College Football: Babes in Wonderland

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(10 of 10)

Ara Parseghian could hardly have helped being impressed. If he was, he sure didn't let the boys know. Hanratty was competitive with Fellow Sophomore Coley O'Brien for the quarterback's job, and he still had a lot to learn. Endlessly, Terry practiced "quick release": dropping back, spotting Seymour, and firing, all in the space of 3½ sec., the average time it takes a strong defensive lineman to penetrate a passer's protective pocket. When he got his time down to 3½ sec., he began trying for 3 sec. Then Terry practiced varying the speed of his spiral: "When a man is wide open," he explained, "there is no sense barreling it in there. But when the defensive man is close enough to grab the ball, you can't allow for any floaters." He also memorized Seymour's habits, the timing of his cuts and fakes, so perfectly that he could say: "I can almost tell how he's going to go, in what direction, as soon as he decides."

Finally, three days before the Purdue game, Ara Parseghian walked up to Hanratty, tapped him on the shoulder and said: "You're it."

Nothing Complicated. Hanratty reacted just about the way any 18-year-old kid would. "Say," he asked Seymour on the day of the game, "are your hands wet?" Replied Jim, with all the confidence of his more advanced years: "Sure. Aren't yours?" It stands to reason that their palms have stopped perspiring by now; nothing ages a man like success, and practically everything they have tried has worked—so far.

There is nothing particularly complicated about Notre Dame's passing attack; the Irish run a grand total of six pass patterns. It is how they run them that hurts. Hanratty and Seymour killed Purdue with the "shake and go" (see diagram), so it was only natural that Northwestern the next week would do everything it could to keep Jim from getting loose in the deep secondary. So what did Seymour do? He curled out to the sideline on the "X" pattern and swung back on the "fishhook," made do with 15 yds. at a crack instead of one play all the way.

There was nothing wrong with the Army defense on the play that set up Notre Dame's first touchdown; Seymour simply took two defenders up in the air with him, came down with the ball all to himself for a 19-yd. gain. North Carolina's Tar Heels tried a new tack altogether: absolutely blanket Seymour and hang the cost. It got pretty expensive. With Jim keeping three North Carolina defenders busy on one side of the field, the Irish gleefully ran up and down the other side and scored two quick touchdowns. The Tar Heels gave up. They took the two extra men off Jim; on that very play, Hanratty chose to throw the shake to Seymour. Oklahoma may finally have discovered a way to stop Jim temporarily. But a sprained ankle is a sometime thing, and Seymour will be back in a week or so.

It was all easy, all great fun to Terry Hanratty. He could not understand why anybody thought throwing a football—especially to Jim Seymour—so special. When they voted him "Midwest back of the week," he was actually overwhelmed. "Gosh," he said. "I never thought it would turn out like this."

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