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Pastimes : College Football: Nits, Gators, Bruins, Vols - Whoever! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: happynappy who wrote (7440)	1/2/2003 9:07:04 AM
From: happynappy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11146

LJ - classless as a second-string rookie and as a seasoned starter !!! ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Larry Johnson's career at Penn State ended with a complaint. Held to only 72 yards on 20 carries, the Heisman Trophy finalist criticized his team's play calling Wednesday after a 13-9 loss to Auburn in the Capital One Bowl. "They say, 'Make sure you stay in the game plan,' and stuff like that," Johnson said. "But I tried to do as much as I could, or how much they'd let me do. "But you look at it, I don't think any good back can get off 50-, 60-yard runs against a good defense without getting into a rhythm, and I couldn't get a rhythm besides touching it two times and a bunch of TV timeouts. It's hard to get going." Johnson sure didn't impress Auburn. "He can stay up there and be Penn State's savior if he wants," defensive end Reggie Torbor said. "At Auburn, he probably wouldn't play. He'd probably be on defense." Johnson, who ran for a school-record 2,015 yards during the regular season, was kept below 100 for the first time since an Oct. 26 loss to Ohio State. It took Johnson seven carries before he got positive yardage, and his longest run was only 17 yards on the last play of the first half. He had just three plays of 10 yards or more -- the same number he had for negative yardage. "Larry had some problems of his own -- he slipped, he dropped the screen pass," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "I won't second guess what we tried to do. And when I point fingers I point fingers at myself. I just think we knew what we wanted to do, we just didn't do it good enough." But to hear Johnson tell it, the problem was the game plan itself. If he'd have carried the ball more, Penn State might have won. "You get 20 carries against a good defense, there's no way in the world you're going to go over 100," Johnson said. "You pound it and pound it and pound it, and that's the outcome. If we'd have done that, maybe the score would be reversed." This wasn't the first time Johnson had criticized Penn State's play calling. After a shocking 24-6 home loss to Toledo his sophomore year, Johnson blamed Paterno, saying Penn State's offense had become too predictable. "Everybody knows what we're doing," Johnson said at the time. "Sometimes I don't even know what the play is, and I can sit back there and guess the play. The system has been around too long."