CLEMENTE IS A HEAVY HITTER

Vito Clemente stood on the sidelines, wearing the black jacket donned by the walking wounded on the Cal State Northridge football team, and could hardly contain himself.

Slowed by a swollen right knee but his mouth working full speed, Clemente cheered whenever someone lowered the boom on a ballcarrier during practice late last week.

Some of that punishment, Clemente figured, should have been dished out by him.

“I definitely feel I’m a banger,” Clemente said. “I’m definitely a physical player. I like to get my nose in it.”

The Matadors certainly won’t try to stop him.

A junior transfer from UCLA who played at Crespi High, Clemente is the leading candidate at free safety for the Matadors, bum knee and all.

“He has great knowledge of the game beyond the typical player,” said John Rosenberg, Northridge’s defensive coordinator. “He has an understanding of offenses and their parameters and what they might do.”

In the Big Sky Conference, where Northridge dwells, that means passing. Lots of it. And teams ill-prepared to deal with it are begging for disaster.

Last season, Northridge allowed 284.6 yards passing per game, seventh in the Big Sky. Fortunately for the Matadors (7-4, 5-3 in conference play), the offense averaged 460.2 yards, fourth best among Division I-AA schools.

Clemente, 6 feet 1 and 190 pounds, plans to use his first real opportunity in college to help improve the Matadors.

“I’m just coming in and trying to make a difference,” Clemente said. “I have high expectations for myself.

At UCLA the past three seasons, Clemente was never close to fulfilling his goals.

He walked on with the Bruins in 1994, was a redshirt his freshman year and didn’t get a scholarship until last season.

His career at Westwood was limited to special teams.

Clemente’s shining moment with the Bruins came when he recovered a fumble in a 51-30 loss to Kansas in the Aloha Bowl in 1995, Terry Donahue’s last game as UCLA coach.

By last spring, his days with the Bruins were numbered. Clemente said his scholarship was in jeopardy and he asked for a release, contacting Northridge as soon as it was granted. He got a full-ride from first-year Coach Jim Fenwick.

“I was more happy to be [at UCLA] than they were to have me,” said Clemente, who played mostly cornerback at Crespi. “Here, they really wanted me and it’s good to be wanted and needed.”

Clemente is back on the field after resting the strained knee, eager for the season to start and looking for someone to pop--if All-American middle linebacker Marc Goodson doesn’t beat him to it.

“[Goodson] was telling me he wants [to make] 200 tackles this year and I was telling him I didn’t think so, ‘cause I’m going to get some of those,” Clemente said.

“When you go around knocking the . . . out of people, that’s the way the game should be played. When you’re on the field, it’s time to go to work.”

Matador Notes

Junior running back Tyrone Crenshaw, two-time City Section 4-A Division player of the year at Sylmar High and a transfer from Michigan State, has been declared academically ineligible. Safety Jarrett Cooper, a transfer from Rutgers, also is ineligible. Coach Jim Fenwick said they plan to stay in school and play next season. . . . Wide receiver Jason Sharp, a transfer from Cal, had several teeth pulled and will miss a few days of practice. . . . Strong safety Chris Chandler, a transfer from San Diego Mesa College, needed eight stitches in his right hand to close a cut suffered during a drill. . . . Defensive end Jerome Elliott, a transfer from Minnesota who played at San Fernando High and Valley College, practiced for the first time Tuesday.