On Day One for Allen, Walk-Ons Stand Tall at Cal State Long Beach

Spread over three freshly lined campus practice fields, 33 young men in shiny new black helmets began their effort this week to make the Cal State Long Beach football team.

They were referred to as walk-ons, though long shots would also apply. Most played in high school and junior college. Some have been labeled too small or too slow. But there was the hope that a few might have late-blossoming potential.

New Coach George Allen also clings to that hope. He is holding the weeklong camp because he is concerned that his first Long Beach team is lacking in overall talent and depth. The coaching staff is expected to meet Friday night to decide which walk-ons to invite back to practice with the returning players.

“I’d like to keep anybody who works hard, has a good attitude and shows some ability,” said Allen, whose 49ers play their first game for him at Clemson on Sept. 1.

The presence of Allen and some of his well-known assistants--former Raiders Hall of Fame cornerback Willie Brown, former San Francisco 49ers All-Pro defensive end Cedrick Hardman and former Nevada Las Vegas head coach Harvey Hyde--made the hopefuls seem even more anonymous Tuesday morning.

But in the company of these men, the players seemed grateful and enthusiastic.

Dan Carlson, a running back identifiable because his last name was taped to his helmet, hustled happily for Hyde and looked as if there were no place he would rather have been.

He gained 800 yards at Beaumont High in Riverside County but said he was something less than a star the last two years at Mt. Jacinto Junior College.

“I feel optimistic or I wouldn’t be out here,” said Carlson, 20, who is a junior majoring in industrial technology. “I feel Coach Allen knows what a hard worker is, and he might spot me because I work hard.”

Allen could barely be heard, but his assistants’ voices boomed.

“You guys tuck your shirts in!” Hyde yelled.

The shirts, which had begun the morning gray, were now dark with sweat.

Hyde, 51, a college coach for 22 years, looked tough, with penetrating eyes below a forehead covered with hair. His voice had an aggressive edge, which quickly softened when he offered praise.

“Look here, big guy,” Hyde, who coaches the running backs, said to a player. “Remember, you can’t cut back right or left unless you square your shoulders.”

Next, Hyde said: “I want to teach you how to catch the football. Catch it with your right hand and bring it in like this. We’re going to catch every pass, you understand? Because that’s the way you build confidence in the quarterback, you know what I mean? If you can’t catch it, he’s not going to throw it to you, and I don’t blame him.”

When the running backs left for a water break, Hyde said: “I like working with kids. You’re a teacher, really.”

He likes to think all of his seven walk-on backs have a chance to make the team. “We didn’t bring anyone out here to be abused,” he said. “The ones who can grasp what we’re teaching, we’ll use this year. Right now, they’re all enthusiastic, but when the returning backs come out here (Friday), it will be a shock to them. But I’ll prepare them for that.”

The players returned, and Hyde resumed teaching. “I bet you guys have run a lot of yards, but here’s how you run with the football,” he said, tucking a ball under his arms.

When a player did it the wrong way, Hyde patted him on the shoulder.

“If you knew it all, hell, I could be doing something else today,” he said.

Volunteer assistant coach Hardman was helping with defensive lineman. At 6-feet-4 and more than 250 pounds, he looked as if he could still be one himself.

“That’s just an illusion,” he said, noting that he is almost 42.

Watching the players duel in one-on-one drills, he told them: “Fellas, when you rush the quarterback you’ve got about 3.5 seconds to get him. They have someone assigned to you. Once you get by him, you are loose in the backfield like a fox in a henhouse.”

That image put a wide grin on Hardman’s face, and perhaps reminded him of a playoff game in 1971 between the 49ers and Allen’s Washington Redskins.

Allen too remembered that game well. “President Nixon called a play for me,” he said. “It was a reverse to (receiver) Roy Jefferson.”

But waiting to surprise Jefferson had been Hardman, who threw him for an 8-yard loss, a play that still makes Allen wince.

Like a fox in a henhouse?

“Yeahhhhhh, buddy,” Hardman said.