Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510310041
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Rusty LaRue has passed, shot and thrown his share of objects during the last four seasons as a three-sport athlete at Wake Forest.
He has been a solid, if not blue-collar player for the Demon Deacons in football, basketball and baseball.
That was until Saturday, when LaRue put on a spectacular passing show, placing his name in the NCAA record books by completing 55 of 78 passes for 478 yards in a 42-26 loss to Duke.
``We threw a lot in high school, but never quite that many. The pitch count was getting pretty high,'' said LaRue, using his background as a baseball pitcher to draw a parallel. ``They were going to have to bring in a reliever pretty soon. But I had a good time out there trying to bring us back.''
Once trailing 35-0, coach Jim Caldwell went to the no-huddle, two-minute offense with a lot less than two minutes left. Actually, there was about 27 minutes remaining when he turned LaRue loose with a variety of passes against a Duke defense that had decided to play a form of prevent.
What resulted was a second half in which LaRue was 41-of-56 for 351 yards with four touchdowns as he rallied the Demon Deacons to as close as 35-20 with 12 minutes left.
``It gives me a lot of time at the line to see what's going on,'' LaRue said of the no-huddle offense. ``We had to do that because we were down so much. At times during the year we planned to go to that more than we have.
Caldwell said the plan wasn't to pass nearly that much, but to try to establish a running game against one of the nation's worst defenses against the run.
But after Wake Forest's ground game produced only 15 yards in the first half, Caldwell reluctantly turned to LaRue.
``I like to pass the ball, but I'm not a pass-happy guy,'' Caldwell said. ``I think football is a game of toughness. At some point there is a team that has to say ouch. You can get pass-happy all day long and you really don't do any damage and you don't hurt their morale, you don't hurt their spirit to fight and their will to fight. That does disturb me a little bit.''
Despite the record-setting day, LaRue felt he let down his team with three interceptions - one of which was returned 40 yards for a score after the deficit had been cut to 15.
LaRue, a reserve guard on the Wake Forest basketball team, broke the major-college completion records of 48 in a game and 32 in a half, both set by Houston's David Klingler against SMU in 1990. His attempts fell one shy of the NCAA mark of 79 by TCU's Matt Vogler against Houston in 1990.
LaRue also broke the ACC marks for completions (43) and attempts (73) and school records, plus total plays (82) and total offense (464).
by CNB