Someone has to win the Pac-10.
Why not Stanford?
Granted, the Cardinal doesn’t have a resume that shouts “major conference champion.” It was annihilated by 52 points by Texas and then lost to mighty San Jose State, which lost to TCU 42-0 the following week. Heck, Stanford is ranked in only one of the two major polls, thanks to a three-vote landslide over Utah, which is tops among “others receiving votes.”
But the Cardinal is a perfect 5-0 in the highly imperfect Pac-10 and that counts for something.
A Stanford victory Saturday at Washington, coupled with an Arizona State loss at Oregon, would clinch at least a share of the conference title for the Cardinal. Stanford hasn’t been to the Rose Bowl since 1971. It has split the title once since then, with Washington in 1992.
“We have a special team,” Stanford receiver Troy Walters told Bay Area reporters after a 35-31 comeback victory over Southern Cal last weekend in Los Angeles, “And this is a special season.”
Walters didn’t define “special.” Ask preseason Pac-10 favorites Arizona and UCLA how special it has been. They are a combined 3-6 in the conference and 8-8 overall.
The Wildcats opened the year at No. 4, but Penn State drubbed them 41-7 in the Pigskin Classic. Arizona seemed to have regained its equilibrium by winning five of its next six games before losing to Oregon 44-41 last weekend in Tucson. The Wildcats’ bid to force overtime failed when Mark McDonald’s 45-yard field goal with 2 seconds left sailed wide left. The Arizona Stadium crowd jeered the kick team as it took the field.
“It’s hard to go out there when 50,000 people are booing,” Wildcat quarterback Keith Smith said.
As bad as Arizona has been, it is the picture of success next to UCLA, which is on the verge of going from the Rose Bowl to no bowl, no minor feat in this era of expanded postseason opportunities.
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Last Dec. 5, the Bruins took the field at Miami’s Orange Bowl needing a victory to stay in the chase for the national title. The Bruins fell to Miami, lost to Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and haven’t been the same since Cade McNown traded his Westwood parking privileges for a Bears jersey.
UCLA dropped into the Pac-10 basement Saturday with a 55-7 loss to Oregon State in Corvallis. It was UCLA’s most lopsided defeat in 69 years, dating to a 52-0 loss to USC on Sept. 27, 1930. In 1930, USC was in the midst of a six-year run in which it claimed five national titles. This year, Oregon State is hoping to claim five victories.
“It’s embarrassing,” flanker Freddie Mitchell said. “I don’t even want to fly back to L.A. I just want to stay here and chill. But you have to take it like a man. You have to take your butt-kicking like a man.”
Asked what word he would use to describe the defeat, defensive tackle Pete Holland said: “The whole thesaurus. Whatever word you know. Embarrassed. Demoralized. And confused.”
But definitely not special.
The eyes of Texas: Having lost Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams, Texas figured to be down this year and maybe next. The Longhorns lost seven starters on offense, and when they dropped home games to North Carolina State and Kansas State, it looked as if it might be a long autumn in Austin.
But a 24-20 victory over Nebraska has thrust the Longhorns into a tie with Texas Tech for first place in the Big 12’s South Division. Coach Mack Brown, hailed as the savior in Austin, isn’t overconfident.
“We’re still young enough that if we don’t play well, we can make enough mistakes to lose to anybody,” he said.
Anybody but Nebraska, it seems. The Longhorns have swept the schools’ three Big 12 meetings. They aren’t scheduled to play again until 2002 but could have a rematch in the Big 12 title game Dec. 4 in St. Louis.
Dawg pound: Florida and Tennessee each have lost a game, but they’re still ranked ahead of the Southeastern Conference’s lone unbeaten team, Mississippi State.
The Bulldogs are 7-0 overall and 4-0 in the SEC for the first time in school history. They have done it against a soft non-conference schedule–Middle Tennessee State, Memphis and Oklahoma State–and a forgiving conference schedule in which they don’t play Florida, Tennessee or Georgia in the regular season, although they could meet one of them in the SEC championship.
The Bulldogs have won games by one, two and three points. They find ways to survive and aren’t always sure how. Fullback Rod Gibson couldn’t remember crossing the goal line on fourth-and-1 with 1 minute 39 seconds left to beat Louisiana State 17-16 Saturday in Starkville. He was woozy after two Tigers leveled him on a 5-yard screen pass to the 1 on the previous play.
“All I know was I was in the end zone when I got up,” Gibson said. “I can’t take you through it because I don’t remember it.”
Wedding bells: Mt. Union center Tom Bauer gave new definition to “injured reserve.” Bauer, a senior center, is engaged to Mt. Union athletic trainer Meghan Fries, whom he met when he was an oft-injured freshman.
“I kept getting hurt, so I had to go in and see her a lot,” Bauer said.
A March 4 wedding is planned.
A wedding band will add nicely to Bauer’s ring collection. He already owns three Division III national championships and hopes to add a fourth this autumn. Mt. Union didn’t have a letdown after winning an NCAA-record 48th consecutive game Oct. 16. The Purple Raiders wiped out Marietta 56-21 for their 49th straight last weekend.
Kelly and Kelly: For the first half of this season, Miami quarterback Kenny Kelly had little beyond a surname with Hurricane alumnus Jim Kelly. Kenny Kelly, who is not related to Jim, had been taking a pounding from media and fans after losses to East Carolina, Penn State and Florida State.
That’s why it was so sweet for the sophomore to rally the Hurricanes from a 28-0 deficit to a 31-28 victory at Boston College last weekend. It was the sort of comeback that had to make Jim Kelly proud. The biggest play of the day came when Kelly found Reggie Wayne for a 22-yard gain on fourth-and-17 from the BC 35-yard line with 14 seconds to play. Wayne scampered out of bounds and set up Andy Crosland’s game-winning 30-yard field goal with 3 seconds to play.
“There is absolutely no question that it has not been easy for Kenny to come in in his first year as a starter and start off against some of the nation’s best defenses,” Miami coach Butch Davis said. “It’s not like guys around the country who get to break in against a bunch of I-AA teams and poor Division I-A teams.”
Run it up the . . . Lou Holtz won’t allow his South Carolina team to be drawn into a battle over whether the Confederate flag should fly above the State House, just a few blocks from campus in Columbia. State NAACP President James Gallman criticized Holtz and told The (Columbia) State, “Athletes who would stop (the team’s) losing streak won’t come to South Carolina.”
Holtz refused to touch the controversial subject this week.
“I’m a football coach,” Holtz said. “I will not use our team to promote any cause. We play football. The last thing this team needs right now is a controversy.”
Fourth and inches: Maryland is one victory away from qualifying for its first bowl berth since 1990. The 5-2 Terrapins have won as many games in two months as they did in the first two years under Ron Vanderlinden, architect of the defenses that carried Northwestern to consecutive Big Ten titles. Maryland smashed North Carolina 45-7 last weekend in a game that pitted programs headed in opposite directions in the Atlantic Coast Conference. “Carolina was 11-1 two years ago,” Vanderlinden said. “For us to turn this thing around as quickly as we have, I feel very good about that.” The loss assured the Tar Heels (1-6) of their first losing season since 1989. The question is whether the fall is fast enough to cost Carl Torbush his job.
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