He’ll Lose, But Won’t Whine
Consummate sportsman that he is, coach Gene McDowell, whose Division I-AA Central Florida team faces No. 1-ranked Florida State at Tallahassee on Saturday, has issued a pregame promise:
“Let me say that we’re definitely not going to run the score up on them,” said McDowell before breaking into a giggle.
He knows Florida State is going to bury Central Florida the same way the Seminoles beat North Carolina State by 60 points last week and Duke by 44 points the game before that. The difference is, he doesn’t whine about it.
“I don’t believe we’re going to get dominated any worse than any of the other teams FSU has played already. But if we do, it won’t be their fault. It will be ours,” said McDowell, a former Seminole star who was the school’s first football All-American and spent 10 years on coach Bobby Bowden’s Florida State staff.
“I don’t agree that the head coach of a dominant team should have a burning desire to keep the score down. Coaches who complain, they know ahead of time how good these teams will be. If they have a problem with that, then they shouldn’t schedule them.”
Short memory?
OK, so Florida State, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Florida, USC, Penn State, Colorado, Virginia, Georgia and Notre Dame - 10 of the top 25 teams - won by an average of 37.6 points Saturday. This is news? This is why Michigan interim coach Lloyd Carr angrily said in a postgame news conference that he is “sick of guys who run the score up,” and that it’s “an indictment of our profession. … I think it’s sickening?”
Nothing against Carr, who wasn’t the acting head coach at the time, but Michigan beat Houston, 61-7, in 1992 and Minnesota, 58-7, in 1993 and nobody seemed too outraged in Ann Arbor.
It’s Lou’s win
Lou Holtz didn’t coach last Saturday’s blowout victory over Vanderbilt. You know it. Holtz knows it. Touchdown Jesus knows it.
Thing is, the record books don’t know it. And never will.
Despite his absence because of disk surgery, Notre Dame officials have decided that Holtz, not interim Coach Bob Davie, will be credited with Irish victories this season. That means Holtz got the 201st victory of his career by watching TV at home.
This isn’t the first time this has happened at Notre Dame. Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy missed games as Irish coaches but had the victories added to their totals.
And, in something of a Notre Dame medical tradition, both Rockne, who suffered from phlebitis, and Leahy, who had pancreas problems, were treated at the Mayo Clinic, where Holtz underwent his operation last week.
Tacky turf gone
New grass field, old Missouri Tigers. Missouri is 1-2, but at least coach Larry Smith’s team no longer plays on the worst field in college football - that dreadful artificial Omniturf at Faurot Field (since replaced by actual grass).
Said Smith of the old stuff: “It was like a Brillo pad stretched over pavement on a parking lot.”
Crimson Tide testy
Tempers are getting testy at Alabama, where NCAA probation, too many close games and now a 20-19 defeat by Arkansas has exposed some Crimson Tide nerves. Quarterback Brian Burgdorf was booed two weeks ago (and Alabama won), which is nothing compared to the grumbling done by Tide players after Arkansas pulled off the upset. Offensive tackle Joel Holliday said Alabama’s attack, which has gone from 33 points in the season opener to 24 to 19, is “very predictable.” Even Burgdorf popped off, telling reporters, “It’s really hard on the passing game when you wait until it’s third down to throw the ball.”Murderer’s Row of opponents, it wasn’t, but Kansas is 3-0 after beating Cincinnati, North Texas and Texas Christian in 12 days.
Advertising pays off
Penn State safety Jeff Davis hired a plane for $200 and had it circle Beaver Stadium with a message during the third quarter of last week’s game against Temple. “Heather H., Will You Marry Me? No. 42.” After the game, Heather Hamberger said yes and Davis slipped an engagement ring on her finger.
From goat to hero
Jamie Howard, who had three interceptions returned for fourth-quarter TDs in last season’s heart-breaking loss to Auburn, was carried off the field by his LSU teammates after Saturday’s upset of the then-No. 5 Tigers. So affected was Howard by the 1994 loss to Auburn - and the six interceptions he threw that day - that he considered quitting the team. Instead, he returned this season and, by special request of LSU captain Sheddrick Wilson, was named co-captain for the Auburn game.