Irish find Belles appealing as QB in intrasquad game

SOUTH BEND, Ind. After Tony Rice's Blue team lost to KentGraham's Gold team 27-9, Lou Holtz wouldn't get down on either of hisyoung quarterbacks.

But if you had to pick an Irish quarterback based on Saturday'sspring intrasquad game, it would be oft-forgotten senior-to-be SteveBelles (3-of-8, 33 yards), who led the Gold team to a pair ofsustained scoring drives and shared offensive most valuable playerhonors with Ricky Watters, who scored two touchdowns.

Gold strong safety George Streeter, from Julian, was nameddefensive MVP. Streeter blocked a punt and recovered two fumbles inan error-filled afternoon.

"Steve Belles has moved the team well at times," Holtz said."But he will be the first one to tell you he draws a blank sometimes.His problem has been to eliminate the bad play."

Saturday, though, the bad play belonged to Rice (6-of-19, 133)and Graham (2-of-7, 55), who each threw a pair of interceptions.While Belles had no turnovers, Rice also lost a fumble seven yardsfrom the end zone and Graham slipped in his own end zone for asafety.

Graham threw the only two TD passes of the day. One was anine-yarder to Watters. But the other was a 22-yard interception byGreg Davis for the Blue team's touchdown.

"Kent had an inconsistent spring," Holtz said. "Somethingalways happens when he's in there. Consequently, it's been verydifficult for him to show the talents and abilities he has."

None of the three had great passing numbers, partly because ofa wind that gusted to 30 m.p.h. and partly because the defense is wayahead of the offense.

"I felt Tony Rice threw the ball very well, particularly when hebecame acclimated to the wind," Holtz said. "I thought he had sevenor eight passes dropped." However, defenders also dropped at leastthree or four more interceptions.

Although Rice did show a fine arm at times, particularly on a58-yard completion that traveled about 70 yards in the air to SteveAlaniz, he fumbled three plays later.

On a brighter note for the 15,699 Irish fans who shrugged off ablue-gray November-in-April sky: The young offensive linemen looked strong, particularly on the Goldsquad. "That line had four players who might end up being starters,"Holtz said of the unit, which included tackles Peter Rausch and JoeAllen, guards Winston Sandri and Tim Grunhard and center Mike Heldt.

Considering that Blue squad tackles Dean Brown and Andy Heck andguard Jeff Pearson all are more likely to be starters if Holtz had topick one line today, his blocking problems don't seem serious. Watters, completing his first full week of workouts at flanker,added a three-yard run from tailback to his nine-yard scoring catch.

The TD was Watters' only reception. He rushed four times for 19yards and returned two punts for 39 yards.

Tailbacks Mark Green (13 rushes for 70 yards) and Tony Brooks(17 for 69) have joined with Watters to give Holtz a pleasant problemin replacing Tim Brown at flanker.

"It wouldn't be fair to compare him to Tim Brown," Holtz said ofWatters. "But he does do some things awfully well there."