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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 77503, member: 289"] [I]The Build-up[/I] Jack Slattery was not that impressed with SU’s opening 28-6 win over Villanova. “The backs had been touted highly for their showing against Army and Bucknell. However, it was the fine play on the part of the green line which kept the ball game within reach of the Orange until the jittery backs could get a hold of themselves and the ball….Jim Brown, giant sophomore, showed flashes of fine play after a fumbling start. Ray Perkins proved why he is considered one of the finest backs in the country and Bill Wetzel made the fans realize why tears came to Ben Schwartwalder’s eyes every time he saw the big fellow hobbling on crutches last year. Art Trolio played one of the best games he has played in an Orange uniform.” Colgate Coach Hal Lahar warned “Don’t cry too many tears for this club. They’ll come along.” Slattery gave some off-handed praise to a fellow sportswriter. “But above all the lads proved Stanley Woodward to be one of the all-time great prognosticators. He picked Syracuse to win one game this year. Already they have proved Stanley to be nothing short of a genius.” Stanley had predicted a win over Villanova but then seven straight losses. He turned out to be wrong but he would look something like a genius for the next few weeks. There was an article in the paper saying that Illinois and Stanford, who were about to play each other in Palo Alto, were leading a “a small-sized revolt against the NCAA and it’s TV policy, which limited TV games to just one national game a week. Illinois athletic director Doug Mills “went so far as to predict that unless the present policy is abandoned there will be a bolt from the ranks of the NCAA.” His Stanford counterpart, Al Masters, said “the only thing that will work is regional control of the televising of intercollegiate games.” He also complained that his school would lose about $30,000 because the NCAA doesn’t black out the games locally. He expected a crowd of 35-40,000, rather than 60-65,000. Mills warned that state legislatures were passing bills forcing the televising of games. “We’ve fought this off several times but I doubt we could do it again.” Illinois had been on great run, winning the first Big 10-Pacific Coast Conference Rose Bowl by 45-14 over UCLA in 1946, going undefeated with a tie in 1951 and crushing Stanford in the Rose Bowl 40-7 and then going 7-1-1 with the most exciting player in college football, JC Caroline, in 1953. They were expected to be one of the top teams in the country but Penn State, who had a great back of their own in Lenny Moore, (whose picture appeared in Monday’s Post Standard), wasn’t impressed, beating them 14-12 in Champagne. It was described the way any intersectional victory by an Eastern team was in those days: “It was big stroke for Eastern football” Rip Engle had told his players “Aren’t you a little tired of hearing Eastern football derided? Don’t you think it’s time to do something about it?” It was his only pep talk. Engle was named UPI national coach of the week. He said it was the greatest win of his coaching career. The Lions had won 7 of their last 8 games, the only loss being by one point to West Virginia’s Sugar Bowl team of 1953. They were ranked 10th in the country by the writers and 9th by the coaches. Their next opponent was Syracuse at Archbold Stadium. The Lions were a 7 point favorite. The Lions were heavy favorites and the feeling was that to have any chance, SU needed to get it’s passing game going- somehow. “It’s improbable that we will they’ll be able to sustain a grinding attack against the heavier, more experienced Lions.” More encouraging was the Syracuse defense, which held Villanova’s offense, based on the Chicago Bear T formation Coach Frank Reagan had learned while playing for the Bears to 87 yards in 59 plays. But Penn State’s line at 208 pounds per man had a 15 pound advantage over the Orange. Roy Simmons and Rocky Pirro scouted them against Illinois and Pirro said that Penn State had “two great teams”- their first and second teams. Ben Schwartzwalder was particularly impressed with Moore, whom, he considered superior to Caroline. He joked that he’s been hard on second string quarterback Ed Albright for failing to recruit Moore, his high school teammate for Syracuse. (Imagine Jim Brown and Lenny Moore lining up next to each other!) Ben addressed the troops: “If we’re going to have a chance with high-riding Penn State in Archbold Stadium Saturday afternoon, we’re going to have to get better blocking. We improved our blocking considerably during the Villanova game last week. But we can’t afford a slow start against the Nittany Lions. We’ll have to get a little more firepower from our passing attack this weekend for we sure aren’t going to be able to dent that big tough line.” Ben was also stressing punt and kick-off coverage. The kickers were practicing three things: kicking it high, kicking it far and kicking it away from Lenny Moore. But Ben also hoped to get something out of his kick returns. Ray Perkins, Jimmy Brown and Sam Alexander all took it the distance in practice kicks. But Don Bailey, the Lion’s punter, had held Caroline to 0 punt return yards in the previous week’s game by effectively kicking away from him. Syracuse was third in the country in total defense after being second in the country in rushing defense the previous year, But that was deceiving. Most of last year’s team was gone and this year consisted of one game vs. Villanova. Penn State had rushed for 279 yard against mighty Illinois. And Lenny Moore had out-rushed JC Caroline, the 1953 national rushing champion 124 yards to 115. Penn State could pass, too. Jim Garrity was the leading pass receiver in the East the previous season with 30 for 349 yards and 3 scores. They also had a “gargantuan tackle named Roosevelt Grier, 6-5 250” and 6-5 basketball star Jesse Arnelle playing end. They had to replace record-setting quarterback Tony Rados but Bailey, the punter was also a passer and sophomore Milt Plum was looking pretty good. Another sophomore, Sam Valentine, was a promising guard. Penn State was described as “A big, experienced squad which is well-stocked with veterans and which will have a speed edge on the Orange all along the line and in most spots in the secondary.” There was talk that the game might decide the Lambert trophy, as it did the last time the Lions invaded Archbold in 1952. Newsreel companies had applied for credentials to photograph the game for their audiences. Penn State was #1 in the Lambert Poll as the best team in the East. Syracuse was far behind at #6, so the newsreel people may have been a bit optimistic. Both teams were described as “undefeated” in the newspaper, which was correct. They were both 1-0. [/QUOTE]

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