Luckhardt will sit this game out

California University's football team will be missing a key component for its playoff game Saturday against Winston-Salem State.

Head coach John Luckhardt will miss the game because of a kidney stone and an accompanying infection. Luckhardt is receiving treatment for the two ailments and is expected to return to the sidelines if the Vulcans are playing next week.

Mike Kellar, the Vulcans' offensive coordinator, will run the offense and Mike Conway, the defensive coordinator, will handle the defense.

"I guess coach is putting us to the test," said Kellar, who was head football coach at Concord last season. "We're holding out a slight chance that he might be able to go. But it's 99 percent that he won't."

Kellar said Luckhardt has been battling this condition for a couple weeks. He came down with a fever Monday, so the coaching staff was preparing the week's work with the expectation Luckhardt would not be there.

"It didn't look good for him to go," Kellar said. "He's going to be fine. The problem has been that he has a kidney stone and they can't treat it because he's had this infection. And they can't treat the infection until they get rid of the kidney stone."

Luckhardt considered not traveling with the team in the PSAC crossover game against Cheyney but changed his mind and was on the sidelines for the Vulcans' 43-3 victory.

Luckhardt was on the sidelines again for last week's 44-0 victory over Elizabeth City State in the first round of the NCAA Division II playoffs. But he passed on attending the postgame news conference, sending Kellar and Conway in his place.

Cal, now 10-2, takes on the region's top-seed Winston-Salem State (10-0).

"We know John's philosophy," Kellar said. "It will be different, a new dynamic. I think the kids are going to be fine. The last couple of weeks, coach has been in and out with this. We gave them the heads-up this week, and they know it's not life-threatening."

Thomas Mayo, who leads Cal with 73 receptions for 1,230 yards and 16 touchdowns, said Luckhardt's absence will be a motivating factor.

"We want to win this game for him," said Mayo, who played on Kellar's team at Concord last year. "Things are not going to change much. We've got to play the game. We have a little more motivation now."

Among Luckhardt's many coaching milestones is that he is the all-time leader in victories at two colleges in the same county. He had a  record in 16 seasons at Washington & Jefferson College, His record at California is 88-32 in 10 seasons.

The game, which kicks off at 1 p.m., won't be televised but the live stats can be found on Cal's Web page. WJPA will broadcast the game.

"I'll hate that he's not going to be there," said Kellar. "It's something we have to go through."