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Show tGrid mentor hopeful for coming year liy mixing wishful thinking, just a dab of last minute re-smiting re-smiting and lots of Tom Kingsford imagination, Southern South-ern Utah State College could be (maybe) a prime contender for the Mountain Division championship in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Kingsford, SUSC head football foot-ball coach, fluctuates rapidly between optimism and depression depres-sion when he talks about the upcoming season. It's probably because Thunderbird prospects are good, but it's uncertain if they are good enough. "We have the 'best talent and more of it since I came here three years ago," Kings-foid Kings-foid beams; then he'll start talking about the team's weaknesses. "Our interior lines, both offensive of-fensive and defensive are untested; un-tested; we'll depend heavily on our junior collge transfers; we've got some of the same old problems, depth and a lack of overall speed." Kingsford machine guns his woes. Then, with equal verbal agility, he talks .strengths and starts to grin again. "Our entire en-tire passing attack is back, and it will probably be healthy this season; we've got excellent depth and good personnel per-sonnel at offensive and defensive defen-sive ends. Our backfield will be strong." The T-Bird pro set offense should be more effective this year. The major reason will be a better crop of running backs. Returning starter George Stephanos (6-2, 210) and newcomer David Noah (180) can sparkle at tailback. Transfer Bill Jones (U. of U.) may be pushed ,by a couple of dandy freshmen at fulback. Last year's top pass catcher, Tex Anthony, will be a prime condidate for starting flanker; and Buck Paopao, an all-district NAIA pick last year, will be hard to beat at quarterback. quarter-back. Making the passing attack even more formidable are a trio of proven receivers, Doug Berry, Bill McKane and Drew Hansen. These three will probably pro-bably see much of the action at offensive end. The interior lines on offense and defense are sprinkled with just enough (barely) veterans vet-erans to add stability. The offense of-fense lines will be particularly particular-ly green, with tackle Charley Norton the only man with extensive ex-tensive experience. A good corps of returnees gives the Thunderbirds a mature ma-ture defensive backfield. Vets Jerry Wheeler, Don Conrad, Alan Drury, Nick Scott, John Estep and Roy Ferguson will handle many of the lineback-ing lineback-ing and halfback duties. A group of promising transfers could strengthen those areas. Overall, size will be smaller, depth better, speed improved, and hopes higher. |