COLLEGE FOOTBALL
SATURDAY'S HEROES...
Colgate tailback Kenny Gamble. Gamble rushed for 206 yards on 31 carries to become the NCAA Division I career leader in all-purpose yards with 7,623. He also tied the Division I-AA career mark for 100-yard rushing games, 29, as the Red Raiders shut out Boston University 38-0.
Tulane wide receiver Marc Zeno. Zeno had 12 receptions for 238 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-10 win over Southwestern Louisiana that assured the 6-4 Green Wave of its first winning season since 1981. Zeno now has 3,606 career receiving yards, an NCAA Division I-A record.
Yale quarterback Kelly Ryan. Ryan passed for 329 yards and three touchdowns as the Elis defeated Princeton 34-19. Yale's win and Harvard's 31-14 rout of Penn set up a showdown for the Ivy League title when the two teams, each 5-1 in the conference, meet in The Game this Saturday.
Iowa quarterback Chuck Hartlieb. Hartlieb completed 20 of 37 passes for 333 yards and threw a 28-yard touchdown pass with just six seconds to play as the Hawkeyes won 29-27 at Ohio State for the first time in 28 years.
Clemson quarterback Rodney Williams and wide receiver Gary Cooper. Williams and Cooper hooked up for touchdown passes of 50 and 44 yards as the Tigers beat Maryland 45-16 to win the ACC title outright for the second year in a row and a record 10th time.
San Diego State quarterback Todd Santos. Santos increased his Division I-A career passing yardage record to 11,052 with a 29-for-40, 391-yard performance in the Aztecs' 26-12 defeat of Colorado State.
Florida wide receiver Stacey Simmons. Simmons returned the opening kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown and caught a 39-yard TD pass as the Gators triumphed over Kentucky 27-14.
California quarterback Troy Taylor. Taylor completed 21 of 27 passes—including 13 in a row—for 281 yards as the Golden Bears upset Arizona State 38-20. He threw three touchdown passes, the last after he suffered a broken finger on his passing hand.
Texas A & M punter and backup quarterback Craig Stump. Stump buried Arkansas with two punts that averaged 44.5 yards and then came off the bench in the third quarter to nail down a 14-0 win by directing a 78-yard touchdown drive. After the game, coach Jackie Sherrill lifted Stump to his shoulders and carried him off the field. "First time I ever did something like that," said Sherrill. "He deserved it."
...AND SATURDAY'S GOAT
Penn State coach Joe Paterno, whose Lions were shut out 10-0 by Pitt. Time and again Pitt confronted the Penn State offense with a nine-man line, daring the Lions to throw, but Paterno insisted on sticking with his ground game, which wound up with fewer than 100 yards for the second time this season. "I think I did a lousy job," said Paterno. "I got my offensive coaches all screwed up. They had some things they wanted to do, and I kind of stuck my two cents in."
SYMBOLS AT THE CITADEL
A year ago, The Citadel attracted nationwide attention because of an ugly hazing incident in which five white-robed upperclassmen burned a small cross in a black freshman's room. That and other racial embarrassments prompted the school to establish a committee on race relations that recommended, among other things, that the traditional use of Confederate symbols at Bulldog football games be curbed. But old habits die hard. After touchdowns, white cadets continue to wave Confederate flags while blacks have in recent years taken to waving American flags; whites stand during the school band's rendition of Dixie while blacks remain seated.
Now The Citadel's Afro-American Society has come up with what it envisions as a unifying symbol, the Bulldog Towel, which comes in blue or white and bears a paw-print insignia and the words EL CID. Ken Gordon, the society president, says he hopes that the Bulldog Towel will replace both the Confederate and American flags and that The Citadel's student section will look less like Antietam. "We decided it was time to take the initiative," says Gordon. "We borrowed the concept from the Minnesota Twins' Homer Hanky." The towels made their debut during Saturday's 27-17 loss to Appalachian State. Gordon says he sold about 500 for $5 apiece, and he hopes they will continue to wave at The Citadel's last home game this week against Furman. The Citadel's president, Major General James A. Grimsley. Jr., has voiced support for the Bulldog Towel. Now it's up to the cadets.
DOGGED EFFORT
With the recent changes at Notre Dame—new president, new athletic director, new football coach—Marge Andre sees a golden opportunity to revive her longtime crusade. Andre is vice-president of the Irish Terrier Club of Chicago, and for years she has been hounding the Notre Dame administration to reinstate the terrier as the Irish's mascot. "The time is ripe," she says.
The terrier tradition in South Bend began in 1930 when a fan gave Knute Rockne an Irish terrier named Brick Top Shaun Rhu, who became the unofficial mascot. In 1935 a terrier named Clashmore Mike succeeded Brick Top Shaun Rhu, and his name became almost as important in the Notre Dame lexicon as the Gipper and the Four Horsemen. He and Clashmore Mike II and III scampered on the sidelines during the next three decades. In the '60s, upon the death of Mike III, the terrier was discontinued as mascot, apparently because the stadium maintenance crew, who had been caring for the dog, no longer wanted the responsibility. A student prancing about in a leprechaun costume became the sole symbol of Irish pride. That irks Andre. Last year she presented Notre Dame officials with a bring-back-the-terrier petition bearing the signatures of 3,500 Irish fans. She got nowhere, but now she has exacted the promise of a meeting with the new athletic director, Dick Rosenthal, after this season. A Notre Dame spokesman, perhaps reluctant to alienate either the terrier or the leprechaun lobby, says both mascots will get a fair hearing.
ACCOMMODATING GUESTS
Columbia, whose NCAA Division I record for consecutive losses stands at 40 games after Saturday's 31-20 beating by Cornell, isn't the only school experiencing football futility. Also on Saturday, Kentucky lost its last road game of the season, 27-14 to Florida. With that defeat, the Wildcats, who have won all five home games so far this year by an average of nearly 25 points, ran their string of away losses in the SEC to nine. Kentucky hasn't won a conference road game since November 24, 1984. "I'm getting tired of losing on the road," says coach Jerry Claiborne. "We've got to get that monkey off our back. I tell our players to just pretend the fans are cheering for us." Maybe in '88 you can try earplugs, coach.
CHANGING SIGNALS
When Brian Johnson was a star quarterback two years ago at Skyline High in Oakland, he hoped to play college ball at UCLA. But the Bruins' football coaches don't encourage kids to play a second sport, in Johnson's case, baseball.
Stanford coach Jack Elway, who knows something about two-sport stars—son John played both baseball and football for the Cardinal—wasn't thrilled about Johnson doubling, either, but signed him anyway. Johnson, a sophomore who was a reserve infielder for Stanford's national championship team last spring, began this season third on Elway's depth chart, but when Greg Ennis and Scott Stark were ineffective in the Cardinal's first four games—all losses—Johnson got a chance. In his first start five weeks ago, he led Stanford to a 44-7 rout of Washington State, and then he completed 11 of 22 passes for 190 yards and two touchdowns as the Cardinal beat San Diego State 44-40. A week later Johnson led the Cardinal to a 13-10 upset of Oregon, and last Saturday he threw for three touchdowns in Stanford's 38-7 win over Oregon State. Now, says Elway, "I don't give a bleep if the guy's a hockey player."
LITERARY LICENSE
In his column in a recent Auburn football program, the Tigers' sports information director, David Housel, glowingly described the talents of Joe Mack and Otto Macnab, two high school stars Auburn was recruiting. This seemed to be in clear violation of NCAA and SEC rules that prohibit schools from publicly identifying favored prospects. Anyone breaking the rule is barred from signing the recruits in question.
Sure enough, two of Auburn's conference rivals—the SEC won't say who—quickly phoned the league office and turned the Tigers in. Heh, heh, heh, gotcha!
The last laugh was Housel's, however. He had planted the bogus scouting report to see if any opponent would be foolish enough to fall for what could only have been a foolhardy violation of the rules. The only starting assignments Joe Mack and Otto Macnab ever had were as characters in novels by Louis L'Amour and James Michener.
CHALK TALK
LSU fullback Victor Jones, who was arrested Nov. 1 for allegedly driving 123 mph, offered an explanation that actually satisfied his coach, Mike Archer: "He told me he was just trying to get some bad gas out of his tank. He had just bought two dollars' worth of gas and his car wasn't running right. I believe him."
...After each of the Notre Dame touchdowns in Saturday's 37-6 win over Alabama in South Bend, students threw oranges onto the field, indicating that they want the Irish to be invited to Miami on New Year's Day to play either Oklahoma or Nebraska for the national championship. In the fourth quarter, after Notre Dame took a 30-6 lead, the Irish were penalized 15 yards, assessed on the ensuing kickoff for their fans' unsportsmanlike conduct. "I'd like to play in the Orange Bowl, but I don't make those kinds of decisions," said coach Lou Holtz, who assumed, along with everyone else, that Miami will get the bid to play the Big Eight champion in the Orange Bowl. The early line has the Irish heading for the Cotton Bowl. Despite those assumptions, rumors persisted that a deal will be worked out that would send Notre Dame to the Orange Bowl should it beat the Hurricanes in its regular-season finale on Nov. 28. One hangup: This year bids are to be extended on Nov. 21, and bowl committees insist there will be no arrangements of the sort made in the past to facilitate the most attractive matchup for the national title....
Speaking of that bid date, it did not stop Sugar Bowl president Jerry Romig from presenting Syracuse coach Dick MacPherson with a sugar cube after the Orangemen beat Boston College 45-17 on Saturday. "I'll be back next week," said Romig, sweetly....
Wyoming coach Paul Roach hoped to get on top of Utah early. "The fact that we hadn't won in Salt Lake City since 1971 was in the back of our minds," he said. "I felt that getting off to a fast start was going to be critical." So why, after he had won the coin toss, did he then choose to kick off? Maybe he just had a hunch. In any case, the Utes' Curt Jones fumbled and the Cowboys' Steve Vana recovered on the one-yard line. Fullback Steve Bena scored on the next play, Wyoming had its fast start, and the Cowboys cruised along to a 31-7 win. Wyoming, 6-0 in the Western Athletic Conference, can clinch the WAC crown with a win at UTEP Saturday.
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PHOTO
DAVID L. JOHNSON/ACTION IMAGES
Williams's Tigers topped the Terps.
PHOTO
PETER READ MILLER
ILLUSTRATION
KIMBLE MEAD
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
OFFENSE:
Virginia quarterback Scott Secules completed 26 of 50 passes for 328 yards in a 20-17 win over North Carolina. In the final 4:44, he passed for 78 of the 83 yards on one touchdown drive and all 70 yards on the game-clinching TD march.
DFFENSE:
Ohio State inside linebacker Chris Spielman had 13 tackles in his last appearance in Columbus, but the Buckeyes lost to Iowa 29-27. Spielman, an All-America last year, increased his Ohio State record for career unassisted tackles to 269.
SPECIAL TEAMS:
USC kicker Quin Rodriguez scored all of Southern Cal's points in a 12-10 win over Arizona to keep the Trojans in Rose Bowl contention. Rodriguez, a freshman, had field goals of 21, 42, 27 and 18 yards, the last the game-winner with 1:11 left.