BIG WEST CONFERENCE : OK, There Is Fresno State, but What About San Jose?

The preseason accolades keep pouring in for Fresno State--ranked 15th in the nation by the Sporting News, 20th by Inside Sports, an overwhelming media choice to win its third consecutive Big West Conference championship.

All of which has San Jose State Coach Terry Shea thinking: “Hey, what about us?”

Shea, who replaced Claude Gilbert as the Spartans’ coach last spring, believes San Jose State is good enough to challenge the Bulldogs for the conference title.

The Spartans have one of the conference’s top running backs in Sheldon Canley, who rushed for 1,201 yards and caught 42 passes for 353 yards last season, and one of the league’s best linebacker tandems in Lyneil Mayo and Everett Lampkins.

“Fresno State looks good, but with our tradition, with our mind set, we feel we should be there at the end,” said Shea, 44, who was San Jose State’s offensive coordinator from 1984-86.

Considering Fresno State’s abundant talent, one might dismiss Shea as a slightly over-exuberant, first-year head coach.

Coach Gene Murphy of Cal State Fullerton thinks not.

“Heck, San Jose State is good,” Murphy said. “I picked them first in the conference. They have as good as or better personnel coming back as Fresno State.”

The Bulldogs and Spartans must wait until Nov. 17, when they meet in the regular-season finale, to determine the better team. Chances are, the game will be for the Big West championship and the right to be the conference’s California Raisin Bowl representative, because few Big West teams appear good enough to challenge Fresno State and San Jose State.

Utah State has nine defensive starters back but will have an inexperienced offense. Cal State Long Beach has 72-year-old Coach George Allen, whose Los Angeles Ram and Washington Redskin teams were noted for their stingy defenses, but whose 49ers allowed an average of 33.9 points a game last season.

Fullerton has six starters but must replace quarterback Dan Speltz, who threw for 2,671 of the Titans’ 2,695 passing yards, and running back Mike Pringle, who gained 1,727 of the team’s 1,793 rushing yards.

First-year Coach Jim Strong of Nevada Las Vegas figures to start eight to 10 freshman.

Pacific hasn’t had a winning season in 13 years, and Jim Hess, New Mexico State’s first-year coach, isn’t getting his hopes up because the Aggies were winless in 1989.

“When I got to Las Cruces, I introduced myself as Jim Hess, the new coach at New Mexico State--the worst football program in America,” Hess said. “It’s the truth.”

Here’s a closer look at the Big West in order of anticipated finish:

FRESNO STATE

Last Season: 11-1, 7-0, First place

The Bulldogs have only three offensive starters back, but Coach Jim Sweeney isn’t too concerned entering his 13th season because two of them are tailback Aaron Craver and quarterback Mark Barsotti.

The Sporting News ranks Craver, who rushed for 1,313 yards in 1989, as one of the top running backs in the nation. Craver, a 6-foot, 215-pounder who did not play football at Compton High but was a junior college standout at El Camino College, also caught 25 passes for 168 yards and returned 15 kickoffs for 510 yards--a 34-yard average--last season.

Barsotti, already the fifth-ranked passer in school history, returns for a third season as starting quarterback, having led Fresno State to a 21-3 record in 1988 and ’89. The junior passed for 1,987 yards and 15 touchdowns and ran for 244 yards last season.

Seven starters, including safety Marquez Pope, return from a defense that allowed the fewest yards and points in the conference in 1989. Pope, a former Long Beach Poly standout, led the Bulldogs with 98 tackles and was the only sophomore on the 1989 all-conference, first-team defense.

Fresno State’s defensive line is solid with nose guard Zack Rix and ends Nick Ruggeroli and John Goslin. The Bulldogs lost linebacker Ron Cox, a second-round pick of the Chicago Bears, but have three other starting linebackers back--Jeff Thiesen, Pete Jenkins and Devonne Edwards.

SAN JOSE STATE

Last Season: 6-5, 5-2, tied for second

Like Fresno State, the Spartans will have an outstanding tailback in Canley, a 5-8, 196-pound senior whom Shea compares to San Diego Charger running back Darrin Nelson because of his size and ability to run and catch the ball.

Unlike the Bulldogs, Canley runs behind a veteran offensive line that includes four 1989 all-conference selections: guards Anthony Gallegos and Chad Hymel, tackle Pat Hinds and center Brian Woods.

The situation at quarterback is not as promising because Matt Veatch, who started in nine games and passed for 1,722 yards last season, had elbow surgery in the off-season and will redshirt this year. But expected starter Ralph Martini has considerable experience, having started two games and appeared in seven others and passed for 969 yards in 1989.

Linebackers Lampkins, who had 109 tackles last season, and Mayo, who had 16 1/2 sacks, will be complemented by five other returning defensive starters: outside linebacker Mike Scialabba, nose guard Bob Bleisch, cornerbacks Freddie Smith and Paul Franklin and safety Hesh Colar.

UTAH STATE

Last Season: 4-7, 4-3, fourth place

Aggie Coach Chuck Shelton, who is still searching for a winning season as he begins his fifth year at Utah State, is excited about his defense, which includes nine returning starters.

The strength of the unit is at linebacker, where all four starters, Del Lyles and Kevin Bouwman on the inside and Tom Hansen and Piliki Tauteoli on the outside, are back. The entire secondary also is back: safeties Scott Munson and Toby Tyler and cornerbacks Greg Haynes and Ron Edwards.

Offensively, Utah State will be led by quarterback Kirk Johnson, who completed 127 of 286 passes for 1,862 yards, and returning receivers Rod Moore and Tracey Jenkins. Moore had 27 catches for 434 yards last season, Jenkins 17 for 329.

But Shelton doesn’t want to rely so heavily on his passing game--Johnson had a 44% completion rate and threw 15 interceptions in 1989. Shelton hopes junior college transfers Roger Grant, who has been slowed by a back injury, Floyd Foreman and Sean Hampton will provide some punch at runningback.

CAL STATE LONG BEACH

Last Season: 4-8, 2-5, tied for sixth

The 49ers, who open the season at Clemson, have two of the conference’s top receivers in Sean Foster, who caught 49 passes for 1,021 yards in 1989, and Mark Seay, who red-shirted last season.

Diving in front of his 3-year-old niece in an effort to protect her during a drive-by shooting in October of 1988, Seay was shot once, and the bullet pierced his right kidney. Seay lost the kidney and was not allowed to play in 1989, but has received clearance and will play, wearing a flak jacket under his uniform.

Allen only hopes his young and inexperienced offensive line can give his new quarterback, Todd Studer, enough protection. Studer, who played at Simi Valley High and L.A. Valley College before red-shirting at Long Beach in 1989, beat out UCLA transfer Bobby San Jose for the starting job.

Linebacker Pepper Jenkins and defensive backs Leon Patterson and Oliver Thompson will lead the defense, but Allen’s line is pretty thin.

“I don’t think there’s a Division I team in the country that needs defensive linemen more than we do,” he said.

CAL STATE FULLERTON

Last Season: 6-4-1, 5-2, tied for second

Coach Gene Murphy has only two offensive starters and four defensive starters returning and more newcomers--about 45--than he has had in any of his 10 previous seasons. No wonder he says it’s a rebuilding season for the Titans.

“We’re going to be a good football team,” Murphy said. “What year that will be, I don’t know.” With a brutal nonconference schedule that includes games at Auburn, Mississippi State and Hawaii, it probably won’t be this season.

Fullerton may not have enough talent and depth to challenge Fresno State and San Jose State, but the Titans do have some good players, among them the conference’s top kicker, sophomore Phil Nevin, who made 15 of 21 field-goal tries and all 33 of his extra-point kicks in 1989.

Senior Paul Schulte and redshirt freshman Terry Payne are fighting for the quarterback job, and Deon Thomas and Reggie Yarbrough give Fullerton two solid running backs. Guard Shannon Illingworth and receiver J.J. Celestine are the only two offensive starters back.

Terry Tramble, an all-conference pick in 1989, and Nuygen Pendleton return in the defensive backfield, as do Clarence Siler and Dave Dorf in the line. Stan Breland, a transfer from San Bernardino College, figures to give the Titans a boost at outside linebacker.

NEVADA LAS VEGAS

Last Season: 4-7, 3-4, fifth place

Strong, previously the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame, hopes to put in the option offense at Las Vegas, but he doesn’t have an option-type quarterback in returning starter Derek Stott, a junior who passed for 1,701 yards last season.

Stott, who missed part of spring practice because of a neck injury, is being pushed for his job by Hernandez (Hunkie) Cooper, a more versatile quarterback who transferred from Navarro Junior College in Corsicana, Tex.

The Rebels’ top receiver, Keenan McCardell, is back. He caught 54 passes for 883 yards last season. And UNLV should have a strong offensive line with returning guards Jon Jones and Greg Mattes, but there is inexperience at running back.

UNLV has four defensive starters back: tackle Aaron Christian, safety Charles Anthony and linebackers David Clarke and Jody Reinoehl.

PACIFIC

Last Season: 2-10, 2-5, tied for sixth

The Tigers have two good receivers in Jason Edwards, who caught 56 passes for 608 yards in 1989, and Aaron Turner, who caught 29 passes for 306 yards. The question is, who will throw to them?

Troy Kopp started nine games and passed for 1,510 yards last season but is being pushed by Daryl Hobbs, a redshirt junior from Santa Monica College. David Henigan, who started three games and passed for 835 yards in 1989, hasn’t fully recovered from shoulder surgery and won’t contend for the starting job in September.

Pacific Coach Walt Harris said he could outrun three of his running backs last season. He thought that problem was solved with the addition of Ryan Benjamin, who rushed for 1,475 yards and was a JC Gridwire All-American in 1989, and junior Anthony Williams, who red-shirted last season because of an ankle injury.

But Benjamin broke a bone in his wrist and is questionable for the season opener at Tennessee, and Williams has had a nagging shoulder injury.

NEW MEXICO STATE

Last Season: 0-11, 0-7, eighth place

Hess, who spent 15 years as coach at Angelo State and Stephen F. Austin State, has watched films of the 1989 Aggies and must take some consolation in the belief that they can’t get much worse.

New Mexico State ranked last in the Big West in rushing defense, allowing an average of 285.6 yards a game.

“It was the worst running defense I ever watched play,” Hess said. “We were horrendous. We have eight potential starters back on defense, which isn’t what you like off a team that was that bad.”

Hess makes no secret of his offensive strategy, which is expected to be carried out by junior quarterback David Chisum, who played at Fullerton College and Sunny Hills High. “We may set a national record for number of pass attempts in a game,” Hess said. “If we can get them off, why not?”

The Aggies’ running game is suspect, but they do have three offensive linemen returning--tackle Tony DeLorenzo, guard Kelly Curtis and center Matt Miles--and two solid receivers in Alvin Warren and Mike Richmond.