Carter Country

Holy Cross football coach Rick Carter was too busy yesterday to come to the phone His 7-1 Crusaders, heading for a Division 1-AA playoff berth, were going to be on regional TV against Harvard, and the television people and photographers were following him around, finding out this and that and everything else as they readied for their broadcast.

Rick Carter could probably have done just fine without all the attention thank you since the number one thing on his mind is winning football games Something that his teams do very well.

After graduating from Eartham College in '65. Carter was named the head football coach there only two years later. In six seasons he led Eartham to a 27-21, 3 record, including back-to-back 6-3 seasons in '70 and '71. Not bad for a 27-year old.

He went on to Hanover in 1972, where his teams accounted for four Hoosier Buck eye Conference Championships in five years, earned two NAIA playoff berths, and ran up an overall record of 36-11.

The man with the Midas touch arrived on the Dayton campus in the fall of 1977 to take over a football program that had not had a winning season since man had touched lunar turf. That first year, the team went 8-3 Then 9-2-1 Then 8-2-1 And in 1980. Rick Carter arrived on the national scene by coaching the Flyers to a 140 mark and the NCAA Division 3 National Championship, including a 63-0 win over Ithaca in the finals.

Where could Rick Carter go from there 'To Holy Cross, of course.

Holy Cross Athletic Director Ron Perry had been keeping an eye on Carter for three years, through a friend of his who knew Midwestern football pretty well And Edward Bennett Williams (Holy Cross '41), the millionaire lawyer who owns both the Washington Redskins and the Baltimore Orioles, had noticed Carter out there as well. Both men also knew the football program at Holy Cross had been on a long and winding downward road since its Orange Bowl team in 1946.

The arrival of Carter on the scene has changed all that. He turned a 3-8 Crusader team into a 6-5 squad last year, and this year's is headed for bigger and better things. There will be no Orange Bowls in the future (only 1-A teams are eligible for the major bowl games), but there are those 1-AA playoffs coming up soon. Perry knows he made the right choice.

"There's no question that Rick Carter has made Holy Cross football." Perry said yesterday. "He has surrounded himself with an excellent staff. And the communication between the coaches and the players, which was bad before he got here, has been great.

"The biggest thing--and I know because I was a coach myself--is: if you can communicate with the kids, you'll get the best out of them. The emotional aspect of college football is very important. And the first time I talked to Rick Carter, he said that emotion and intensity were number one."

He obviously forgot to mention "winning."

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HARVARD 16, HOLY CROSS 10--The Harvard football team should probably be thinking about next week's game with Penn, a game that should pretty much decide the Ivy title. So Holy Cross should be a good bet to take this game. Except the Harvard football team could not care less about Penn right now. It would rather be known as the best Division 1-AA team in New England, a position now filled by The Cross. Harvard will be known.

DARTMOUTH 21, COLUMBIA 12--John Witkowski throws and throws, but where Columbia is headed, nobody knows. Other than last place, that is.

YALE 45, CORNELL 8--If Harvard beats Penn, the Elis are very much alive. And they know it. Cornell, meanwhile has eyes turned toward next week's important contest with Columbia, to determine which squad need be pitied most Spectators will be blindfolded, of course.

COLGATE 14, PENN 5--It's Colgate that Penn couldn't care less about. The Quakers are thinking Harvard, which is not a good idea against a team of Colgate's caliber. Or a quarterback named Calabria:

LAFAYETTE 67, PRINCETON 11--Tiger quarterback Brent Woods was mentioned in this Week's Sports Illustrated..

That's not as bad as being on the cover, but it's still a jinx. Should be good for six interceptions or so.

BROWN 18, WILLIAM & MARY 15--Somewhere in this great nation of ours, there must be a couple named William and Mary Brown. I think they should have free tickets to this game, though it certainly isn't much of a prize.

Last week--4-1. Season to date--24-14, 631, and still second on the chart. Except I forgot to tell you about my political predictions, which went rather well. I had Conte, Dukakis, Cuomo, Frank, the bottle bill (in a big way), and a 20-seat swing in the House, for the good guys, of course. That boosts my season up to a sparkling 31-14, .689. And, first