Pac-10 Suddenly Is the Soft Spot in College Football

Travis Kirschke, a 6-foot-3, 287-pound defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions and a product of Esperanza High and UCLA, sighs loudly, grumbles a little and says that, yes, there are people out where he is now, in the heart of Big 10 country, who give him a hard time. And, yes, there are people on the Lions, graduates of other high school and college programs, who look at the college football scores every weekend and make fun of Kirschke’s alma mater and the Pac-10.

“There is the impression out here that we are, uh, soft,” Kirschke says. “Yeah, they think that. Yeah, that’s what they’re saying this year. No, it’s not true but, honestly, I don’t have a good argument to make right now.”

Of course it is a cyclical thing. Every year some big-time football conference takes its lumps. But as the 1999 season has begun, it’s not merely that Pac-10 teams have endured some losses. It’s how it seems that Arizona, California, Stanford and UCLA are playing flag football, hoping that by waving a hand, holding a fistful of jersey for a moment counts as a tackle.

And then there are the scores.

Penn State 41, Arizona 7. Texas 69, Stanford 17. Nebraska 45, Cal 0. BYU 35, Washington 28. Utah 27, Washington State 7. Ohio State 42, UCLA 20.

“OK, that looks bad,” Reginald Davis says. Davis grew up in Huntington Beach and Long Beach, played high school football at Brethren Christian and college ball at Washington. “We had the reputation of being tough at Washington,” Davis says. “Honestly, we did. I don’t think it’s right to say we’re not as tough out here.”

But, Reginald, didn’t you see Penn State and Arizona? Did you not watch Nebraska flatten Cal? “What was that Nebraska score?” Davis asks. “Eeww. Forty-five zip? Didn’t know it was that bad. I guess us West Coast guys just gotta shut up for a week or two.”

“Yeah,” says David Richie, who lived in Huntington Beach until he was 13 and who played at Washington before joining the 49ers as a defensive tackle. “It looks bad, doesn’t it? But we’re not soft out West. I think we play as hard as everybody else. It just doesn’t look that way right now.”

It’s the weather. That’s what Larry Toner, coach of high school power Servite, says. “Guys back East might be more prone to work than beach guys,” Toner says. “If you’re putting up with the rigors of winters and farming or mining or lumberjacking or whatever they do back in Ohio or Pennsylvania, it’s a lot different lifestyle than if you’re going to the beach, modeling your tan, if your dad wears a suit and drives a Cadillac. The whole thing has a different tone out here.”

Toner is kidding, of course. Or is he?

Let’s see how this goes. Because of the nice weather here, it is possible to throw and catch the football all year long. So kids do that. It’s not so fun to practice running up the middle. Or blocking. Or throwing your shoulder into the tackling dummies when the sun is out, the surf is up, the girls are at the beach or your roller blades are calling. Though come to think it, there’s harder hitting going on in some roller hockey games than in Pac-10 football games.

And it doesn’t snow and it hardly ever rains during football season. So you can put in a passing game and the passing game won’t get rained out. Can’t do that in Pennsylvania or Ohio or even Florida or Texas.

“Because more teams pass the ball out here,” Tustin High Coach Myron Miller says, “you teach different blocking schemes for the passing game. Maybe not quite as physical blocking schemes.

“And I think there’s something to that, the differences. On the East Coast, with the inclement weather, a running game is much more important to them. There are more blue-collar people who enjoy seeing a six-yard run, and systems where you pound the ball. Here, I don’t think people would accept that kind of game. They want to see the pass. To be honest, the running game has almost died in a lot of the high school programs out here.”

Interesting points. Either having a good rushing scheme or playing those of other teams forces you to have solid blocking and tackling techniques. Running games encourage collisions. Big, loud, noisy, bloody collisions.

That’s what was missing in those Pac-10 blowouts this year--good collisions. It takes two teams hitting to make a collision.

Terry Henigan, head coach at Irvine, recoils a little at the word “soft.” West Coast players aren’t soft, he says. Maybe it’s just a matter of priorities.

“There’s a lot going on in Irvine, California, that isn’t going on in Centerville, Ohio,” Henigan says. “Maybe there’s a little more emphasis put on football in Centerville. So it’s not that we’re soft, but maybe the intensity level is different. And we practice throwing the ball all year around. So you see more wide-open offenses. Not quite as often do you see smashmouth football. We’re just a reflection of society. It’s different, East Coast and West Coast.”

The Pac-10, of course, recruits heavily in Southern California and Orange County. If Miller is right, that the running game, with all its brutal blocking and tackling, is dying; if Henigan is right, that smashmouth football won’t fly in Irvine; if Toner is right, that it’s the weather that leads to passing that leads to finesse, then too bad for Kirschke. Because he’s tired of taking the grief. He wants the Pac-10 to kick some Big 10 butt. And soon.

Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com

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The Pac-10’s national reputation may be damaged beyond repair, at least for this season, according to Chris Dufresne. Page 7