Experience Tempers Rookie Coach’s Optimism : College football: Allen, 72, hopes his young CS Long Beach players won’t suffer an early collapse in Clemson’s “Death Valley” today.

What worries George Allen most is what might happen when Clemson gets the ball for the first time this afternoon against his outmanned Cal State Long Beach football team.

“If they move down the field and score, holy cripes, that’s like giving up a home run with the bases loaded in the first inning,” said Allen, who nevertheless tried to be optimistic about his debut with the 49ers against the 10th-ranked and heavily favored Tigers.

At breakfast with his coaches Friday morning, Allen, 72, said, “I think we have to be real positive. Let’s not say anything to (the players) that would let them think they don’t have a chance to upset them. I think we have a chance to upset them.”

But after a two-hour practice, as he rode in a South Carolina Highway Patrol car back to a hotel in Greenville, he acknowledged that the prospects looked bleak.

“I feel like I’m on my way to a . . . “ he said, struggling for the right word. He finally came up with execution, but decided that was too negative.

“I believe in these boys.” he said. “But I don’t know what to expect tomorrow. I know they will play hard and with enthusiasm.”

The 49ers, 36 of whom have never been in a Division I game, are going up against a Clemson team with fifteen starters back, including nine on what is considered one of the nation’s toughest defenses.

“Our team will be prepared,” said Allen, who hopes to turn around a team that has had three consecutive losing seasons. “That’s what I really take a lot of pride in. But we can be prepared and still get a shellacking.”

From the look of the two thick strategy notebooks that Allen carried around Friday, it appears that he is as prepared as ever. Still, he likes to be reassured.

“What’s Clemson’s strength?” Allen asked Trooper D.B. Wilson, who was driving.

“Linebackers,” answered Wilson.

The Tigers have two of the country’s top linebackers in Doug Brewster and Lavon Kirkland, who was voted the most valuable player in a 27-7 victory over West Virginia in last season’s Gator Bowl.

Allen hopes the 49ers can avoid Brewster and Kirkland, especially early in the game.

“When you’re the underdog, you don’t want to risk a sack at the start of the game,” he said. “It destroys your confidence in a hurry.”

Among the many inexperienced 49ers is quarterback Todd Studer, a junior who hasn’t played since he was at Los Angeles Valley College two years ago.

“He’s had a tough time against our defense in practice, and we don’t even have a good defense,” Allen said.

So all Studer has to do is break in against a great defense before about 75,000 hostile fans in a stadium known as “Death Valley.”

Clemson Coach Ken Hatfield is also making a debut. Hatfield, who was 55-17-1 in six years at Arkansas, takes over for Danny Ford, who resigned.

Allen couldn’t get over what he saw in Clemson’s media guide as the patrol car eased along the highway bordered with pine trees. And it just wasn’t the players that impressed him.

“You mean you have that many managers for football--16?” Allen said, looking at a photo of students.

D.B. Wilson, who takes pride in knowing Clemson football, simply smiled and kept his eyes on the road.