Taylor recovery key to NIU hopes

DEKALB Jerry Pettibone puts the football hopes and fears ofNorthern Illinois in two sentences:

"We were really encouraged by what he was able to do thisspring, and our orthopedic people say he should be 100 percent byfall. But we won't know for sure how the ankle will hold up untilthen."

The worrisome ankle is attached to the Huskies' Marshall Taylor,one of the nation's best wishbone quarterbacks when he was run downin the final five minutes of the season last November at UNLV andsuffered fractures of both bones in his right leg.

An artful dodger from Detroit measuring 5-9 and 182, Taylor isfifth with 4,884 total offense yards among returning Division Ibacks.

"The Wishbone Wizard," says Pettibone. "Marshall knows moretricks than David Copperfield."

But Pettibone, a coaching realist, did not indulge himself inillusions as Taylor moved only with care this spring on the ankleheld together by a metal plate, a pin and a screw.

Taylor worked diligently at his passing and the timing of thepitches and tosses to his ball-carriers with no pads, no contact andwithout risking his ankle with sharp cuts. Coach and quarterbackboth feel it will be different by the end of a summer's toil.

"The rehabilitation will go well because he is very motivatedand working hard to do everything it takes to get back," saysPettibone.

Taylor, who will be a fifth-year senior, figures he is runningat "three-fourths speed. . . .ahead of where the doctors expected meto be."

He prowled the sidelines for Saturday's spring game. "It kind ofmakes me jealous when I see other quarterbacks out there running fortouchdowns and getting the job done," he says. "But everything isgoing to be fine in time."

Watched more intently by Pettibone were James Darby and KevinBarry, the quarterbacks he hopes were learning his complicatedwishbone offense as backups behind a healthy Taylor.

Barry was a walk-on freshman from Marist who practiced butdidn't play last year behind Taylor and Pete Genatempo. Darby wasimported from Cisco (Texas) Junior College after Taylor was injured.

Stacey Robinson, recruited from Downstate Danville as Taylor'swishbone heir, is almost certainly out of it for next fall. He hasbeen in school since last September but banned from practice for ayear as a Proposition 48 academic non-qualifier.

Darby and Barry went from frustration to understanding the jobby the later stages of spring exercises, Pettibone says.

Gaps in the middle of the offensive line have been filled byEric Wenckowski of Franklin Park at center and Joe Gucwa of St. Ritaand Bob Montel of Mishawaka, Ind., at guard.

One four-year guard starter, Todd Peete, moved on to the St.Louis/Phoenix Cardinals following the 1986 season, and another, TedKaramanos, was honorable mention All-America in 1987 and expects wordfrom today's NFL draft.

There was progress in the Huskies' rise to 5-5-1 last autumn."We lined up every game with an opportunity to win," Pettibone says."In the past I didn't feel that way.

"We tied Northwestern, and they turned around and beat Wisconsinand Illinois, so we've brought our program to the level we cancompete with some of Big Ten teams."