringle set a stadium-record for kickoff returns and held the 12th-ranked Mountaineers to fewer than 50 points.

Who’s complaining?

With a 45-10 loss to West Virginia in front of 54,196 at Mountaineer Field on the books and a $100,000 guarantee check on the way to the bank, the Titans were about as satisfied a group of 35-point losers as you’ll ever find.

“We wanted to win the game, but we were realistic about it,” Fullerton Coach Gene Murphy said. “Our football team came in and we played hard. We were prepared to play to win.”

Fullerton was coming off a dismal opening game, a 24-9 loss to Southwestern Louisiana in the rain. Quarterback Dan Speltz fumbled six snaps in that game and threw two interceptions.

“We improved as a football team today,” Murphy said. “We held onto the football, and that’s a positive thing for us.”

West Virginia was playing its the second warm-up game of the season. Last week, the Mountaineers beat Coach Don Nehlen’s alma mater Bowling Green, 62-14.

“Now the scrimmages are over and the wars begin,” said Nehlen, whose team will play Maryland Saturday and Pittsburgh in two weeks. “We’ll find out next Saturday if we’re where we want to be. But you score more than 100 points in two games, so that’s not all bad.”

The performance of the day belonged to Mountaineer receiver Calvin Phillips, who caught 5 passes for 190 yards and a touchdown, tying the school record for single-game receiving yardage set by Oscar Patrick in 1968.

West Virginia took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter on Charlie Baumann’s 28-yard field goal. But the Mountaineers scored three touchdowns in the second quarter and led, 38-0, before Fullerton scored.

The Titans managed just 175 yards of offense, and had the unusual distinction of rushing for more than twice as many yards (119) as they passed for (56).

“We still have a long way to go on offense,” Murphy said.

Fullerton, which had only two first downs in the first half, drove as deep as the West Virginia 24-yard line in the second quarter, but Speltz was sacked for an eight-yard loss on third down and Stan Lambert missed wide on a 49-yard field goal attempt.

“Our offense hasn’t been able to consistently move the ball, but we’ve seen two good defenses,” Murphy said.

Lambert’s 29-yard field goal with 10 minutes left in the game averted a shutout, and the Titans scored a touchdown with 51 seconds remaining on a 12-yard pass from third-string quarterback Carlos Siragusa to John Gibbs.

“In the second half, we tried to come out and score, to have some semblance of dignity, and we scored a touchdown,” Murphy said.

Speltz completed 5 of 11 passes for 44 yards with 1 interception. The bulk of Fullerton’s offense came from Pringle, who rushed for 100 yards in 19 carries and, in his debut as the Titan kickoff returner, set a Mountaineer Field record for yardage with 202 yards on 6 returns.

Pringle, a junior who transferred from Washington State, made his best run on a 68-yard return that gave Fullerton a first down at the West Virginia 29. But the drive stalled, ending in Lambert’s missed 49-yard field goal attempt.

Major Harris, the Mountaineer quarterback, completed 7 of 11 passes for 166 yards with 1 interception, but did not play in the second half after sustaining a hip pointer on his final pass of the first half, one that was intercepted in the end zone by Mike Schaffel. Nehlen said he didn’t think the injury was serious, but held him out. Greg Jones, the backup, threw for 122 yards.

Fullerton’s defense had far better success against the Mountaineer running game than against the passing game.

Phillips beat the Titans on a 44-yard pass and Darrell Mitchell had a 42-yard reception.

“We had some blown assignments,” said Schaffel, who for much of the game played 30 yards behind the line of scrimmage to try to prevent the long pass.

This was the third time in less than two seasons that the Titans have played a Top 20 team.

Last season, Fullerton lost to Louisiana State (56-12) and to Florida (65-0).

“I can’t compare West Virginia to Florida or LSU because we’re not the same team,” Murphy said. “West Virginia is a well-coached team. . . . I told Coach Nehlen that I expected to see them in a bowl game and possibly compete for the national championship.”

The Florida game last year, in particular, is one Fullerton would like to forget. But there was a different attitude toward this game.

“The Florida game we just went down there to stay alive because we had played LSU before that. We went into this game to see if we could be competitive,” Murphy said.

Fullerton opens its Big West Conference season at Nevada Las Vegas Saturday night.

“It’s kind of a new season for us,” Speltz said. “We’ll be starting all over again. (All games) count, but it will be a bit different to be playing for the league championship.”

Pringle said, “We did well, but we have to get better. There’s no doubt about that. Improve, that’s all we’ve got to do.”

Titan Notes

The West Virginia game, though it has been referred to as a guarantee game, wasn’t much of a bargain for Fullerton. Athletic Director Ed Carroll scheduled the game about two years ago, when West Virginia had a 4-7 team. The guarantee for this game was only $100,000--half of what the Titans earned in each game against Louisiana State and Florida last season. “They weren’t as good back then,” Carroll said. . . . The running joke around Fullerton has been that the surest way to move into the Top 20 is to schedule the Titans for a few years down the road. . . . The West Virginia game is not even the biggest payday of the year for Fullerton, which will earn about $350,000 for four nonconference road games, Carroll said. The largest guarantee of the season is the $110,000 Fullerton earned for the 24-9 loss to Southwestern Louisiana. . . . In the only significant Titan injury, center Marc Hauser broke a bone in his left hand. But Coach Gene Murphy said the injury should not keep him out because Hauser snaps with his right hand.