Even His Pros Gave It Old College Try

In a manner of speaking, Clemson is out on bail, which is to say, it is allowed by the NCAA to continue football operations, but is under surveillance.

It has a new coach, Ken Hatfield, shifting from Arkansas to replace Danny Ford, who wasn’t exactly fired. He was paid off and asked to vanish.

He departed a team, however gathered, that posted a record of 10-2, including a 27-7 victory over West Virginia in the Gator Bowl.

The team would be ranked one of the best on defense in the land. And six of these defenders, named All-ACC, are back.

What we have here is a sort of lunatic index to a game against Clemson undertaken Saturday by Cal State Long Beach, George Herbert Allen, coach.

George didn’t book this game. It merely became his responsibility when, at 72, he accepted the coaching post at Long Beach, from where units have sailed to the Persian Gulf.

George wishes he were with them.

“Are you aware that Clemson is a 37 1/2-point favorite?” he is asked.

“Someone told me Clemson was favored by 58,” he answered. “We may have a shot.”

What can be said in behalf of your team?” he is asked.

“Well, we are playing at Clemson, where the home team will have 80,000 rooters. There will be heavy humidity we are not used to. Clemson’s lines outweigh us an average of 24 pounds. And Clemson has a new coach eager to get off to a good start and land in the polls’ top 10.”

“And that only adds up to 37 1/2 points?”

“The Clemson coach,” George continues, “looked at his team in practice and told the press that no one from his Arkansas team, which went to the Cotton Bowl last season, could land a starting job on this club.”

George pondered this a moment. “But don’t say anything that is going to discourage my players. Just run the headline, ‘Allen Fears Clemson.’ ”

Back to his old modus operandi, George is flying in his team two days ahead of the game, as he usually did with the Rams and Washington Redskins.

“We’ll arrive Thursday night and have a meeting,” he says. “We will then have a meeting Friday morning, work out and have a nap before dinner.”

On the road with the Rams, George put his players down for a nap on Saturday afternoon, promising each an extra $10 for dinner if the performer was in his room when George checked.

Dick Bass inquired: “Coach, if I take a nap with a girl, do I get $20?”

It developed that the league would nail George for offering illegal incentives, and his $10 rewards for napping were abolished, which was just as well.

“If we’re napping,” a player told him, “and you call to check, you wake us up from the nap, anyway.”

“Are you able to hurl some experience at Clemson?” Allen is asked.

“Our starting defensive line has yet to play a down in college,” he replies. “Our guys are all from junior college and high school.”

“And your quarterback?”

“He has yet to play a college game, too.”

It isn’t surprising that on Saturday morning before the Clemson game, George should arrange prayer services for his club.

In the NFL, he always arranged such services on Sunday morning. George isn’t especially religious, nor is he sure God concerns himself with football.

But in case he does, George wants him on his side.

“Do you feel the opposing coach will try to run up big numbers on you?”

“I hope he doesn’t have the chance,” he answers. “We have put in a lot of hard work to stop this team. I haven’t been going home. I have been sleeping at a hotel near our practice field.”

Reflecting on George’s debut against Clemson, you recall the reporter doing an interview at 5 in the morning with a man about to be executed.

“What is your feeling?” the reporter asked.

The guy answered: “It’s a hell of a way to start the day.”