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— a ^ e 8 The Bed and Black Wednesda), Januara 21. 1987
The name of the game is FOOTball
Many people believe that kicking, and place
kickers in particular, is an expendable part of the
game of football
I don’t agree My gosh, what is the name of the
game 0 It’s FOOTball Back in the early days of
Georgia football, a poster advertising the 18%
Georgia-Auburn game in Atlanta's Piedmont Park
said in bold print at the top: “Foot Ball!,” clearly
two words.
That’s because in its infant stages, football games
were almost always decided on field goals. Not the
three-point field goal to win 31 to 28, mind you, but
the two field goals to win 10-8 or the one kick that
wins it 5-4.
No. I’m not a helpless mathematician (well,
maybe so) but back in 1884, when football and Coca-
Cola were the latest things, field goals counted five
points each and touchdowns only four It was the
way you wanted to score
I remember hearing about the 18% Georgia-Au
burn when Jesse Outlar, Atlanta’s first football re
porter (touchei watched in awe as Herb Stubbs
field goal split the poles for Georgia's two-point win
Down 8-5, Georgia would have tied the game under
today ’s rules
Back in those days, when every play from scrim
mage usually ended in a heap of mangled bodies,
kicking was everything The trickiest trick play of
that era was the dropkick, an almost nonexistent
ploy today.
But as the years passed the game began to
change Creative offensive innovations such as
Harold Ketron's secret weapon (a stream of tobacco
juice) and Walter Lewis' helmet trick (he snapped
his helmet, painted brown, instead of the ball)
forced the game to open up and touchdowns became
more valuable.
So just before the turn of the century, touchdowns
were increased to five points and conversions were
decreased from two to one With the creation of the
forward pass (Georgia was football's first victim in
18%) and the spreading out of the running game,
field goals also were decreased by 1909 from five to
today's three points and just three years later,
touchdow ns were increased yet again to six.
And there it's stayed ever since The role of the
placekicker was dramatically reduced in a period of
28 years
But the one thing that has not changed since the
game’s barbaric beginnings is the role of field posi
tion To use a cliche, the name of the game is field
position. (It would just sound stupid to say, ‘‘Are you
going to the field position game today?”) But that’s
what it is. And nine times out of 10, good field posi
tion, or bad, is dictated by the kicking game, place-
kicking or otherwise
You can't win games without it. Just ask Georgia
coach Vince Dooley. Dooley lives and dies for kick-
ing/field position. It’s what has won him so many
games over the years and was a big reason for him
losing some of late. Let’s look at some more recent
history. Consider some of the games of last season
Georgia’s Cris Carpenter, the SEC's second-
leading punter and a Sporting News second-team
All-American, provided the Dogs with great field po
sition all season with his 44.1-yard average. His per
formance put the opponents' offense at a
disadvantage and when the defense was successful,
provided Georgia's offense with excellent position.
It’s textbook Dooley formula. The only problem
with that philosolphy this year was the Bulldogs
failure to convert the good field position into points.
Time and time again the offense drove deep into
enemy territory only to stall within the opponent's
20- or 30-yard line. Out would come kicker Steve
Crumley, or Davis Jacobs as the case may be. and
wide to the right the ball would sail. These misses
often came at crucial times and delivered dev
astating blows to the teams’ morale. Ask the kickers
if their job is irrelevant
Or what about the Cleveland Browns in the AFC
playoff semifinal? Mark Moseley’s miss in overtime
could've cost them the game but Cleveland hung on
and gave him another chance The Browns held
their ground, literally, and gave their most impor
font offensive weapon another chance.
All this just to say that the players do all the work
m getting you into position but the kicker and the
kicker alone has the put the ball through the posts
for the win.
Chip Towers is a sports writer for The Red and
Black.
Sports shorts
Sprinter Gwen Torrence starred
as Georgia's track teams competed
in the Eastman Kodak Invitational
in Johnson City. Tenn . Saturday.
Torrence, the defending NCAA
champion in the 55-meter dash, won
the 60-yard dash in 6.71 and the 300-
yard dash in 33.58.
The women’s two-mile relay team
of Jenny Topinka, Carrie Julka,
Kathy Olsen and Loreen White fin
ished third in 9 06 89 Women's
coach Mike Sheley attributed the
strong showing to Topinka. the
team’s lead runner
“Jenny ran the finest race of her
collegiate career." Sheley said.
‘‘She twisted her ankle about five
minutes before the race and went
out and ran without telling me about
it. She gave us the lead in the race
after the first leg and simply did an
outstanding job "
For the men. Mike Judge finished
third in the shot put at 57-5 and
Manley Waller placed fourth in the
60-yard dash at 6.27.
The teams compete next on Sat
urday when they visit Chapel Hill,
N.C., for a meet hosted by the North
Carolina Tar Heels.
Georgia's women's basketball
team raised its record to 14-2 with a
69-50 win at Mississippi State
Sunday.
State collapsed its 2-3 zone on
Lady Bulldog All-American forward
Katrina McClain and limited her to
12 points, less than half her av
erage. Guard Carla Green and for
ward Sherelle Warren picked up the
slack, scoring 21 and 16 points, re
spectively.
‘‘Our defense, particularly our de
fensive support, was good.’’ said
head coach Andy lenders, ‘it cre
ated some opportunities on offense,
and running situations that gave us
some easy baskets."
— Jim C'allis
Friday & Saturday
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Thursday January 22nd
with
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cover
Anderson makes smooth shift
By Jim C’allis
Krd and Black Sport* Writer
Oct. 18, 1986 — Georgia basketball
fans may want to mark that date for
posterity ’s sake
That’s the day Bulldog head bas
ketball coach Hugh Durham shifted
Willie Anderson from shooting for
ward to point guard. Anderson’s re
sponse?
‘‘Who, me 9 ”
The junior from Atlanta has since
answered his own question. Georgia
has jumped out to a surprising 11-5
start with upsets over Kentucky and
Louisiana State and Anderson has
provided much of the impetus.
Anderson has averaged 12.5 points
a game along with 5.4 assists and
ranks first or second in nearly
every significant statistical cat
egory He has strung together some
beautiful games — 10 points, 10 re
bounds and eight assists against the
Wildcats; 15 points, seven assists,
four rebonds against Auburn; 14
points and eight assists against Van
derbilt — lines so pretty that they
conjure up images of Magic and
Isiah. Before the season, Anderson
was concentrating on how to make
Georgia fans forget the image of
Joe Ward.
Anderson said that when he first
learned of the proposed change, he
had several doubts, but Durham
helped to allay his fears.
“I thought the adjustment was
going to be much harder. 1 thought
there was so much more a point
guard should have,” Anderson said.
“But 1 realized I had those things,
too. Coach Durham told me 1 was a
good passer. I could handle the ball
and I had the height to look over
zones. He said I had the head and
mind of a point guard.”
The toughest thing for Anderson
has been sublimating his free
wheeling style of play into Dur
ham's excrutiatingly slow spread
offense. In high school and in col
lege. Anderson has played only one
way —on fast forward.
“It’s hard playing control basket
ball," he said. “I never played that
way before I’m used to getting the
ball and moving. It’s not that 1 want
to, but I have to. It’ll be good for me
because someday I’ll need to be
able to play control basketball "
Anderson has several attributes
which help him immensely at point
guard. He's fast, he's a good passer
and he can hit the open jumper at
will if the other team ignores him.
Perhaps most important, however,
is his 6-7 height.
“My height has helped me a lot at
point guard,” Anderson said, chuck
ling. “Guys press up on me and I
just look over them and pass. I
never have trouble passing. Most
teams use a guard on me. 6-2 or 6-3,
and then they have to use a small
forward on me and I can use my
quickness on them."
Anderson is still adjusting to his
new responsibilities, but thus far
Durham has been pleased
"Willie has really shown im
provement since the first of the
year," Durham said. "His versa
tility allows him to play inside or
outside. He has made the transition
well from playing small forward
last year to directing our offense
this year at guard "
At times when he speeds down the
court, Anderson seems that he
might wish to return to his old posi
tion where he could run and gun
But he insists that he’d rather lx?
the playmaker
“This is a challenge and 1 like to
take on challenges." he said, “so I
like point guard My main challenge
is that 1 have to be in the game all
of the time.
"A point guard needs to be in the
game more than a small forward.
He has to be a leader and has to do
everything on the court I have to
think like every other player; I
have to know what the forwards are
doing, what the center is doing 1
have to know when to run the ball
When a player gets down. I have to
pump him up "
Anderson has pumped up the en
tire team with his play this year
And he's still learning as he goes
along
Wednesday
MALE FORCE
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> rmer\,
mem
January 21st
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