Buffalo Stampede In Store For Neuheisel

It took a pack of state troopers to protect Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville in his return to Ole Miss Saturday.

It might take a Teflon sweater vest for Washington coach Rick Neuheisel to make it through this Saturday at Colorado.

No doubt there will be verbal barbs thrown down at Neuheisel from every corner of Folsom Field. To the Colorado faithful, Neuheisel is Slick Rick, the guitar pickin’, popsicle lickin’, recruit stealin’, pretty boy that darn near ruined Colorado football.

“I don’t anticipate a real love-fest,” Neuheisel said. “There is a lot of passion in college football and if the passion manifests itself in distaste for me, I have got big enough shoulders to handle it.”

Or a good enough team to divert it. And this year Neuheisel does. Colorado fans need to be less concerned with who is coaching and more concerned with who is playing for them.

The Huskies are back in the top 10 - No. 9 - for the first time since 1998. They just dismantled No. 4 Miami in a game not nearly as close as the 34-29 score indicated. They have one of the top five quarterbacks in the country in Marques Tuiasosopo. Defensive lineman Larry Tripplett can’t be blocked. And most importantly, the Huskies have a 2-0 record while the Buffs are 0-2.

The players, at least, seem to realize this fact.

“It’s not about (Neuheisel) or Bobby Hauck (assistant coach) or any of those guys,” linebacker Andy Peeke, told the Rocky Mountain News. “Washington is a big game because we’re 0-2, and 0-2 is a real strain on everybody. It’s wearing on us and I can tell it’s wearing on the coaches.”

“We’re 0-2 and need a win,” added co-captain Brady McDonnell. “Last year (CU’s 31-24 loss in Seattle), there was a little revenge thing. But that’s not a factor this year.”

Try telling that to the 51,655 fans in the stands.

“If people are bitter that I left, that is just a part of college football,” Neuheisel said.

Desperate in the desert

Arizona, the team with Ortege Jenkins, the most experienced quarterback in the conference, has 14 completed passes in two games and 22 punts.

The offense is averaging 74 passing yards a game. Only Texas Christian, a running team, is worse. In the first game of the season, the Wildcats offense only had 11 yards passing.

Add the running game and things aren’t much better. The Wildcats’ overall offense ranks 110th out of 115 Division I schools with 170 yards per game.

“We really have to get this offense rolling because we’re not going to win big games like this if we don’t get the offense going,” wide receiver Bobby Wade told the Tucson Citizen.

“As an offense, we’ve got to hold our own for the team, and we didn’t,” said Jenkins.

Some of the blame for the 1-1 start should be laid on Jenkins’ shoulders. But not all of it. The QB is working behind a makeshift and miserable offensive line. Jenkins was sacked eight times by the blitzing Ohio State defense Saturday.

“You just about put people in jail for what they did to him,” said Arizona coach Dick Tomey.

The running backs, Leo Mills and Larry Croom, are just sophomores and can’t be counted on yet. And the Wildcats only have one serious threat at wide receiver, Wade.

Still, Tomey believes his team is in good shape.

“I feel a whole lot better today than I did after two games a year ago,” he said. “We’re tougher, we’re better on defense, we’re better in the kicking game, and I think we’ve got better character.”

Rose Bowl or bust

Paul Hackett started the year on the hot seat. Two wins later, the coach said he is still there.

“This is the University of Southern California and there is always stress and there is always pressure,” he said. “The expectations are very simple; we are expected to win every ballgame by two touchdowns.”

The Trojans only beat Colorado by three points, 17-14 and that came in the last minute. Hackett said he is already hearing it from fans and reporters who said the Trojans were lucky to beat Colorado.

“The criticism on how we beat Colorado has been considerable,” he said.

Walk the walk, talk the talk

All the talk on the West Coast is how the Pac-10, with its 12-3 nonconference record, is back. Not so fast, said the San Jose State players.

The Spartans pummeled Stanford, the defending Pac-10 champion, Saturday. That’s three years in a row Stanford has lost to San Jose State.

“They won the Pac-10, but how good is the Pac-10?” defensive tackle John Hammer said. “I think the WAC is better than the Pac-10.”

“Everyone knows what they have up there and what we don’t. It’s like Beverly Hills getting beat by Watts,” added San Jose tailback Deonce Whitaker.

One more year

Cal coach Tom Holmoe has finally agreed to the contract extension that he said had been sitting on his desk for more than a year.

The deal is reportedly for five years. Whether or not his salary of $260,000 will be increased has not been discussed.

Holmoe didn’t want any of it to be discussed, but someone leaked the story of the contract to the media earlier this year.

“I didn’t think it was really necessary,” he said of the contract extension. “I felt that I had two years left on my contract, three years at the time, and everything was fine and there was no distraction.

“Once it became public, it was a real distraction,” he added.

Other coaches were telling Cal recruits that Holmoe was going to be fired. There was also speculation that Holmoe, a former BYU player, would replace the retiring LaVell Edwards. So Holmoe signed and the distractions ceased.

Now the only distraction is for the administrators. They are the ones who have to justify to the alumni why they gave an extension to a coach who is 13-21 in three-plus years.

“If you look at our 27 athletics programs at Cal, the most successful ones are the ones where the coaches have been here for a long time,” Cal athletics director John Kasser said.

Pac-10 picks

Cal at No. 19 Illinois (-14): Tom Holmoe’s Bears have one win over a ranked team in his 3 years. The pick: Illinois 35, Cal 20

No. 3 Michigan (-5.5) at No. 14 UCLA: This is the Bruins’ second game against the No. 3 team in three weeks. It will also be their second win. The pick: UCLA 26, Michigan 21

No. 9 Washington (-3.5) at Colorado: Can the Huskies stop freshman RB Marcus Houston? No. The pick: Colorado 21, UW 17

Idaho at Oregon (-21): Joey Harrington passed for 362 yards against Wisconsin. Idaho gave up 505 passing yards against Montana. You do the math. The pick: Oregon 55, Idaho 30

Washington State at Utah (-10): Utah is 0-2 against the Pac-10 this season. WSU is 1-16 against the Pac-10 since the Rose Bowl. The pick: Utah 28, WSU 24

San Diego State at Arizona (-17.5): Ortege Jenkins is only completing 38 percent of his passes. That’s not enough to run up the score against the Aztecs. The pick: Arizona 25, San Diego State 10

Colorado State (-4) at Arizona State: ASU has problems at almost every position. The pick: Colorado State 28, ASU 21

No. 5 Texas (-13) at Stanford: Texas beat Stanford 69-17 last season. But this is a better Stanford team, right? After all, last year Stanford lost to San Jose State. No way that could happen again. The pick: Texas 45, Stanford 12 Last week: 3-5 straight up; 1-7 against the spread. For the year: 7-8 straight up; 4-11 against the spread.