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Show Sporrstacular 10 Pag October 18. 1979 Utah defense smothers Cowboys LAST WEEK: Th UtM kept their plot atop lha Wtom Athletic Conference (landing by picking up a 4 confaranc win ever Wyoming in Rica Stadium. Th victory pul Utah at 34) in lha conference (landing and 44 for lha season. Th Uto dafensa showed that it I gaining maturity every game by picking off five Cowboy passe. Jeff Griffin picked off two while Bill Gompf, Forrest Henry and fresh, Jeff Rogers all picked off one each. The Ute defensive front of Matt Phelps, Gene laRocque and Frank Sheldon played well as together they got to the Poke quarterback six times. Utah quarterback Floyd Hodge led the way on offense as he rushed for 147 yards, the second highest total in Ute history and passed for 97 yards. Hodge's 49 scoring run in th first half was one of the prettiest runs ever seen in Rice Stadium. Tailback Del "Popcorn" Rodgers scored th other two Utah touchdowns. Th Ute kicking game was again superb as Jeff Hucko booted a 25 yard field goal and averaged 494 yards on punts including a 41 yarder. 24-1- ' UTE SORE SPOTS: The Uts cam out of th Wyoming gam with just normal bumps and bruises. Tailback Lewis Walker did suffer a bruised knee but it is thought not to be serious. Tight ends Doug Watson and Steve Folsom both played against Wyoming. HODGE TOP RUNNING QBt-Ut- quarterback Floyd Hodge is making a bid to become th top running quarterback at Utah in th last 13 years. So far this season Hodge ha rushed 54 time for 293 yards and a 5.4 per carry average. His biggest gam cam last week against Wyoming when he rushed for 147 yards, th second highest total in Ute history. Other Ut running QB's and their totals in the last 14 seasons are Dan Hagemann who rushed 114 times lor 445 yards and a 3.9 average In 1974 and Ray Groth who carried 104 times for 331 yards end a 3.1 average in 1943 and carried 102 time for 432 yerds and a 4.2 average In 1949. COACHES: Utah's Wayne Howard is 4 In his third year at Utah In his eighth year as a maar college head coach. UNLV's Tony and in his 14th in his fourth year at las Vegas and is Knapp is year of major college coaching. He is th tenth w inn ingest active major college coach in the country. SERIES RECORD This is the first mooting between the Ute and 4h 4mI( U ngtlinll 15-1- 55-2- 4 125-43-- 2 30-1- 0 SCOUTING THE REBELS: unlv remand cs-- i on had a big come-- f rent behind win ever Now Mexico. Dawn 204 in th first half UNLV fought back to pick up a 23-2victory. On offense the Rebels are led by running back Michael Morton who has gained 511 yards this year for a 4.4 average. He has scared five touch downs. Quarterbacking the Rebels Is junior, fax King. Ha Is 4444 an th year with six options for 732 yards and Ivo touchdowns. He has pleyad only five games, leading Babel receivers are Hanker, Sam Green vrita has 13 catches for 275 yards and two scares. Ha aba has eight cantos on end around plays for 105 yards and a 13.1 average. Robert Cobb the split and has also sought 13 passes for 173 yards and two touchdown. Tight and Daan Barnett has 10 catches for 177 yards end one scorn. On defense the Rebel are led by defensive end Ron Crews (44, 252) and sophomore, middle linebacker Mika Johnson who has 39 unassisted tackles in the six games. The Robots feature a patent offense that is ranked In lha nation In scoring, rushing and total offense. Th Rebel numbers: 0 COACH BRUCE SYNDER shows face full of concern. His Aggies were without question beaten d over the past season when he enby the top team in the State, BYU. It was a big turn-aroun- joyed o win over Brigham Young. mah Sttsti LOGAN When they last met (Nov. 4, 1978, in Logan) Utah State and Pacific were on top of the PCAA, each club seeking a win to insure at least a share of the league title. The Aggies won, and that team to 1 in upped the PCAA play ; UOP fell to USU eventually was tied by San Joae State for the PCAA Cham pionship and UOP finished 2 in the conference. Saturday night in Stockton it will be a different sort of urgency for the two teams, lha Tigers host the Aga at 7:30 (8:30 mountain time) and the loeer in this game may find it difficult to get involved in any league title talk this year. The Aga are in PCAA play (San currently Jose State leads the conference at while Pacific is 0-- in league play. While the Aga springboard for at 4 40 pjw. aboard Western Flight No. 145, arriving In las Vegas Th team wfl stay at lha landMath Hotel (732) They aril return home right of tor the gams an Western Airlines arriving at 1:04 am. on 5unday. Utah Sports Infarm atfon Director tree Woodbury will arrive In las Vegas, Wednesday morning. Ha wQ be staying at die land Mark Hotel. (Oct. at 19) 4:25 pm. 733-111- UTES IN WAC STATS: As a team the Utos are stii leading thecenferenca In rushing offense averaging 2 13 yerds par game. Utah Is second In rushing defense giving up ust 145.3 yards par outing, b-- d Iv Ideally the lHs have four runners ranked In die top tea In rushing. J - 4.I.J U M RTWWH rWjw Mwii TsSMotM Rmm to Tony llndsay eighth end taifoack Dal Rodgers Is ninth, WaNrar Is third in punt returns. FtoNter Jim Teahan Is tanth In pass receiving. -- HI L sn-- slv M aba HOWARD SAYS: ON THE GA.E: t es the WYOMING 4. w mare experience. fens Is Improving every gems young players get VW wM Wvw ra WllllWra ra IBu RWT RNra W WII wWfo Hucke't kicking was outstanding and Floyd gets bettor at quarterback ovary week. W still wBI have to threw hotter and s Ditto mare often." RHvTW ON UNLV "las Vegas Is an extremely explosive team an offense. They hove a goad quarterback, goad receivers and good running backs. Their front four as thole defense Is aba vary strong." 24-4- ar 7, 10-7- 31-1- 4-- -1 3-- 1. 3-- 1 CROWD: A crowd of 21,000 Is siyicNi T9wt wsvtd U t Urynt crowd tvtf Is sis 9 sportli mit In Iks Stsli sf tfsvsds UTE TRAVEL PLANS: Th Utes wRI leave tab lake, Fftday this one it Saturdays 8 loss to powerful BYU, the Tigers of first-yecoach Bob Toledo have won their last two (at Iowa State, 24-and at Southwestern Louisiana, ). UOP is 34 this year (including a 7 victory over Cal Poly-Sa- n Luis Obispo) and the with victories Aga stand at over Colorado State, Utah and Long Booth State. Aggie coach Bruce Snyder and his staff may find this weeks psychological preparation more challenging than in the past six weeks. For any one of several 40-1- te n(LgJ)F3 PROVO Their undefeated record notwithstandng, Brigham Young Universitys Cougars must turn their full attention to the Conference race this week. More particularly, they will be devoting all effort in the direction of the Wyoming Cowboys. But trying to sneak in and out of Laramie has always been tough for the Cougars, who until recently (1971) had gone winless at Wyoming for nearly 30 years. On their last visit to Laramie (1977), the Cougars managed to win. That was eMape with a the year BYU won the WAC title overall record. and had a As a result, the Cougar would prefer to have a low profile for this weeks trip. They definitely have the fat-clook, and right now they are everybody's target within the WAC. Statistically, BYU has some impressive figuree. According to this weeks NCAA release, the 10-- 9-- 3 at 7 test! ft reasons, . including the chronological placement of opponents the first six weeks, it seems the Aga have been up each week. Now comes a foe the Aga have not lost to during the Snyder years, a team which has been beaten by Idaho, UTEP and Fullerton State. Well be doing every filing we 1? dc can to avoid what could be a very natural letdown after the way our season has gone," said Snyder. The results of their first four games are quite a contrast to what theyve done the last two. Theyve won two on the road now and apparently theyve been gaining on the problems in the process; the first few games they were having turnover problems. All year it hasnt been a matter of moving the ball, but keeping it. Were in no position to feel Snyder sorry for ourselves, continued. One of our primary goals is to play hard every week and we continued to do that against BYU. Its Just that we didnt play well, at all times.. And they are a good, solid football team. They were extremely Two particular errors hurt us, but: that doesnt take anything away from their great well-prepare- d. win. mQQti Cougars lead the nation, in passing (348.6 yards per game), second in total offense (493.4) and fourth in scoring (36.6 points per game),. BYU was able to stay with the nation's leaders, thanks to last Saturdays win over bade in 1963. The Qougars also had one of their beat passing games of the year, completing 20 of 27 attempts for 394 yards. Marc Wilson came out of the game in the fourth quarter with 372 yards. Utah State. It was Marcs ninth game of 300 Actually, the game with the or more yards total offense, and Aggie was very close until BYU pushed his NCAA record in that recovered a fumbled punt deportment ooe game higher. midway through the third Although there were a number quarter. Two plays later fullback of outatan&ng performers for the Eric Lane ran it over from three Cougars, the most spectacular was split end Lloyd Jonas. The yards out. Lane, a Junior college transfer 44 junior caught seven peaeee for who moved into the fuUbeck spot 183 yards, but no touchdowns. vacated by Bill Ring, set a new The Cougars also got some great school scoring record in the USU receptions out of half a dosea other receivers, Including game. The California scored five touchcatch and sprint downs Saturday, breaking the old from tailback Scott Phillips. record of four which was held by Scott was brought down Just shy three different Cougar players. of the goal line, and Lane punOne of the three waa Dick Frit, ched it over two plays later. BYUs defensive beckfleld coach Said head coach LaVell who tallied four TDe for BYU Continued on Page 11 48-2- 6-- 1, I 4 193-pou- 76-ya- rd non-scori- ng |