When Bill McCartney abruptly resigned three years ago, Colorado handed Rick Neuheisel the Buffalo head coaching job, the college football equivalent of a brand new Porsche.
Bob Simmons, McCartney’s top assistant, got a beatup Pinto and a road map.
Simmons wound up in Backwater–Stillwater–Okla., as head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, who were mired in a seven-game winless streak.
Given the dearth of minorities in major-college head coaching posts, some observers wondered if race had anything to do with Colorado’s decision, a charge university officials heatedly denied.
Neuheisel, who is white, had been in Boulder only one season, while Simmons, who is black, had spent seven years with McCartney. Simmons reportedly had received McCartney’s endorsement.
“You wonder how much time you have to put in,” Simmons said at the time. “But that was their choice and you have to move on.”
Simmons has done that, with style. When Colorado and Oklahoma State meet Saturday in Stillwater, one program finds itself basking in the national spotlight–and it isn’t the one with the lovely campus in the Rockies.
The 5-0 Cowboys have risen to No. 20 in this week’s AP rankings. And they’ve done it despite losing 11 players, including their top returning tackler and rusher, to academic-related suspensions a week before the opener.
Given what happened three years ago, it seems impossible to overstate the importance of this game for the 49-year-old Simmons.
“Rick and I are friends, but it’s not like we get on the phone and call each other,” Simmons said. “When we were on the (CU) staff, we got together and played golf together. But that’s about the extent of our relationship.”
The Cowboys haven’t been ranked since 1988, when a little running back named Barry Sanders whirled through the Great Plains on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy. That was also the last year OSU beat Colorado. It wasn’t considered an upset then, nor should it be if the Cowboys prevail Saturday in Lewis Field.
“They just get better every week,” Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes said. “They’ve done a phenomenal job.”
The 25th-ranked Buffs, meanwhile, are 2-2 after losing at home to Texas A&M.
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“We don’t have to apologize to anybody,” the 36-year-old Neuheisel said. “We’ve had great success here and we’re going to continue to have success here.”
But OSU has had more success this season, in part because it managed to sneak Denver product Tony Lindsay out from under the Buffs’ noses. Simmons, who was still with the Buffs at the time, noticed the fleet-footed quarterback at a CU camp for high schoolers. “Maybe they didn’t think he fit in their system–and we’re glad they didn’t,” Simmons said.
Lindsay splits the job with fellow sophomore Chris Chaloupka. After Lindsay ran for 126 yards and three touchdowns in last week’s rout of Texas, Neuheisel conceded, “We didn’t recruit Tony. Maybe we should have. He’s certainly a gifted player.”
The decision looks even worse given CU quarterback John Hessler’s recent struggles.
But the Cowboys’ advantage goes beyond the quarterbacks. OSU also has probably the best athlete on either team: R.W. McQuarters, a 5-foot-11-inch, 195-pound junior who has started at free safety and wide receiver. He also returned a punt 78 yards for a touchdown.
The Colorado game provides a measuring stick for the Cowboys, whose strongest opponent to date is 2-2 Texas. If Oklahoma State wins Saturday, it could be playing for the Big 12 South title when it takes on No. 15 Texas A&M in College Station Nov. 1.
That’s why Simmons will wait to celebrate his team’s emergence.
“It’s pleasing to our players, but the most important thing to me is at the end of the season,” Simmons said.
A new Leaf: Ryan Leaf isn’t the leading Heisman Trophy candidate. But he’s the most environmentally friendly.
At a time when forests are being felled to produce reams of paper for Heisman publicity campaigns, Washington State came up with a unique way to push Leaf, its star quarterback.
This week about 700 Heisman voters across the country received envelopes from the Cougar football offices in Pullman. Each contained only a single green leaf.
After head coach Mike Price dreamed up the idea, WSU athletics spokesman Rod Commons dispatched a couple of student interns to the school golf course. “Leaves are starting to fall,” Commons said. “It only took them a couple of boxes and a couple of hours.
“We talked about (sending) maple leaves,” Commons said. “But he’s not from Canada.
“We thought it was best to put it in the football envelope, because at least there would be some connection,” Commons said. “Not too many people are going to get this and say, `What is this?’ “
Unless they haven’t heard of Leaf, the latest in a line of fine Cougar quarterbacks. He’s led WSU to a 5-0 record and No. 12 ranking.
Nothin’ could be finer: James Knight, the referee who suffered a heart attack during the North Carolina-Virginia game Sept. 27, is expected to be released from a Chapel Hill hospital this week, Bradley Faircloth, ACC assistant commissioner and coordinator of officials, said Tuesday.
“It’s just a fantastic story,” said Faircloth, who rode in the ambulance with Knight after the 51-year-old was stricken. “I had no idea when that occurred that he would make it.”
Knight’s heart attack evoked memories of Big Ten referee Rich McVay, who suffered a fatal heart attack on the field during a 1982 Michigan State-Illinois game in Champaign.
Reach out and touch someone: Notre Dame played Michigan the week after Baylor played Michigan. But Fighting Irish coach Bob Davie didn’t call Bears coach Dave Roberts, his former staffmate at Notre Dame, for tips on the Wolverines.
“He’s got his hands full,” Roberts said. “I’ve got our hands full. I know they’re struggling a little bit, but he’ll get it worked out.”
Fourth and inches: Ron Vanderlinden is an optimist, but when he left Evanston for Maryland last winter, did he think his Terrapins would have as many wins as Northwestern in midseason? Both have two. . . . Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee, who leaves for Brown in a few months, dropped into the packed media interview room Saturday at Ohio Stadium. “Are you going to miss this at Brown?” a reporter asked. Gee, a huge football fan, retorted, “I want you to know that the Brown Bears are 3-0 after beating Fordham.”. . .
For the first time in 28 years, neither Oklahoma nor Texas is ranked as they shoot it out Saturday in Dallas. “Maybe it will be a better game,” said coach John Mackovic, under fire again from Longhorn fans. . . . It takes some work to find the local Division I-A teams in this week’s Sagarin Football Ratings. Northwestern comes in at No. 72, below Vanderbilt. Illinois is No. 97, below Division I-AA McNeese State. But that’s still way ahead of Northern Illinois, which is 152nd, below Furman.