II ACI\ CCLLEt
They fought a \
Chicago Bears. Holt, a 6-2, 190-pound
senior, has been timed at 4.47 in the
40-yard dash.
The life of a cornerback is often
described as "me against the world.'*
It's the toughest position in football. If
you get burned, it seems the whole
world sees it. But the tough ones have a
streak of toughness. Getting beat on a
? bomb doesn't mean getting down on
yourself.
The same applies for a team as a
whole. Top-flight cornerbacks, like
teams, have an elastic quality. They
can bounce back, recover and get on
with business as usual.
I if . /I f l? W -
. "ii ivalleys loss) doesn't mean we
aren't a good football team," says
Cooley. "It means Valley can get beat
on any given day. That man's football
team was well-prepared. Today, they
were a better football team."
Alcorn State had the bette^ defense
that day, a defense that gives up only
179.3 yards per game -- 59.3 rushing
and 120 yards passing. On the other
hand, Valley was averaging a nationleading
666.6 yards in total offense, including
Totten's 500.6 yards passing.,
However, the Braves employed a
balanced offense against the Delta
Devils, gaining 220 yards rushing and
306 passing. Alcorn State's point total
was also less than two points shy of its
43.3 points-per-game average, second
^ only to Valley in Division I-AA
Braves running back Perry Quails,
who gained 211 yards on 37 carries and
Much Ado Abe
From Pa2e 8
w? ?
as a person and as a coach,*' says
senior linebacker Leon Smith. "Football
is a lot more than sitting behind a
desk and making up Xs and Os.
"With Coach Bailey, you feel free to
^ speak your mind, and you know he
speaks his. He's very honest. The
whole attitude has changed. We feel
like winners, on the football field, in
the classroom, everywhere."
In replacing Price, Bailey was succeeding
an old friend. Price and Bailey
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New York University.
.Over the years, they entertained one
another often, and frequently joked
about sneaking into the other's
''backyard" to steal away the top
talent.
When Bailey, a native of Suffolk,
was given the head football job, Price
became an assistant athletic director.
Soon after stepping on campus, Bailey
was given the dual job of athletic direc^
tor, replacing William Archie.
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war CONTINUED
scored four touchdowns rushing and
one receiving, helped Alcorn frustrate
Valley's defense with its ball-control
offense. Getting the ball with just
under nine minutes left in the game,
the Braves capped a 17-play, 80-yard
drive with Quails scoring with only
1:51 left. Workhorse Quails carried the
ball 11 times during that seven-minute,
six-second drive.
With that late, time-consuming
drive, the "Godfather" was on his way
to silencing the "Gunslinger's" pistol
- a pistol aimed at getting the ball to
Rice, preferably in the end zone.
"The key to the game was our defen
sive line, " said Holt, who has been
bothered by a leg injury that caused
him to miss one game this season. .
"They put pressure on Totten."
Alcorn State, which survived some
costly second-half turnovers by its offense,
also held Valley to only 82 yards
rushing.
An old saying in the football lexicon
- offense scores the points, but defense
wins the game - crept up and smacked
Valley right in the face for the first
time this season on that dark and damp
day in the heart of the Magnolia State.
"1 think you got to give the defense
one helluva hand," said "The God
father*' to his troops in the postgame
~ locker room celebration.
With that in mind, the biggest hand
is reserved for "General Ike," who had
the whole "World" in his hands on
one of the biggest days in the history of
Mississippi football.
>ut Norfolk
Under Price, Norfolk was 65-40-3.
Ttje Spartans won three straight CIAA
titles (1974-76) during his tenure - but
the team was 4-5-1, 6-4 and 5-5 his last
three seasons ? and memories are oh so
short in college athletics.
Bailey's first season at his alma
mater has been punctuated by a
defense that leads the nation in fewest
points allowed, fewest yards permitted
on the ground, and in total yardage
Offensivety, the st ar'TsT^T"
180-pound senior Tony Johnson, a
bench warmer his first three seasons.
From Booker T. Washington High,
right down the street from Norfolk
state, Johnson is running away, literally,
with the CIAA rushing title, with
nearly 120 yards overland an outing.
"Tony's not as good as LaRue Harrington
or Orlando Goodhope (former
NSU stars), but he'll outgain both of
them because the system is better,"
says one Norfolk official.
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While listening to Totten's signals,
shadow is his and which is Isslac I
football monster in Norfolk But will
this monster lurk in the C1AA, or will
it go on to attack in bigger, swifter
waters? f]
For iure, there's talk of Norfolk
bolting the CIAA and joining the I-AA
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. It
would seem a likely stepping stone, one
Bailey could easily make with the many""
resources available to him at Norfolk
If the Spartans joined the ME AC,
they could still retain rivalries with
Union, Virginia State and Hampton,
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Rice seems to be wondering which
Holt's (photo by Mark Gail).
and possibly branch out and try to
schedule the established I-AA's in
Virginia, like Richmond, William &
Mary, VMI and James Madison.
Money talks in athletics, and when
you can draw, 27,500 to a football
game, you can offer the kind of
guarantees to visiting teams that are
too good to refuse.
Happy speculation abounds these
days in Norfolk as the victories pile up
and a first-ever trip to post-season
football competition seems almost a
certainty. *
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