DISNEYLAND PIGSKIN CLASSIC : Tennessee Has No Choice but to Face Colorado’s Option

Tennessee has no option.

The Volunteers will run smack-dab into Colorado’s I-bone option offense in the first Disneyland Pigskin Classic today at Anaheim Stadium.

They will have to contend with it.

They will be trying to slow down an offense that averaged 41 points per game last season behind Darian Hagan, the Buffaloes’ standout option quarterback.

Eric Bieniemy, the Bishop Amat High School graduate who is the Buffaloes’ starting tailback, is suspended for the game because of his arrest in an altercation with firefighters. But five other starters from last year’s offense will play, including Hagan, Valencia High School’s Joe Garten, a consensus All-American guard, and Mark Vander Poel, a 6-8, 300-pound tackle.

For weeks, Tennessee has been concentrating on the difficulty of defending the option, which often requires players to be extraordinarily disciplined, even to the point of neglecting instinct to stick to assignments.

“Without question, it takes the most discipline to play against than any other offense we ever go against,” said Coach Johnny Majors, who lost three starters from a defense whose leading tackler last year was a freshman linebacker, Darryl Hardy.

Tennessee will be making its stand with a defense that had its troubles last season, giving up 39 points to Louisiana State and 47 to Alabama, its only loss.

Majors says the team must improve its pass defense, and stop giving up the big play.

The task of building a stronger defense has fallen to Larry Lacewell, the designer of Oklahoma’s staunch defenses of the 1970s, who was hired by Majors as defensive coordinator after last season.

For weeks, the Volunteers have been trying to home in on Hagan on their Knoxville practice field. Sophomore defensive back J.J. McCleskey has been playing the part.

At 5-8, 162 pounds, McCleskey is somewhat smaller than Hagan, who is 5-10, 185. McCleskey is athletic, having played tailback in high school, and wide receiver for the Volunteers.

“He’s one of my favorite athletes of all time,” Majors said. “He’s quick, he’s good. But it’s going to be different when they see Darian Hagan out there. No way we can simulate him. We hope we’ll get better as the game goes on.”

Colorado’s coaches put their heads together in December, trying to come up with ways to react to the defense they expected Notre Dame to play in the Orange Bowl.

Colorado Coach Bill McCartney thought of the man to help them: Larry Lacewell.

Lacewell’s reputation as a tactician and student of the option has been reknowned since the 1970s, when he engineered Oklahoma’s stingy defense. He was the coach at Arkansas State when McCartney sought his advice last year.

Little did he know Colorado would be the next team he would face.

“Early in December, we were heading to play Notre Dame, and I was sitting with Lacewell, trying to get him to show me how to attack the defense we expected Notre Dame to use in the Orange Bowl,” McCartney said. “He gave me two or three pages of notes.”

McCartney filed those notes, which certainly have come in handy.

“You see who I went to for answers,” McCartney said.

Carl Pickens is the most versatile player on Tennessee’s team--on any team. He starts at split end, and as the kickoff returner. He played safety last season, and was the defensive MVP of the Cotton Bowl after an end zone interception, but Pickens is expected to play defense only in special situations this year.

He also is second on the depth chart at punt returner, and probably could play cornerback in an emergency.

Grambling State Coach Eddie Robinson, who begins his 50th season in coaching Saturday when his Tigers play Alcorn State, will receive the first College Football Heritage Award at halftime of today’s game.

Robinson, with a record of 358-125-15 in 47 seasons as a head coach, has won more games than any other football coach. The award is to be given annually in conjunction with the Pigskin Classic.

Notes

Tennessee has never played at Anaheim Stadium. Colorado would like to forget that it has. The Buffaloes lost in the 1985 Freedom Bowl to Washington, 20-17, and lost in the 1988 Freedom Bowl to Brigham Young, also by a 20-17 score. . . . Colorado’s Joe Garten has bench-pressed 455 pounds, and squatted 545. . . . Colorado punter Tom Rouen led the nation last season with a 45.9-yard average.