Matadors Get a New Challenge : Northridge: Success might be a little too much to ask from a program that almost went out of business after last season.

The relative excitement around Cal State Northridge football these days isn’t so much because the team is that good. It’s because there is a team at all.

Had students not voted to support a referendum for a fee increase in the spring, Northridge’s football program might not exist today. Instead, the Division I-AA Matadors and first-year Coach Dave Baldwin are preparing for their opener, Sept. 9 against Menlo College.

And the program may be about to join the Big Sky Conference, which would mean the number of football scholarships at the school would more than double in a few years.

Big Sky officials, who were optimistic about Northridge’s acceptance during a visit to the campus earlier this month, held a conference call to discuss the expansion on Tuesday and continued speaking optimistically of CSUN.

“It’s a tremendous boost for Northridge football,” Baldwin said. “[The Big Sky] is the premier I-AA conference in the country.”

But even if Northridge is accepted, the Matadors won’t be a part of the Big Sky until the fall of 1997, and the immediate concern for Baldwin is rebuilding a team that was 3-7 last year and finished last in the four-team American West Conference.

Although conference coaches picked Northridge to finish last again, this season could still be more serene than 1994, if not more successful.

Besides poor play last year, the Northridge season was racked by controversy. There were player boycotts, attempted-murder charges filed against defensive lineman Jonathan Beauregard and a failed athletic referendum during the season.

So it’s probably not such a bad thing that only 30 players--and five full-time starters--return from last year’s fiasco.

Baldwin brought in 50 new players and the exuberance of a coach running a four-year program for the first time. He has also installed a complicated pass-oriented offense that is unlike anything Northridge players had seen under former coach Bob Burt.

Quarterback Clayton Millis, a 6-foot-5, 216-pound senior who started three games two seasons ago, will be the man on whom Baldwin hangs the Matadors’ hopes.

Millis will have plenty of receivers to choose from in Baldwin’s offense. The best are senior David Romines, who caught 44 passes for 870 yards last season but who has an injured shoulder and might redshirt; and senior Chris Love, a transfer from Washington State.

Baldwin didn’t initially figure to call too many running plays, but he has been impressed by the play of his fullbacks, seniors Darren Walton and Tom Merrill and junior Chad Marsalek.

The all-new offensive line is a big question mark. Northridge quarterbacks were sacked four times in Saturday’s scrimmage.

On defense, the Matadors’ only returning starters are junior safety James Woods, Northridge’s second-leading tackler last year, and senior safety Jim Rose.

Baldwin is excited about the defensive line of seniors Virgil Nelson and Anthony Fernandez, junior Seepoleto Imo and sophomore Larry Urzua.

Perhaps the most accomplished player on Northridge’s roster is all-conference senior Matt Ornelaz, the Matadors’ kicker for the third consecutive season.