ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 13, 1996 TAG: 9612130039
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
MOUNT UNION has the stats to support its claim as being college football's ``Team of the '90s.''
There are few places more densely populated than the home sideline of a Mount Union football game. When the Purple Raiders opened the season, they had 172 players dressed out, pretty normal for them. When the regular season ended on Nov.16, there were still 160 players dressed.
Mount Union coach Larry Kehres likes having this array of talent so much that he holds three practices a day at the Alliance, Ohio, school. Not only does it allow players to schedule practice time around their classes, he wants every player to get an equal opportunity to go through the drills.
``You have to be sure to get the team out 15 minutes early to get them on the sideline,'' said Joe Tait, the Cleveland Cavaliers television announcer who has been doing Mount Union games for the past 12 years.
It's only natural that the Purple Raiders bench area would be crowded. Everybody wants to be part of a winner.
The Purple Raiders bill themselves as the ``Team of the '90s,'' and it's hard to argue with that claim. Mount Union owns the best winning percentage in all divisions of college football (.924) with a 79-6-1 record this decade. It has lost two regular-season games in the past six years. No program has won more games since 1990.
It also is hard to argue with people who say the road to the national championship goes through Alliance. In every one of their seven previous postseason appearances, the Purple Raiders have either won the national title or lost to the eventual champion.
``Good players,'' said Kehres. ``That's the key.''
Kehres and his coaches do not go into high schools or homes to recruit. They can talk to prospects by telephone or invite them to the Mount Union campus for a game. Not exactly an aggressive recruiting strategy.
But in talent-rich Northeast Ohio, the Purple Raiders have what it takes. ``Once you get a winning program started, people gravitate to it,'' said Tait.
Bill Borchert gravitated to Mount Union after seeing the Purple Raiders' previous quarterback, Jim Ballard, win big. Ballard, who has been called ``a Division I kid who wanted to play Division III,'' led his team to the 1993 Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl championship and in the same week won the Gagliardi Trophy as the top football player in Division III.
Borchert is now a junior getting ready to play in his first Stagg Bowl. He has completed 66.7 percent of his passes this season for 3,530 yards and 48 touchdowns. He has more than capably upheld a Purple Raiders touchdown passing streak that now stands at 72 games. And he hears the whispers of ``Ballard'' everywhere he goes.
``There have been a lot of people doing that over the years,'' Borchert said. ``I guess it's going to happen.''
As good as he is, people say Borchert is a Division III quarterback playing Division III. He's not a Division I talent like Ballard. Sometimes, like when he does his team's laundry, Borchert even plays the part of a scaled-down star. But he doesn't do the laundry to fit the cute little mold that so many in college sports see as Division III's place. He does it as part of a work study program that helps when the $18,000 tuition bill comes along each year.
Borchert doesn't believe his success is primarily drawn out of a desire to uphold a quarterback tradition. He thinks it's come from the instruction he's received from Kehres and Purple Raiders defensive coordinator Don Montgomery.
Under Kehres, Mount Union has run a program that is Division III in name only. They have video equipment that rivals any Division I school. They may be the only Division III school with a recruiting/promotional video. It's named, of course, ``Mount Union - Team of the '90s.''
How big time is the Mount Union team? When it flew to Madison, Wis., last week for a semifinal matchup against Wisconsin-La Crosse, it took the St.Louis Rams' team plane. After dropping off the Purple Raiders, it picked up the Nebraska Cornhuskers and carted them to the Big 12 championship game.
And if the team didn't have it good enough already, the pilot, Pete Gligor, is a 1962 Mount Union graduate.
``They do have a Division I mentality in terms of organization and preparing a gameplan,'' Tait said. ``But at the same time, Larry never cuts a guy.''
That's great for the program, fans and parents. It's not so great for Tait.
``It gets difficult,'' he said, ``when you have a third number `86' come on the field.''
NOTE: The ``Before the Bowl Block Party,'' a bonfire and fireworks celebration, will be from 5-9 tonight at Salem Stadium. Admission is free.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY Staff. Mount Union quarterback Bill Borchertby CNB(7) and coach Larry Kehres discuss strategy during a Thursday
practice at Salem High School. Borchert has thrown for 3,530 yards
and 48 touchdowns for the 13-0 Purple Raiders.