Texas coach Mack Brown sounded as if he were ready to hum a few bars of “Go, U Northwestern.”
By knocking off No. 7 Wisconsin in Madison last weekend, the plucky Wildcats handed Brown an inspiring lesson.
“I just talked to our team about Northwestern beating Wisconsin,” Brown said. “Northwestern lost big to TCU [41-14] and a week later they go into Madison and beat Wisconsin. You’d better play with some emotion every week or you’re going to get beat.”
Brown is hoping his 13th-ranked Longhorns won’t have a letdown Saturday against Oklahoma State, which was drubbed last week by Southern Mississippi. But the Longhorns ought to know better. One week after Stanford lost to San Jose State, the Cardinal bounced back and knocked the Longhorns out of the Top 10.
It has been that kind of dizzying month across the nation. Just when you think you have this game figured out, Temple wins back-to-back games for the first time in a decade. The Owls (3-1) are halfway to bowl eligibility while their longtime tormentor, Penn State (1-4), has to go 6-1 to scratch out an invitation to the prestigious Micronpc.com Bowl.
“A lot of crazy things, at least crazy to the outside people, are happening,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “That’s the great thing about college football.”
A month ago, South Carolina-Alabama figured to match a ranked unbeaten against a bumbling sub-.500 outfit. But who would have guessed Lou Holtz’s Gamecocks would be 4-0 and ranked 23rd and the Crimson Tide would be 1-3 when they meet Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Ala.?
Speaking of Alabama, it has as many Southeastern Conference victories as Alabama-Birmingham (one apiece, and the Blazers’ came on the road).
“This year has been a funny year,” Texas Tech coach Mike Leach said. “Everybody has to be ready for everybody. Anybody can beat anybody.”
With every surprise, the college game provides a fresh alternative to the crushing boredom of pro football, especially as the Chicago franchise plays it.
Or perhaps you weren’t surprised when UCLA rushed for minus-9 yards in a loss to Oregon after amassing more than 200 yards in a victory over Alabama, or when Rutgers beat Buffalo 59-0 and lost to Virginia Tech 49-0 the next week.
It’s widely accepted the NCAA’s 85-scholarship limitations and tougher academic standards have made almost any upset possible. But September games often produce big surprises because they pit teams that aren’t familiar with each other’s schemes and personnel.
“It makes you go crazy,” Brown said. “Fans don’t like to hear the word parity because it sounds like coaches are just covering their butts.”
Indeed, not all coaches toe the parity line. Said Oklahoma State’s Bob Simmons: “We talk about having parity with 85 scholarships, but at the same time you look at Nebraska and Florida State [and] there doesn’t seem to be a lot of parity there.”
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Still, the first month has not been a waltz for the No. 1 Cornhuskers and the second-rated Seminoles. Nebraska survived a 27-24 overtime thriller Sept. 9 at Notre Dame. That night, the Seminoles trailed Georgia Tech in the fourth quarter before rallying for a 26-21 win.
Given the results of the season’s first month, it may be a bigger surprise if the Cornhuskers and Seminoles safely navigate the regular season than if one or both loses a game along the way.
“I think we’re going to see that undefeated teams are going to be really rare for the rest of our lifetime because of the emotions and the injuries,” Brown said.
Ball State-ment: Ball State is one place that, for the moment, appears to be a parity-free zone. As the Cardinals prepare for their Mid-American Conference opener against Northern Illinois this weekend, they are searching for ways to end the nation’s longest losing streak, which stretched to 20 games in a 76-0 rout Sept. 16 at Kansas State.
The Cardinals are more than a year away from mounting a serious challenge to Northwestern’s Division I-A record 34-game losing streak. Does it help that Northern Illinois was the victim when the Wildcats broke their slide 18 years ago Monday?
It’s hard to make a fair assessment of the Cardinals after three games. They lost their opener at No. 3 Florida 40-19 and fell to Division I-AA Western Illinois 24-14 before being annihilated at fifth-ranked K-State.
“We try to say, `We’re 0-3, this is a brand-new season, a brand-new team,'” coach Bill Lynch said Tuesday. “Let’s be realistic. We played two of the top five teams in places where very few people go in and win.”
Lynch said the blowout in Manhattan, Kan., hasn’t crushed the Cardinals’ confidence.
“I like the makeup of the team,” Lynch said. “We have guys who are resilient.”
Tough calls: The Big Ten admitted its officials blew a couple of critical fumble calls in Michigan’s victory at Illinois. Arkansas got away with 12 men on the field against Alabama. And Florida pulled out a victory at Tennessee on a questionable touchdown catch.
With all the focus on the men in striped shirts, it should come as no surprise that next week marks the 10th anniversary of Colorado’s fabled Fifth Down victory over Missouri.
The recent rash of controversial calls, and non-calls, have revived the debate over whether Division I-A should adopt the NFL’s instant replay system.
“I think it’s certainly worth discussing,” Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. “You’re going to get some bad calls, and you hate to see a bunch of kids who have played so hard lose a game because the officials blew a call, not that they do it on purpose. Anything that would kind of make that less likely to happen, maybe replay is the answer.”
Added Texas’ Brown: “There’s too much pressure on coaches and kids. There’s too much at stake. There’s too much pressure on officials not to make sure the call was right. I think that it would help the officials.”
But Ohio State’s John Cooper and Michigan’s Lloyd Carr are among those opposed to the concept. Cooper said the cost would be prohibitive in an era when many Division I-A athletic departments lose money. Carr said games already take too long.
“You’re going to have calls that go for you and calls that go against you,” Cooper said. “That’s part of college football. Officials are just like coaches and players. Most of the time they’re right, but they make mistakes.”
Fourth and inches: Colorado, which has lost to three ranked teams by a combined 10 points, plays host to No. 5 Kansas State this week. But there’s good news for the Buffaloes: they are the only Division I-A team that hasn’t thrown an interception. . . . Having eliminated UCLA from the ranks of the unbeaten, Oregon looks to repeat the feat this weekend against No. 6 Washington, which visits Autzen Stadium. It’s a huge game in what has evolved into the Pac-10’s feistiest rivalry, laden with class implications. Husky fans regard Oregon followers as rubes from the backwoods, while Duck fans mock Washington supporters as cappuccino-swilling snobs. . . . Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops invited former Sooner Brian Bosworth into the dressing room before the Rice game last weekend. But Stoops went out of his way to tell reporters on the Big 12 coaches conference call that the Boz wasn’t asked to address the team. “It isn’t like we brought him in to fire up the team,” Stoops said. “That wasn’t the case. We certainly have got great tradition and have had lots of great players over the years . . . when they are in attendance, I want our players to have the opportunity to hear from them.” . . . Mack Brown telephoned his brother, UAB head coach Watson Brown, to congratulate him on UAB’s 13-10 upset at LSU Saturday night. “Mom had a good night,” Mack Brown said.