PACIFIC 10 FOOTBALL / DAN HAFNER : Conference Already in Need of Rally

The college football season is only a couple of weeks old, but already the Pacific 10 is sending distress signals.

Six of the teams have already been beaten and one of the unbeaten teams, Arizona, is off to an unexpectedly slow start, having scored unimpressive victories over Texas El Paso and Pacific. USC, Washington and Stanford were expected to be among the nation’s leaders but have a combined 3-4 record. And Stanford is an underdog against Colorado on Saturday.

Arizona Coach Dick Tomey said he is disappointed.

“I can’t see how we can win another game on our schedule, the way we have played,” Tomey said as he prepared for Saturday’s game at Illinois.

“We haven’t played well at all. We haven’t had much enthusiasm and we haven’t played as hard as we should. We’ve had far too many turnovers. Both UTEP and Pacific played well, but we should not have had that much trouble with them.

“My expectations weren’t high in the first place for Dan White, our new quarterback. It is always tough for someone starting out at that position. He has promise, but he will have to improve considerably before he reaches the promise.

“He may be a part of the problem, but it is by no means his fault that we are playing the way we are.”

Although the Wildcats, No. 2 in the nation against the rush last season, are proving tough to run on again, Tomey isn’t even happy about that. The Wildcats have held their first two foes to minus 40 yards.

“We haven’t played a team with a tested offense, yet,” Tomey said. “With the lack of enthusiasm, I don’t know how we’d fare against a good runner.”

The two other teams with 2-0 records, California and Oregon, are quite pleased with their situations, however.

As Cal Coach Keith Gilbertson put it, “There were a lot of people who thought we would be 0-2, so we aren’t unhappy with our start. We played a really strong defensive team in San Diego State. Their front seven was highly recruited in the Pac-10. I think the heat wore them down in the second half.”

Gilbertson said that Marshall Faulk, the Heisman Trophy candidate who rushed for only 64 yards, probably had an off-day.

“Marshall may not have made all the right decisions in that game,” Gilbertson said. “I don’t know how much we had to do with it. Our defense has some guys who can run, and that helped. But we’re still not as deep as we’d like to be. We’ll take the 2-0 start. Maybe it’s an omen that the things that went wrong last year might not this season.”

The Bears are at Temple on Saturday and are heavily favored to remain unbeaten.

Oregon has the weekend off, so the Ducks will have time to catch their breath after almost blowing a 28-3 lead before beating Montana, 35-30. They are riding high on the play of quarterback Danny O’Neil, who is averaging 307.5 yards per game on offense and has completed 42 of 62 passes for 630 yards, no interceptions and five touchdowns.

Arizona State, which had last week off after routing Utah, is another contented unbeaten team.

“I hope the week off didn’t mess up our momentum,” Coach Bruce Snyder said. “When you get off to the start we did, you hate to take a week off.”

The Sun Devils will play at Louisville on Saturday. In their only previous meeting last season, they surprised Louisville, 19-0.

“They figure to be ready for us,” Snyder said. “I see they are favored. It should be a big test for us.

“I’m excited about what looks like a great, wide-open battle in the Pac-10. You know, it could go right down to the last week.”

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The only conference game this week is between teams expected to fight it out for the cellar, Oregon State and Washington State at Pullman, Wash. The Cougars, however, have looked like a possible contender, and the visiting Beavers are showing improvement every time out.

“My hope,” Cougar Coach Mike Price said, “is that they don’t get good until after this week.

“But already I’m mad at the Beavers. They are keeping me up late at night, trying to figure how to beat their defense. I’ve never seen a defense like theirs.

“In the first two games, they had 128 blitzes or stunts. They have guys running all over the place. They can wreck a passing attack. Fresno State went from almost 500 yards passing the week before to 158.

“However, (Fresno State) did run the ball. We’re hoping we can, too.

“The Beaver running attack is tough to stop. They have a big, fast offensive line and great runners. We expect a battle.”

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Washington’s goal of winning every game this season for Don James, who quit in disgust after the Pac-10 penalties against the football team were announced last month, ended on one broken play last Saturday at Ohio State.

Trailing in the fourth quarter, 14-9, the Huskies were ripping the Buckeyes’ defense apart on a drive for the potential go-ahead touchdown. Then, on third and one at the Ohio State three, Napoleon Kaufman, the Huskies’ premier running back, went the wrong way on the option play.

That left quarterback Damon Huard by himself. He managed to squirm back to the line of scrimmage, but then it was fourth down.

Because the Huskies had begun to dominate, Coach Jim Lambright, figuring they would get another chance, went for the field goal.

The strategy backfired soon thereafter when Ohio State’s Butler By’not’e raced 49 yards on a draw for the touchdown that put the game out of reach.

Pac-10 Notes

Bill Walsh’s young Stanford team plays another tough opponent Saturday, Colorado. The Buffaloes, again the class of the Big Eight, are ranked seventh in the AP poll. “Colorado is as good a team as we’ll play all season,” Walsh said. “They can pass, but they’re still a big running team. If they get the opportunity to score, they do.” . . . Coach Rich Brooks believes this is a good weekend for Oregon to be idle. Three injured starters, among them running back Sean Burwell, might return to face Illinois next week. . . . Washington State set a school record by holding Montana State to minus 35 yards rushing.