ROSE BOWL : ARIZONA STATE VS. MICHIGAN : The Rainbow Coalition : Sun Devils’ Strength Is the Offensive Line

If Arizona State called together its offensive football stars from years past, it wouldn’t be a reunion; it would be a convention. Some of the names could light up billboards. All of them lit up scoreboards.

Quarterbacks! Line up here: Danny White, Mark Malone, Mike Pagel, Joe Spagnola, Dennis Sproul.

Running backs! You guys stand behind them: Charley Taylor, John Henry Johnson, Wilford (Whizzer) White, Gerald Riggs, Art Malone, Woody Green, Darryl Clack.

Receivers! Over there: J.D. Hill, John Jefferson, Fair Hooker, Steve Holden, John Mistler.

Offensive linemen!

Offensive linemen?

Except to their families, close friends, Sun Devil fans and some particularly diligent pro scouts, the offensive linemen traditionally have been Arizona State’s unknown soldiers.

Until this season, in 74 years of fielding varsity teams, dating to 1897, the Sun Devils never had one offensive lineman named first-team All-American. They have had only two who were named to the second team.

Since joining the Pacific 10 in 1978, the Sun Devils had only one offensive lineman named first team all-conference before this season.

Considering that Arizona State has an all-time winning percentage of .633 and holds 27 NCAA offensive records, it makes one wonder about the coaches’ axiom that offenses are only as strong as their strongest links, the linemen. At Arizona State, they have been the missing links, at least when it came time to vote for postseason honors.

Not this year.

When Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler, whose Wolverines will play Arizona State in the Rose Bowl Thursday, was asked this week to evaluate the Sun Devils’ assets, he started with “their strength up front on offense.”

Arizona State Coach John Cooper built his offense this year around the line, changing the Sun Devils from a team that passed almost 40% of the time last season to a team that ran 68% of the time this season.

Cynics suggest that Cooper, who has a conservative reputation, put a priority on establishing the running game in his second year as coach, but he has a good reason. “We wanted to take advantage of our offensive line,” he said last week.

The Sun Devils did that, averaging 210.6 yards rushing, second to Arizona in the conference and 20th in the nation.

The best indication of how much credit the offensive line deserves is that it didn’t matter which running back carried for the Sun Devils. They all looked like they should be called Whizzer. Tailback Darryl Harris averaged 4.6 yards. When Harris was replaced in the starting backfield by Paul Day, Day averaged 4.8 yards. Fullback Channing Williams averaged 4.2 yards.

But, for a change, the backs didn’t get all the glory.

The offensive linemen did.

Who said life isn’t fair?

Quick tackle Danny Villa was named first-team All-American by virtually everyone who selects a team. Quick guard Randall McDaniel was named first-team All-American by Kodak. Both were consensus first-team all-conference picks.

Strong tackle Jim Warne was named first-team all-conference by one newspaper and honorable mention by the coaches. Center Kevin Thomas and strong guard Todd Kalis also earned honorable mention among the conference coaches.

One thing they have in common is that they are tall, ranging from the 6-3 Thomas to the 6-7 Warne. The conference’s tallest line is also its third-heaviest. Thomas is the lightest at 260, and Warne weighs 300.

Another thing they have in common is that they weren’t recruited by USC, which, by divine right, or at least by student body right, is supposed to attract all of the top offensive linemen.

“You were USC’s rejects,” Cooper tells his offensive linemen.

But the common denominator that has brought them notoriety is that they are all from Arizona. On a team with 36 Californians, none of the other starting units for the Sun Devils is composed entirely of homeboys.

That is what Sports Illustrated called Arizona State’s offensive linemen, the homeboys.

At Arizona State, they are called the rainbow coalition.

Villa is a Mexican from Nogales, Warne a half-Sioux Indian from Tempe, McDaniel a black from Avondale, Thomas a white from Tucson and Kalis a tennis player from Phoenix.

Let’s meet these guys:

--Villa, of course, is nicknamed Pancho. He’s a senior. If you travel south from his hometown, you’re in Mexico. He’s such a big deal in Nogales that he was the main attraction in a recent parade. There were conflicting reports on whether he rode in the lead car or carried it. He is 6-6, 293. No other Arizona State lineman has ever received so many honors. Certainly, none of them have ever ridden in the Nogales parade.

--McDaniel, a junior, is known as Big Foot because of his size 14-E shoes. He was a third-team tight end in 1984, was switched to quick guard and became a starter after only eight practices. At 6-5, 261, he lines up in the backfield on short-yardage situations. The Sun Devils call it their Foot offense. Not coincidentally, they convert on 53.2% of their third-down plays. The man can run. He was on his high school’s state champion 1,600-meter relay team.

“When’s Randall going to carry the ball?” That’s the question Cooper is asked by reporters more than any other.

“Randall will not carry the ball,” Cooper said last week. “Or let me say that, if he does carry it, it will be on a play we put in between now and the Rose Bowl. I’m not saying we won’t.”

--At 6-7 and 300 pounds, Warne is the biggest Indian to hit the scene since Will Sampson in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Warne, naturally, is called Chief. If you think he’s tough, check out his great grandmother, a full-blooded Sioux Indian who turned 100 in July. Her name: Eliza Kills on Horseback.

His mother, Beverly, also is full-blooded Sioux. She and her son, a senior, are in a race to see who will earn the family’s sixth Arizona State degree. She is completing her thesis for a master’s degree in nursing. He spent 2 1/2 years of his childhood in Thailand, where he rode elephants.

--Even though Villa won the national honors, Thomas, 6-3 and 260, tied with defensive end Skip McClendon in his teammates’ voting for the Sun Devils’ outstanding senior lineman. As the oldest, Thomas, in his fifth year at Arizona State, is the leader of the offensive line. He’s also the only one who’s married. His teammates call him Pops.

--Kalis, a 6-6 junior, is called Hewlett-Packard because he is always asking, “What if?” When Tom Freeman, the offensive line coach, gives his players a new blocking scheme, Kalis asks, “What if this happens?” or “What if that happens?” He just wants to be sure. He was a tennis champion in high school, long before he reached his current weight of 267.

Rose Bowl Notes Continuing the tradition established by the Helms Athletic Foundation, the Amateur Athletic Foundation will present the player-of-the-game award. Last season’s winner was UCLA tailback Eric Ball.