Blue White Illustrated

to play," said Fran Ganter, the Nittany Lions' offensive coordinator and running backs coach in that era. Morris was the only one to leave. He was a high school All-American out of Lynchburg, Va., and made his debut in Penn State's second game of the 1991 season against Cincinnati. A can- tilevered upper deck with 10,000 seats had just been added to the north end of Beaver Stadium, and a record crowd of 94,000 was there. The Lions led 40-0 by halftime, and Joe Paterno virtu- ally cleared his bench to try to hold down the score. Cincinnati couldn't stop Morris. He scored touchdowns on spectacular runs of 53 and 57 yards in total- ing 145 yards on 13 car- ries, and many jubilant fans left the stadium wondering if they had just watched the team's next superstar running back. In the fall of 1992, jun- ior Brian O'Neal, who had redshirted in 1991, beat out Morris for the starting fullback slot. Except for subbing in the third game of the season against Eastern Michigan when O'Neal was sidelined with an injury, Morris was the backup, finishing fourth on the team in rushing with 240 yards on 50 carries but no touchdowns. Morris looked ahead to 1993 and not only saw O'Neal but several other fullbacks in the mix. That list included junior Brian Milne, who had taken a year off from football to compete in track and field while training for the Olympic trials in his specialty, the discus. Morris de- cided to transfer to James Madison, 100 miles north of his hometown. Richie Anderson, the Lions' rushing leader for two years and already No. 12 in the school's career rushing records, de- cided to forgo his senior year of 1993 and left for the NFL, where he became a standout fullback for the New York Jets. That left the three prized recruits from 1991 competing for the starting tailback position. "Richie was a great back, but you wouldn't say he was an established su- perstar when we were recruiting those [three]," Ganter said. "He was our star and all that, but it wasn't like there was a Curt Warner playing and that's the guy you'd have to sit behind for a couple of years." Ganter and two other assistant coaches were assigned to recruit the trio, with Ron Dickerson pursuing Carter, Tom Bradley birddogging Archie, and Ganter going after Pitts. "I also re- member going with Tom Bradley twice to see Archie play basketball at Sharon," Ganter re- called, "and we hung out later with the coaching staff and all that." Back then, the recruit- ing services did not use a star rating system to as- sess high school players. In their senior years, Carter was a Parade Magazine and USA Today All-American, Archie was USA Today's Pennsylvania Player of the Year, and Pitts was a consen- sus All-American, according to the 1992 Penn State media guide. Carter and Pitts had played on the Lions' foreign team in 1991, and in 1992 they sometimes subbed for Anderson. Archie dressed for some games in '91 but was injured and never played. In '92 he also went in for Anderson. By the end of the season, the '91 recruits were among the team's rushing leaders: Carter was third with 264 yards and four touch- downs on 42 carries, Pitts fifth with 148 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, and Archie seventh with 113 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries. The trio had different running styles, and someone on the coaching staff gave them different nicknames based on their style. Ganter does not remember the nicknames and, thus, doesn't know who came up with them. But the nicknames were apropos. Archie, the most versatile, was "Cut- back" because of his ability to quickly change direction. Carter was "Flash" be- cause of his speed to get through a hole and into the open. Pitts was "Slash" be- cause he could ramble and slash through the line. After the last practice before the 1993 season opener against Minnesota at Beaver Stadium, the three players were told Pitts would start because he had looked the best in practice, but they would split the carries unless "somebody gets hot." Somebody got hot. The 95,397 fans plus Big Ten commis- sioner Jim Delany were shocked by an ex- plosive Penn State offense that beat Minnesota, 38-20, behind four touch- down receptions by sophomore Bobby Engram. Pitts gained 89 yards on 18 car- ries, but Carter led all rushers with 120 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. Archie had 27 yards on eight carries and also caught three passes for 21 yards. One week later against USC, the Lions nearly blew a 21-7 lead with about seven minutes left in the game but escaped with a thrilling 21-20 win by stopping a pass attempt for the two-point conver- sion and subsequently recovering the onside kick. Pitts had 51 yards on 16 car- ries, with Archie finishing as the leading rusher on 107 yards on 10 carries and Carter next with 104 yards on 21 rushes. Archie did score the first touchdown on a 10-yard pass reception, in what was a woeful day for quarterback John Sacca, who completed just 6 of 17 passing at- tempts. When Penn State traveled to Iowa the next Saturday, "Flash" was the starting tailback. Carter carried the ball 19 times for 144 yards, including a 23-yard touch- down, in a surprising 31-0 win. Kerry Collins, whose career had been curtailed by an injury at a family picnic in the sum- mer of 1992, replaced Sacca at quarter- P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> What made them special was these guys were so un- selfish. They rooted for each other and were really close. I was in the room every day with those guys for years and there was never anybody upset that the other guy had the ball more or who was starting. FRAN GANTER " "

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