Friday, September 20, 1996

Focus on UT/ND game revolves around QBs
By CHIP BROWN
Associated Press

AUSTIN - There's another major quarterback duel going on Saturday besides the one between Tennessee's Peyton Manning and Florida's Danny Wuerffel.

The game between No. 6 Texas (2-0) and No. 9 Notre Dame (2-0) might well come down to the play of Longhorns quarterback James Brown and Fighting Irish signal caller Ron Powlus.

Brown is a slick scrambler who has gained confidence throwing downfield in Texas coach John Mackovic's pro-style offense. Powlus is a pocket passer who doubles as a runner in Notre Dame's option attack.

Brown and Powlus will be facing their toughest tests of the season when the sold-out, nationally televised game kicks off at 11 a.m. CDT.

Brown is aware that some are calling Notre Dame's defensive front seven the best the Irish have had in a decade, led by linebackers Kinnon Tatum, Bert Berry and Lyron Cobbins as well as end Melvin Dansby, who has three tackles for losses and two sacks.

Texas' junior quarterback has vivid memories of the Irish defense from a 55-27 loss last year in South Bend, Ind., in which he was sacked five times, lost a costly fumble and threw two interceptions.

"All their linebackers are like fullbacks - fast, quick and rough. Last year, they kept pressure on me," said Brown, who also threw for 326 yards and four touchdowns against the Irish last year. "They can be intimidating if you let them."

Powlus, a senior with an additional year of eligibility remaining in 1997 due to a medical redshirt in 1993, led the Irish to a 35-0 rout of Purdue last week. But the offense sputtered against a surprisingly rigid Vanderbilt defense in a 14-7 season-opening victory.

Powlus is often the target of critics when the offense struggles and has been labeled by some as an underachiever since taking over as starter in 1994, when Notre Dame finished 6-5-1.

This game could prove crucial to Powlus, who has vowed to win a national championship at Notre Dame, but has also indicated he will forego his final year of eligibility to enter the NFL draft.

"I have a great group of guys this year that I feel comfortable with," Powlus said. "We're showing that we can be diverse and mix things up to keep other teams on their toes."

Mackovic, a former quarterback, has nothing but praise for Powlus, who was 16-of-28 for 273 yards, including two TD passes, against the Longhorns last year.

"I think he's an effective leader," Mackovic said. "I thought he had a tremendous game against us last year. Unfortunately, sometimes you get tagged with a label that's just hard to live up to, especially when the expectations are so high."

There were no expectations for Brown, who got his first start against archrival Oklahoma in 1994 due to an injury to then-starter Shea Morenz. Unknown and unproven, Brown led the team to a gutsy upset victory and has gone 15-2-1 as a starter since.

After failing to win more than six games for three straight seasons, Texas went 8-4 in 1994 and 10-2-1 last year.

"If you go back and you look at the Texas program, you look at the turnaround in the Texas program, it is synonymous with when Brown started at quarterback," Holtz said.

"You can't try to blitz Brown and yet at the same time, you better be able to stop the run," Holtz said. "They give you a lot of problems in just trying to defend him. We will find out how good we are on defense."

Brown said last year that he focused on outperforming Powlus, and that it was a disaster. This year, he said he would only be thinking about what Texas needs to do to win.

"I'm pretty confident about this game," Brown said. "We haven't lost a home game in a year and a half, and I'm not worried about it."

The Longhorns have won nine straight at home dating back to 1994, but Notre Dame has never lost in Austin in three previous trips in 1913, 1915 and 1952.

Holtz has never lost confidence in Powlus.

"Ron Powlus, I think, has done an excellent job for us," Holtz said. "He threw one interception in two games and that was when the receiver slipped. ... Other than that, he has done a nice job protecting the football."