The Football Life of Franco Saverio

[luigi.delta]

The football life of Franco Saverio

This thread is dedicated to the football life of Franco Saverio, a first generation Italian American boy who moved with his family to the United States in 1978 when he was 13 years old. Franco’s parents are Lario Saverio and Rebecca Wilson. They got married in Italy in 1964, only one year after Rebecca had visited the country for vacation and met Lario in Milan in a bar club. The couple had Franco one year later. For the first 13 years of his life Franco lived in Milan with his family until Lario and Rebecca decided to move to the United States. Today Franco’s father is still an Italian citizen regularly registered in the Italian Expat List of the municipality of Milan, and so far has refused to adopt an American second citizenship. He says he never will. He claims that a person can only have one citizenship. At the beginning of this story he is 42 years old and works in a supermarket. Rebecca, one year younger than Lario, is a nurse and works in a hospital in Bloomington Indiana where the family moved in 1978.

Franco has a dual nationality instead, given that has got mixed nationality parents, and according to the law of both The United States and Italy, having a single parent of the appropriate nationality grants citizenship. Rebecca was adamant about her will of having Franco acquire his US citizenship, and when the child was born she immediately proceeded to register him with a CRBA (Consular Report of Birth Abroad) issued by the US Consulate in Milan. As far as Franco’s Italian citizenship is concerned, he acquired it automatically at birth since no matter what, by having at least one Italian parent, Italian citizenship is mandatory even if you were born on Venus.

Once the family got to the States, the transition from Italian middle school to Bloomington North high school was not easy for Franco. Apart from the language barrier that he had to somehow overcome at a relatively old age, he also had to endure all the racial bullying for being a foreign kid and in particular an Italian kid, in a period in time where politically correctness wasn’t so refined yet. His freshman year was especially terrible, but the teeneger had one thing going for him though: his 5-9 per 176 pounds size at only 14 years of age, and a fiery hot Italian temperament. These two things often put him in trouble, especially in his freshman year when he got in more than one fight even with kids older than him. One day a group of juniors, during an ordinary bullying session, tried to make him drink some dirty liquid from the cafeteria dumpster. When Franco sent one of them to the hospital with a partially crushed spleen, he got in trouble for real, meaning police trouble.

He was saved by Mr. Scott Jensen, the school football coach who thought he could channel that young troubled kid's aggressiveness and frustration into a sport that would possibly tame the boy and give him the balance he needed. Throughout his childhood Franco had played soccer as a goalkeeper, displaying a certain degree of skill in catching the ball with spectacular saves which left his coaches impressed more than once. His size and height helped him in the position especially because his weight didn’t seem to impede his natural agility and nimbleness.

Mr. Jensen didn't take long to appreciate Franco’s natural athletic abilities; in particular the ability to catch a football thrown at him, his jumping abilities despite his big size, and his not negligible speed and acceleration. Jensen thought Franco had enough speed and running discipline to be a wide receiver. He resisted the temptation of making a Tight End out of him and began to train him as a pure wideout. By the beginning of his sophomore year in 1980 Franco was in the varsity team and was substantially contributing to the school football program success. Being in the football team Franco had a special opportunity to learn about American culture in a way he never experienced before and in one of the environments which expresses it at his highest and brightest level: sports. Franco’s disciplinary problems quickly disappeared as he became a key contributor to his football team and gained the respect that he deserved from his peers and trainers. He soon started to take advantage of his cute accent and of his new acquired social standing to start a proficient dialogue with the opposite sex as well. Coach Jensen taught him work ethics and commitment at a level he had never learned before, or as Franco puts it; “at a Yankee level,” and soon even his grades started to improve, without ever becoming spectacular. Even though to these days Franco doesn't have a firm command of the English language, and retains a marked accent that girls continue to find sexy, he went by in high school with a GPA of 2.50.

Call to Service
Notre Dame Recruiting Service
June 3rd 1982
South Bend Indiana

Dear Franco,
Having observed and examined your remarkable performance in your high school senior year we would be glad to officially offer you a full scholarship to play for our football team and to give you access to a premiere college course of study of your choice. If our proposal was of your liking, we would be excited to invite you to an official visit of our campus in order to show you the school facilities. We would also be very honored to put our marquee orientation service at your disposal if you choose to accept our invitation, so that our specialized personnel can help you find the more appropriate course of study for you.
We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely
David Stanely, University of Notre Dame Athletic Director.

[luigi.delta]

The Recognition
The Herald-Times Bloomington the Sports Column
June 6th 1982

It could be a good reason for pride in our community the fact that one of our possible future most prominent citizens, who just graduated from Bloomington North, has received among many others, an official invitation to visit the University of Notre Dame to go play for their football program after the summer.
According to credible sources Franco Saverio, one of the top high school players in the country rated 49 overall, has received offers not only from the University of Notre Dame, but also from Georgia Tech, UCLA Oregon, Tennessee, South Carolina and Arizona. Franco’s family, interviewed exclusively by the Herald, has admitted that their son is looking closely at all the offers that he received but that with all probability Notre Dame will be his final choice, since it is really important for him at least in this phase of his life to be close to home.

Decisions Decisions
June the 8th 1982
717 McDougal St Bloomington Indiana

Dear Coach Jensen
I am sorry to disturb you in these days where you are probably busy with recruiting and with the preparation of the new season. I have been tormented by the doubt of what school to choose for my freshman year in college since as you know I have received a certain number of offers all of them with pluses and minuses. I have been thinking that I should probably give priority to the prestige of the school, which would give me more visibility in terms of chances to one day be drafted in the pros. On the other hand I have been concerned with the possibility of being able to play from the very start of my freshman year. I am not like a walk-on that can sit on the bench or be redshirted and put in a corner while other people get to take the field. I put a high priority on the chance of playing right away, and on this point all the colleges that have contacted me have been the most clear: No immediate chance for this year in Oregon, UCLA and Georgia Tech.

Notre Dame looks like an intermediate situation: they have two junior receivers who are projected to start: Rafael Vance and Alexander Reed. In the slot there would be a guy called Robert Butler and I would come after him on the depth chart. I don’t see Notre Dame playing a lot of quad formations as it is known that they run a balanced offensive with a lot of pro and I formations with the occasional shotgun when they need to. That means of course that I would see no action unless somebody gets hurt and I don’t want to be in a team where I would have to hope that my teammates get hurt in order to be able to play.
The only three teams that offered me a starting spot on their roster are Tennessee, Arizona and South Carolina. I would be #2 in all of these teams. Unfortunately all of them are pretty far from home, plus that they don’t have the same prestige of the other teams that I mentioned before.
Please Coach I would really appreciate it if you could give me any directions regarding these issues which are really worrying me. I am concerned about being able to make the right choice considering the impact that such a decision will have on my future.
While I look forward to hearing from you I remain
Your favorite WR
Franco

[luigi.delta]

A qualified analysis of a good candidate for Franco’s team choice
The Sports Illustrated
June 1982

…so it would seem that this year the Fighting Irish have a real chance at supremacy considering the caliber of the players that they have put together for this season. Senior quarterback Jerry Moreno is ready to give Notre Dame a great season this year. He matured a lot in the second half of last season and, had he started the process earlier, the Fighting Irish could have been a force to be reckoned with, already last year. Moreno is one of the legitimate Heisman candidates for the 1982-1983 season. He is supported by a more than respectable Offensive line anchored on the rock solid senior center Tom Thayer; a guarantee, The receiving corps is as good as any other high profile unit, anchored around Vance and Reed with Robert Butler in the slot. Freshman William Phillips can take over in a pinch or in the rare instances when the Fighting Irish go with four receivers. On top of that, Notre Dame is trying to recruit Franco Saverio from Bloomington North, a big but fast receiver at 6-2 and 194 pounds, who would be a nice addition to an already talent rich group. The defense is also a much improved unit compared to last season with Bob Clasby who should have reached complete maturation as well as Mark Zavagnin, who comes out of his sophomore year much stronger and faster at the central linebacker spot.

Nothing to be desired even in the secondary where the improvement of cornerback Charles Smith and strong safety Jesus England should guarantee a safe air defense umbrella. Last but certainly not least, senior punter Michael Jackson, not to be confused with the more famous singer, is an absolute insurance in terms of quality and even the new acquisition, freshman kicker James Kurts projects as one of the absolute best once he develops. The Notre Dame roster is so beefed up that they can afford to have a gourmet running back like Ray Corbett returning kicks. We are talking about a player who who in most teams would be 1st string runner all the way…

The first to know
Tucson AZ 85271 United States June 16th 1982
Arizona University Campus
This letter is written in italian and translated for you.

Cara Mamma e Caro Papà. Vi scrivo dall’Università dell’Arizona dove ho appena terminato la mia visita...
(Dear Mom and Dad, I’m writing to you from the Arizona University where I just completed my campus visit).

I wanted you guys to be the first to know that I have decided to accept the offer of the university of Arizona and to enroll in their Political Science program. They offered me full scholarship for playing for their football team and differently from Notre Dame they granted me a starter spot from my very freshman year. I know that this cannot be good news for you since I am going to be much farther from home than we had anticipated, but it is important for me to be able to play from the very beginning of my college career in order to pile up the necessary experience and playing time which will let me get on the radar of the professional teams as soon as possible.
I am writing this letter immediately after having reached my decision because I wanted you to read about it from me before you read any inflated news from any Bloomington local media.
I will be home in the next couple of days to explain to you everything in detail.
Love
Franco.

Note
So Franco made his decision: a second or even third tier football program in exchange for an accelerated starting. Arizona is rated 24th in both the media and coaches top 25. I personally believe it has not been the best choice our hero could make, but the boy has a mind of his own (represented by a roll of dice for the choice, modified according to certain preferences). The result has been Arizona and Arizona it will be. The program under Coach Larry Smith runs a smash mouth offense not optimal for Franco’s role, but on the other hand the team has a sophomore quarterback, Hank Lancaster who is regarded as a very high prospect and Coach Whitley, the offensive coordinator has managed to convince Franco during his campus visit that his intent is to build the future of the team on Lancaster, Franco and the running back Malcom Cornett another sophomore projected to be a blue chip back and to switch in time to a West Coast type offense.

[luigi.delta]

Team organization
Tucson AZ 85271 United States
Arizona University Campus July 3rd 1982

Dear Coach Jensen
I am happy to write this letter to you on the eve of the 4th of July. I am also happy to tell you that I settled down well here on campus for the moment. I share a room with my teammate and fellow Wide Receiver Ricky Johnson. He is one year older than me and he was redshirted last season. He has one year of experience with the team and he’s going to be a good reference point for me on what to expect. Yesterday I had my first practice session with the team and I have to say that Johnson really impressed me with his commitment and aggression.

During our first meeting I had the opportunity to meet all my teammates and in particular my colleagues of the receiving corps. I met Hank Lancaster and our senior runner Zach Jones, a stocky power back who intimidates the hell out of you just with his presence, let alone when you see him running at you at 20 miler per hour.

During the post practice meeting with the offensive coordinator, the WR corps have been informed that the wide receiver position has one with the biggest recruiting budget alongside with the defensive positions. Coach Smith wants to be sure that the WR corps remains well stocked and taken care of. For this year the running tendency is confirmed, but the staff is starting to think about plans to make a shift to a more passing oriented offense in the future.

Schedule
The Arizona Daily Star Sports Column
July 5th 1982

The schedule for our beloved Wildcats has just been announced by Coach Smith at the season opening convention on campus yesterday evening, and it is a tough schedule, to be precise the 27th toughest schedule in the nation.

We open at home with a relatively easy game against Wake Forest, but starting with the second week things get hard on the road at Baylor, ranked 13th in the country. The third week we host Tulane and that closes out our non conference schedule. After that it is a marathon up to the 10th week when we have our first bye week. The game against our archrival Arizona State is slotted in the 14th week and it is also our last game for the season. By then we will hopefully have secured a bowl game or the dream of a national championship.
(Rest of the article missing)

Wildcats sluggish start at home
The Arizona Daily Star Sport Column
September 4th 1982

…Not the great victory the fans were expecting against Wake Forest but a victory nevertheless. The Wildcats prevailed over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons 31-17, a score differential that is way bigger than the effective difference in the quality of play shown by the two teams. Arizona had 436 offensive yards against Wake Forest 414. The Wildcats ran the ball 44 times for 152 yards and went through the air 31 times (16 completion) for 284 yards. Our defense gave up 124 yards on the ground and 290 in the air. So all in all a much more balanced game than the score depicts. Lancaster had 2 TDs passes and one interception, closing the game with a rating of 143,4; not bad for a quarterback who is still officially “in development”. Among the positive notes of the day, RB Zack Jones who rushed for 127 yards on 34 carries, not to mention his deputy, freshman Josh Bower, who carried the football only two times but quite effectively: 35 yards and a touchdown. John Wong, guard extraordinaire of the future dream O line, had 3 key blocks and his colleague and unit mate offensive tackle Brian Werner inflicted two painful pancakes to the opposition, while unfortunately freshman center James Lopez allowed one of the two sacks that Lancaster had to endure in the game; the other one being courtesy of freshman offensive tackle Lewis Gonzales, who for some reason in this opening game started in place of Jim Beam.

Wide receiver Ernest Phillips caught 3 passes out of the 8 thrown at him for a total of 120 yards for a touchdown plus a long spectacular 60 yarder.

On the defensive side, senior outside linebacker John Brown had a remarkable performance with 7 unassisted tackles. He stuffed opponent runners 2 times, hurried the QB 1 time, broke 1 pass and intercepted 2. He should have been MVP of the game, but they decided to give it to Wake Forest OT Perry Michael. We don’t agree, but we are biased.

As for the freshmen, we have to mention the performance of an absolute novice: we are talking about wide receiver Franco Saverio, who in his very first college game, two months shy of his 18 year of age, caught 7 of the 10 passes directed at him by Lancaster for a total of 100 yards even. After a particularly acrobatic catch in which Franco displayed his remarkeble speed and agility, the crowd started mimicking the fan club of the more famous NFL Italian American fullback Franco Harris.

Now all our energies need to be focused on the preparation of our next game at Baylor next week, which promises to be our real first thought test of the season. If we manage to win this next game, we will undoubtedly send a strong message, and not only throughout our conference.


Emotions
Tucson AZ 85271 United States
Arizona University Campus September 6 1982

Dear Coach Jensen,
I am through my first game and I wanted to thank you greatly for your words and for your encouragement in the days before this first test of mine, which with your help I managed to pass with good marks. I cannot be completely satisfied with my performance, but I think it was passable considering that as we well knew, the team runs the football a lot. I am particularly happy about the attitude of the fans. When I took the field and I saw Arizona Stadium packed at full capacity with 60.000 spectators screaming and chanting, I felt my legs turning to jelly. I have never seen anything like that in real life, and let me tell you; in real life it is very different from watching it on TV. I know that you tried to prepare me for the atmosphere of college football, but no preparation can make you ready for the real thing up close and personal.

I was really afraid that the crowd would resent me for the demotion of senior wideout Peter Beatty to slot receiver. Coach Smith told me that that could be a possibility and to be ready for it. Instead the fans and the alumni started to warm up once I caught my first passes, especially after a good 29 yards catch where I really had to stretch myself managing to finger catch the football with my right hand. Fortunately I hung on to it after my roll landing. I believe that the crowd was already fired up by the 2 point conversion that I had managed to catch a few plays before, after Scotty Herbert’s touchdown. When I caught the difficult 29 yarder as well, the most incredible thing happened: the whole stadium started to chant “ITALIAN AIR FORCE! ITALIAN AIR FORCE!” The chant was so loud that I felt the ground shaking under my feet. Even my teammates started looking around in surprise and when they understood what was going on, they smiled at me. Man, that was powerful! And I couldn’t hold my tears under the helmet, thinking about what we went through in my first two years at Bloomington North. We had 4 more plays in that drive before we had to punt the ball and I had to make sure to keep my head down in the huddle so that my teammates couldn’t see my face.
So dear Coach Jensen I will close my letter here because I don’t want to be late for practice. I will keep you posted, as you recommended me to do.

Take care and please give a huge hug to your wife Martha for me. Tell her that I cannot forget the delicious pancakes that she prepared for me as a second breakfast on my saddest mornings before PE days.
Take care
Franco.

[luigi.delta]

Study Matters
Tucson AZ 85271 United States
Arizona University Campus September 7th 1982
This letter is written in Italian and translated for your benefit.

Dear Mom and Dad
Today Athletic Director Mr Bruce Love issued the calls for the guys who need extra tutoring hours already at the beginning of the semester, and I am very glad to inform you that I’m not among them. There are a certain number of guys on whom Mr. Love is scrambling very badly because we can’t afford to lose them to a suspension. In particular one of our defensive tackles and our 1st string running back Zach. Jones. I can tell you that there are at least two other running backs who are praying that Zach doesn’t keep up with his grades, so that they will have an opportunity to play. Yeah, human misery can get to that point.

My GPA is at the moment 2,43 and I am attending my first classes; International Relations, Contemporary History, Sociology 100, Constitutional Law, History of Political Doctrines, and Economics 1000. I am particularly liking the IR class. Professor Bonat is giìving us a solid foundation on how the various international orders are established after major wars and how we got into this cold war situation, which according to him is also a major war that will see a winner and a loser eventually and will drastically change once more the international order. A very interesting theoretical class where there is not too much to remember and a lot to understand. Economics is difficult. I am struggling because I don’t have the math foundation I need in order to understand it well. I am planning to seek some voluntary tutoring before the situation gets out of hand.

Dad, I am following your suggestion to continue to take my lesson notes in Italian everytime I can in order not to lose my practice in writing in our language. Also I really appreciated the “Riverworld” series of books that you sent me in Italian so I will be able to read them too. I don’t have a lot of free time left after practice and classes, but I promise you that I will do everything to read them.

The life here on campus is good; hectic but good. Lots of things to do and I need to organize my time well in order to meet all ends.
Mom, I promise I will come home for the holiday season so that we will be able to spend Christmas together with Uncle Earl and Grandma.
Love
Franco

[luigi.delta]

Intra week activities
The Arizona Daily Star Sport Column
September 7th 1982

This week the Wildcats received the visit of Linebacker Adolfo Davis, the top ranked linebacker in the nation at the high school level. He is the #33 prospect in the country at the moment and would constitute a precious add to our defense for next year to put behind Mccollum for the Central linebacker position, or alongside him if Coach Smith decided to shift to a defense based on 4 linebackers. The visit has probably upset William Fisher and Stephan Metcalf who aspire to the same position, should the coach make such a decision.

Sealed lips instead as far as this week's game plan is concerned. Our next client Baylor runs a vertical passing type of offense and in their first game their QB David Mangrum has thrown for 331 yards, completing 26 of his 36 passes. A credible threat for us, well supplemented by a corps of capable receivers, and first among all them senior wideout Dallas Matlock. Their defense gave up only 157 yards last week. Judging on these numbers it looks like our only hope is to unleash our ground offensive; after all, on paper our running game is stronger than Baylor's opponent of last week; Rutgers. But on paper is one thing and in practice is another, and even if we wanted to establish our running game we would still have to mix it up with the passing game on a defense that conceded a grand total of 57 yards through the air last week. On a last note, according to the bookmakers we should lose this game by a touchdown.

Support
717 S Mcdougal St. Bloomington IN
September 12th 1982
This letter is in Italian and translated for your benefit

Dear Franco,
Last week your mother and I took a day off from work to go visit Grandma and Uncle Earl and we watched the Arizona University game on TV. I’ve been watching your mother’s brother jump on the chair at each and every turn of events of what they say has been a crazy game. As you know, I do not understand much about the game of American Football, but I understood when in the last minute of the game your team managed to stop the enemy at the short distance where it had managed to advance. I literally saw your uncle jumping on his chair when that teammate of yours committed that foul which gave the enemy such a close position to your team’s goal line and with the automatic first down. I believe Baylor was 14 yards away from tying the game. The foul was so evident that Uncle Earl it saw before the referees. He jumped again and screamed when your team’s defender broke down the first enemy pass. God it was so close! The second attempt almost gave us a heart attack, when on Baylor’s second attempt the enemy receiver caught the ball but was immediately taken down by a rabid defender, and gained only 3 yards of the 10 that he needed. I was confused when the game stopped and everybody went back to the sideline. I thought it was all over, but uncle Earl told me that Baylor had asked for a timeout. Then with the third attempt another failed pass, and when finally the defender broke the fourth pass by Baylor, uncle Earl lost it and started to jump all over the living room. “The UPSET!!, the UPSET!!” he jumped around screaming all over the place like a child.
I am so glad that the result of 24-17 gave your team the second consecutive victory this year. Uncle Earl told me that this was an important game against a team which was on paper stronger than yours.

I am also super proud of your performance. When I saw you catching that beautiful soft pass from your quarterback and taking it beyond the goal line for the first score of your college career, I felt a tremendous emotion and so did everybody else here. Your mother especially was so proud of you! I was glad to see you not doing all that nonsense that players do when they score. Good solid serious man. Do the job and move on!
After you scored the cameras focused on a spot on the stands where there were a bunch of Arizona fans waving Italian flags and even a giant poster of the Frecce Tricolori* and I felt so proud that you brought to these people a passion for our country which has always been ostracized by meaningless and pretentious stereotypes.

I want you to know how proud I am of how you began the season and I hope that you will stay strong and safe throughout it all. Uncle Earl told me that you had a great game against Baylor with 3 receptions out of 5 passes, 73 yards and of course the score. Everybody here in Bloomington who follows football is proud of you as well and some people who know me already stopped me on the street last week to congratulate me for your first games. Even at work my managers and coworkers look at me in a different way since when you represent the town of Bloomington on the national stage in the way you do; as a leader and a protagonist; as a Saverio should do.
Your mother kisses and hugs you and so do Grandma and uncle Earl.
Take care and stay safe, I can wait for when you will come visit for the holiday.

Love
Your father

*Frecce Tricolori
Literally Tricolor Arrows: the Italian Air Force Aerobatic Team.

[luigi.delta]

The point on the situation
Tucson AZ 85271 United States
Arizona University Athletic Director Office September 13th 1982
To: Dean of the Students Office

From Bruce Love
Attention of Mr. Julius Sanders
Object: situation of the football program adjourned to the second week of the season

Dear Mr. Sanders
Following your request mentioned in the object, this is the official report to the Dean of Students Office on the situation of the Arizona university football program adjourned to the date of this letter.

First of all the bad news regarding the suspension of the student players who currently are not to the required academic standards. There are only two student players in this condition: Senior Timmy Daniels (starting defensive tackle) and Junior John Wong (starting offensive guard).

Both of these two student players have been immediately removed from the depth chart of the division I team and have been allocated to the reserve team. In this sense we are maintaining the strict ethical standard that you have indicated when you took your position at the helm of the institution, while at the same time complying with the NCAA regulations .

Considering the low number of student players with a GPA below 2:00, I have to say that this limited success has been achieved thanks to the indefatigable work of our tutoring and student support department who have worked non stop in order to keep our student players not only eligible to be deployed on the field but also able to achieve those academic standards which will help their future in this institution and also once they will leave it to join the active population.

As far as the health of the student players is concerned, thanks to the high priority that you allocated to the medical department of our program, I can give you great news on the matter. Only one student player is currently injured and that is sophomore defensive end Jeffrey Holt, who suffered from a violent impact during the game against Baylor and he sustained a light bruising of his left kidney. The trauma has been immediately treated by the medical team who has determined that the student player would be already in condition to play next week in the game against Tulane. Holt is of course eager to play and has shown the most rebellious attitude to the possibility that we stop him for a week. Despite that we have decided that we will remove him from the depth chart for the upcoming game in order to protect his health to the maximum possible extent.

Academically, we have 44 student players out of 75 whose GPA is over 3,00 which we consider an outstanding success for the institution. 13 of these student players are starters in the division one team. Among these 13, starting offensive guard Sophomore Johnny Gomez is our best student player with a GPA of 3,99 and starting senior premiere linebacker John Brown is not too far with a GPA of 3,86.

For last, a mention on the performance of the division one team, we have so far played two games and we have won them both. Conference games have not started yet so we don’t have a position in the conference yet at this time. Next week we have our last non conference game against Tulane and then all the nine conference games will follow until week 14, when we close our regular season against Arizona State University.

With that I believed I covered all the points on which you wanted to be adjourned and please do not hesitate to ask for any clarification or additions to this report.

Looking forward to hearing from you, please accept my kindest regards.

Bruce Love
Director of the Athletic Department



A bit of relaxation before the supposedly easy game
Tucson AZ 85271 United States
Arizona University Campus September 16th 1982

Dear Coach Jensen,

I hope this letter of mine finds you and your family well. The preparation for the next game against Tulane has been very hard. Nobody here gives anything for granted. Coach Smith doesn’t care that theoretically this should be an easy game for us. He doesn’t want to take any chances and he is worried for the fact that we are missing some key players, some for injury and some for suspension.

These last two days leading to the game Coach Smith let us off the hook a little bit and gave some free time after lessons in order to relax and enjoy ourselves, which I have tried to do as much as I could. Ricky Johnoson and I took the chance to do some partying at the Shelter. Do not worry, we kept safely far from any alcohol business; I have met a very beautiful girl instead, about whom you are the first to know. Her name is Megan and she is a freshman in the medicine program here in Tucson. Things look promising but I don’t want to be too optimistic.

As far as the season in general is concerned, It has been wonderful to upset Baylor in the same week when Oklahoma upset UCLA, and I really hope that we can keep up with the good job and with the expectations of the fans, who are unexpectedly showing a certain degree of affection towards me. It could be the fact that I am a freshman who is playing right away at an acceptable level or something. I will take it. Everybody is fired up here for the advancement of the team in the polls from the 24th spot to the 18th after our second victory.

This is all I wanted to tell you about the intraweek activities. I have been confirmed as a starter for the game against Tulane as well. Let’s cross our fingers.

Yours
Franco

[luigi.delta]

Tulane whining
Tucson AZ 85271 United States
Arizona University Campus September 19th 1982

Dear Coach Jensen
What you told me before my decision to come play for Arizona is beginning to become a sad reality for me. In our victory against Tulane for 43-10 we threw the ball only 31 times and we ran it 48 times. This is more and more a run and pound team, especially against weaker opponents against which it is possible to establish a dominant rushing game.This let our phenom running back Jones to run for an unreal 252 yards in 34 carries at the average of 7,41 yards per carry in this game; the absolute national record this week. With this performance Zack places himself in the 9th absolute position in the nation among the strongest backs in college football. These results have been achieved despite the remarkable effort of a couple of Tulane’s linebackers who were really impressive during the game amassing 13 tackles among the two of them, plus the effort of Tulane’s free safety who added an extra 7 tackles to the mix.

For us receivers the results have been less spectacular.
In the game against Tulane I dropped one pass and closed with 5 out of 9 for a total of 66 yards received. My rival teammate Phillips caught 6 passes out of 8 for 62 yards but scored two touchdowns. Lancaster threw two touchdowns to him and one to Scotty Herbert, our tight end, and none to me. To be more precise he threw a TD pass to me too; a 5 yarder that I promptly caught and converted, but on the same play Scotty was given a penalty for interfering with his controller and the play was brought back 15 yards. After an incomplete pass again to Herbert, we had to settle for the field goal. So not only did he screw up my score, but wasn’t even able to catch the subsequent pass in the end zone that Lancaster threw to him. And still he has a TD to his credit in this game.

I don’t want to find excuses for my not very brilliant performance (5 out of 9 with a drop), and I would never say what I am writing here outloud in the locker room, but I feel that if I was given the ball a little bit more often I could contribute much better to the success of the team. On the other hand I have to admit that Ernest played better than me in this game and there is a reason if he is the #1 receiver. On the other hand coach Whitley had me run a couple of reverse plays, so that I am the official third Arizona rusher in the game against Tulane: 12 yards in two attempts.
I guess my point is that I am a little bit frustrated. I thought that in games like those against Tulane I could really shine, instead of having to grind and wait for the rare air offensive play. I guess when they are so few, I feel the pressure of making each of them count, which in turn raises the chance of screwing.
I’m sorry Coach for this whining letter of mine, but you are the only one to whom I dare to whine to, as it would be not dignifying for me to express my discomfort with the team.
Finally I want to tell you that I am already planning winter break in Bloomington and I will see you there with joy.
Yours
Franco



The media are not so critic
The Arizona Daily Star Sport Column
September 19th 1982

Wildcats slow start doesn’t preclude triumph

In the first quarter of the game against Tulane, the Wildcats had to wait 8 minutes to score their first touchdown propitiated by a favorable starting position following a great return by all purpose #1 receiver/returner Ernest Phillips. Starting on the Tulane 39 yard line, it wasn’t difficult for the Wildcats high octane offense to march downfield and administer the first punishment on a Tulane defense, which despite the defeat must be credited with skill, courage and valor, considering the performances of its linebackers corps and especially of its safety Tony Dickinson.

A devastating 20 yards rush by Mr. “Unstoppable” Zack Jones, a couple of short passes by Lancaster and soon the Wildcats were at the opponent’s 3 yard line. A final screen pass to tight end Scotty Herbert and Arizona was on the board. After that, the floodgates got open and the Wildcats proceeded to whip Tulene to a highest point of 33-0.

Between the end of the 3rd quarter and half of the fourth, we dare to say that the Arizona defense relaxed the firm grip it had on the opponent. Tulane scored a touchdown and a field goal. After that there was no more history to the game as Arizona scored another touchdown and returned an interception all the way to the house for another, to finally seal a comfortable victory for 43-10.

We have to mention the stellar performance of Zachary Jones, who rushed for 257 yards at the average of 7,41 on 34 carries, and sits now in 9th position in the top nation rushers with a total of 463 yards in three games.
Devastating display also by John Brown, with 7 tackles, 1 stuff, 2 hurries, 2 interceptions one of which he took all the way back to the house, and 2 passes defended. A Martian performance which puts Brown, a linebacker, on top of the nation for number of interceptions and in the 60th spot for solo tackles; a great showing when you consider that Arizona is not one of the teams whose defense has been on the field the longest.

On the ******ties side of things, Madame. Bad Luck continued to pile up on our defensive line, and during the game we lost defensive end Charles Ortiz who was already substituting for the injured Jeffrey Holt. Coach Smith had to dig deep and deploy Andrew Moreno. With the suspension of star DT Timmy Daniels we can officially say that our defensive line is up in the air.

Finally we need to mention the Arizona air offense, since three of our five TDs came by way of passes by Lancaster who passed for 190 yards on 31 attempts (20 completed) with 3 TDs and zero picks. On the receiving end, “The Italian Air Force” as the fans have nicknamed true freshman flanker Franco Saverio, had 5 successful receptions out of the 9 times he was targeted, for 66 yards and a dropped pass. Split End Ernest Phillips received for less yards (62) but caught 6 out of 8 bullets from Lancaster and two of these he turned into touchdowns. It seems like for now in clutch situations our sophomore quarterback still goes to what he considers to be his more reliable target, but we can say that Saverio is slowly showing that all the Arizona efforts to recruit him were justified. Let’s not forget that coach Smith displayed a gutsy amount of balls in demoting senior flanker Peter Beatty to the slot position in order to give Saverio the opportunity to show what he is worth. This kid made a lot of noise in high school; coach Smith and especially the offensive coordinator Bradley Whitley firmly believe in him.

Next week the team is on the road at Utah Rice-Eccles Stadium for what is considered to be our second difficult fixture of the season. Utah Super Run & Gun offense, led by senior QB Randall Cruz and his elite corps of junior receivers Dennis Dyer, James Otis and Brent Moore, is waiting for nothing else than doing some serious damage to Arizona’s confidence as Utah head coach Chuck Stobart declared today to the press. We shall see.