COLLEGE FOOTBALL REVIEW : CS NORTHRIDGE : Team’s Record Reflects Lack of Fiscal Aid
Disappointed with Cal State Northridge’s 6-5 football season?
Get used to it. At least periodically.
If the truth be told, Northridge got what it bargained for: A school with a no-better-than-average commitment to its football program ended up with a so-so team.
Northridge played 6 teams with losing records and won all 6 games. It also played 5 teams with winning records and . . . well, the rest is clear.
CSUN scored 269 points this season. And allowed 268. The Matadors were slightly better than .500 in just about every way imaginable.
It was time for a mediocre season. Perhaps Northridge had gotten a little spoiled.
Coach Bob Burt came in 3 years ago and put together surprisingly good seasons: an 8-3 record and a second-place standing in the Western Football Conference in 1986 followed by another second-place finish and a 7-4 record.
The coaching change from Tom Keele to Burt had something to do with the turnaround. But so, too, did the school’s improved financial situation.
Keele had roughly 13 full athletic scholarships to work with in 1985, his final season. The past 3 seasons, because of a self-imposed student tax for athletics--that number has grown to 24.
And still it is not enough. At least not for the kind of football team Northridge supposedly wants. Presumably, CSUN wants to use its planned 30,000-seat outdoor stadium for something other than tractor pulls. That number--30,000--wasn’t just pulled out of a hat. It is the minimum seating capacity required by most Division I conferences.
“Before we can even think about going Division I or I-AA we need to have what the other teams in Division II who consistently win have,” Burt said. In a word: money.
Portland State, champion of the Western Football Conference the past 2 seasons, has reached the maximum 40 scholarships allowed in Division II.
Those 16 extra scholarships make a big difference in terms of depth and continuity--areas in which Northridge suffered this season.
“The scholarship difference is a difference in flexibility,” Burt said. “And the ramifications are widespread. Recruiting, you can’t afford to make a mistake. And everybody makes them.”
It wasn’t until week No. 5, watching Cal Poly San Luis Obispo stack its defense and dare Northridge to pass, that the whereabouts of wide receiver Keith Wright--or someone like him--came to mind.
Wright, first-team all-conference in 1987, was declared academically ineligible a few weeks before the season. With his departure--to the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League--CSUN lost any semblance of a deep-threat passing game.
Also missing against San Luis Obispo was Lance Harper, who suffered a season-ending knee injury the week before. He had been alternating at tailback with Albert Fann. Alone, Fann found it much tougher going. Derrick White, a walk-on who did not join the team until midway through summer drills, was suddenly the No. 2 tailback.
Northridge lost to San Luis Obispo, at home, then dropped 4 of its next 5 games.
CSUN’s scholarship limit also precludes Burt from redshirting freshmen or transfers, a luxury top programs can afford.
Burt used Barry Voorhees, a 6-foot, 5-inch, 280-pound offensive guard as an example. Voorhees transferred to CSUN last spring from Santa Barbara City College, where he played defense.
“Can you imagine how good Barry Voorhees would be for two years here if we could have redshirted him?” Burt said. “Instead of playing in the pros his third year, he’d be just finishing up with us. Unfortunately, that was never an option. We can’t tie a scholarship up on a kid who can’t play for us right away.”
But while Burt acknowledges the limitations of the resources with which he has to work, he does not mask his frustration with Northridge’s season. For the first time in 3 years, CSUN finished with a losing record (2-4) in conference games.
“I’m disappointed in terms of the expectations we had,” Burt said. “Once we had success early, some of the kids just expected it to happen. They don’t realize it gets harder instead of easier.”
