| OCR Text |
Show New Coach At Helm Spring Football Begins (Editor's Note: Spring- football practice, under the direction of new Head Coach Bill Meek, begins be-gins Friday. It will continue until May 18 when the Spring game will be played at 2 p.m. This is the first in a series of articles analyzing the strength of Utah's team. By JON HALES Football returns to the sports scene this Friday when the University Univer-sity of Utah spring practice begins. be-gins. The Ute gridders will have a new head coach and staff to pre pare them for one of the most respectable re-spectable and challenging football schedules Utah has faced. Bill Meek became Utah's tenth head football coach in accepting his fourth position as a head football foot-ball coach in the collegiate ranks. Coach Meek said that the main objectives ob-jectives of spring practice will be to find out who the best players are, and to then put them in positions posi-tions where they will help most. Best Performers Will Start "The returning starters from last year will be given the starting roles I r . S I I'. I in spring practice with the squad-men squad-men and freshmen behind them. After that, we will place the best and most consistent performers in the starting positions." By the completion com-pletion of spring practice, Coach Meek expects to have his players in the positions where they perform best. The offensive backf ield has many returning lettermen. Coach Meek will work directly with the offensive offens-ive backs. QUARTERBACK Junior Tim Collins will lead the quarterbacks into spring practice. Tim was second sec-ond in total offense last season with 734 yards. He passed for three touchdowns and ran for two more. Challenging Collins for the signal caller will be junior Ray Groth and sophomore Steve Jones. More Quarterbacks Groth ran as a flankerback last year. He gained 121 yards rushing and caught 18 passes for 299 yards and three touchdowns. Ray is from Idaho Falls where he was high school all-American. Jones redshirt-ed redshirt-ed last season after an injury in the season opener at Minnesota. He had an impressive spring practice last year, and is an excellent passer. Squadman Dick Wilson will also get a shot at quarterback. FULLBACK Senior Steve Molnar led the Utes in average yards per carry last year with 4.3 per try. He was also the second leading rusher with 363 yards and ' two touchdowns. Steve played at George Washington University his sophomore year where he was second sec-ond in the Southern Conference in rushing with 680 yards. He rushed for over 100 yards in four different games, and was honorable mention all-American. All-City Fullback Nate Tyler, an all-city fullback from Los Angeles, will press Molnar for the starting berth. Nate averaged aver-aged eight yards per carry in high school and was the third leading scorer in Los Angeles. He played freshman ball at Utah and saw limited lim-ited action last year as a sophomore. sopho-more. Bill Jones, up from the freshman fresh-man team, will also get a shot at the fullback position. RIGHT HALFBACK Utah's Steve Molnar, senior fullback, was honorable mention all America; as a sophomore. He led the Utes in yards per carry last year. ' ,,.;.xiv ..... , ; .iTf . - i : i ' . - J ? 1 ft ' r . i ! if ii I ' I L. .- " - -; v " V-'" - ; a ...-4 ::K f V;S(iiSSt I Ray Groth, high school all-American from Idaho Falls, will battle for starting quarterback when spring practice begins Friday. and handled the kick-offs and ex ! points for the Utes last year, Soulds also switches from the d " fense for a shot at the "Big 0; I Greg returned taw: 'A I yards last season. He is pemWpsil; fastest man on the squai second leading scorer, Bill Fowler, is the top candidate for this position. posi-tion. Bill tallied five touchdowns last year as a sophomore. He ran one ball over, caught three scoring passes, and returned a kick-off 90 yards for a touchdown in the BYU game. .Sophomore Cal Poulson will be running from right half in spring practice. Cal-was an all-state halfback half-back from South High two years ago, and he played quarterback for the frosh last year. Coach Meek also expects to have some transfers and redshirts at this position. Left Halfback LEFT HALFBACK Senior Jim Street will move over to the offense after a successful year as a defensive defens-ive back. Jim led the Utes in punt returns last season with ten for 134 yards. He also had two pass interceptions inter-ceptions which he returned for 30 yards. Street was an all-city quarterback quar-terback at Los Angeles City College. Col-lege. Junior Dave Smith and senior Greg Soulds will be after the starting start-ing role. Smith played football at Davis High and was named the "Most Valuable Class A Football Player" in the state his senior year. He played freshman ball at Utah, |
