Blue White Illustrated

November 2015

Penn State Sports Magazine

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alone today as the only Nittany Lion to be the rushing leader for four years. A?er capping his All-America career with 99 yards and the winning touchdown in a 14-10 victory over Miami in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, a game that delivered Penn State its second national championship, Dozier was dra?ed in the ense, a?er the 1978 team had been No. 1 for the ered a heartbreaking 14-7 loss to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Paterno thought so highly of Warner that he moved veteran senior tailback Mike Guman to =anker and red- shirt freshman Joel Coles temporarily to defense and inserted Warner as the backup to junior Booker Moore for the Nittany Lions' season opener against visiting Rut- gers. When the Scarlet Knights kicked o>, Warner actually was Penn State's prime kick returner and quickly brought the crowd to its feet with a long runback. He would have three more such returns that a?ernoon for a total of 109 yards. Years later, in the book "What It Means To Be a Nittany Lion," Warner remembered what happened later in the ense and defense and return in the second quarter. "Warner's got all the tools," Paterno told reporters. "He's fun to watch. He can run well, and we hope he can keep on im- proving." Warner had three more 100-yard games that season, seven more in 1981 (including a 256-yard game at Syracuse that set a school record that stood for 21 years before it was broken by Larry Johnson) and six in his senior year. He returns with a 28.8-yard average on 32 attempts (1979-81) and holds the record with three touchdowns on those returns. He also is second behind Johnson in all-purpose yards with 4,982 (3,398 rushing, 662 receiving, 922 on kicko> re- turns). A?er eight years in the NFL, seven of them with the Seattle Seahawks, who had chosen him in the

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