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championship, with Warner at tailback and Jonathan Williams, Warner's backup in 1980 and '81, at fullback. Paterno moved Williams back to tailback in the spring of '83, and Dozier was a third-string reserve when Penn State launched the college football season in the now-defunct Kicko9 Classic with a Monday night game against Nebraska at Giants Stadium. Nebraska overwhelmed the Nittany Li- ons, 44-6, as their rebuilt o9ense, led by two inexperienced rotating quarterbacks, sputtered. When the Lions resumed their season two weeks later at home, upstart Cincinnati pulled o9 one of the biggest upsets of the Paterno era with a 14-3 win. The running game was a nonfactor in both losses. The next Saturday, No. 12 Iowa beat Penn State at Beaver Stadium, 42- 34, marking the 8rst time since 1964 that a Lion team had lost three in a row to start its season. This time, however, Paterno blamed the defense, as the o9ense gained 492 yards. Dozier had 102 of those yards on eight carries, including a 57-yard run that set up a third-quarter touchdown that had given Penn State the lead, 28-21. Paterno inserted him into the game when Williams went down with a knee injury early in the second half. Unfortunately for Dozier, on the Lions' next two o9ensive drives, he fumbled in Penn State territory and both bobbles led to Iowa touchdowns. Surprisingly, Paterno did not seem all that upset at Dozier's fumbles, blaming himself for doing a "bad [coaching] job" two weeks in a row and surprising the media by allowing his freshman tailback to speak. The fumbles "changed the game around," a contrite Dozier told reporters a:erward. "Both were my fault. I was try- ing to run the ball before I got it and along with lack of concentration, that's why I fumbled." During the practice week leading up to the Temple game at home, Paterno over- hauled his defense and made Dozier the starting tailback in place of the injured Williams. It all paid o9, as Penn State won, 23-18, controlling the clock for nearly 34 minutes with defense and a conservative ground game behind the 27 carries by Dozier that picked up 107 yards. That made Dozier Penn State's 8rst freshman to run for 100 or more yards in two con- secutive games. Dozier expanded that record the next week against Rutgers at Giants Stadium with another workhorse performance of 197 yards on 27 carries, including a 50- yard touchdown run late in fourth quarter that sealed a 36-25 victory. And the fol- lowing week at Beaver Stadium, he made it four consecutive 100-yard games in the Lions' 34-28 win over Alabama, rushing for 163 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries. Dozier would do it one more time that season, three weeks later at Boston College (113 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries) but in another losing cause, as the Lions fell, 27-17. Penn State would not lose another game. The Lions tied Pitt, 24-24, at the end of the regular season and went on to beat Washington, 13-10, in the Aloha Bowl, and Dozier led the team in rushing. His 1,002 yards and seven touchdowns on 174 carries made him just the fourth Nittany Lion to gain 1,000 yards in a season, fol- lowing Moore, Mitchell, Warner and John Cappelletti. For each of the next three years, Dozier again led the team in rushing and he stands FAST START Dozier won the starting tail- back position as a true freshman in 1983 and held onto it for the duration of his career. He is the only PSU running back to lead the team in rushing for four con- secutive seasons. BWI file photo

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