College Football : At the Start, Oregon State Gets Turned Around

In a season when Northwestern, Indiana and Colorado can win on the same day, nothing is certain. But Oregon State has a chance to be 4-0 when it plays USC at the Coliseum Oct. 5.

That’s the same Oregon State that won only four games in the last two seasons combined. That’s the same Oregon State that had a 15-93-2 record during the last 10 seasons, the worst record in major college football.

But the Beavers already have won two games in 1985, the first time they have begun a season 2-0 since 1967. That was the year their present quarterback, freshman Erik Wilhelm, turned 2. Considering that the Beavers’ next two games are against Fresno State and Grambling, their new coach, Dave Kragthorpe, said his team’s chances of winning its first four games are realistic.

To win the second game, 23-20, last Saturday against Cal, Kragthorpe gambled for a first down on fourth-and-four instead of punting from the Bears’ 40 with 1:26 remaining.

“We thought about the kick, and about half our staff wanted to kick,” Kragthorpe said. “I just felt, well, we are a better football team than Cal, and I didn’t want to come away with the tie.

“My feeling was that settling for a tie would be a much more negative thing for this program than going for the win and maybe failing.”

The decision paid off when Wilhelm completed a five-yard pass to Reggie Bynum. Three plays later, Jim Nielsen kicked the winning field goal from 20 yards away as time ran out.

Reporters in the Midwest gave Northwestern Coach Dennis Green the benefit of the doubt when he said before the season that the Wildcats had a chance to win four of their first five games.

But after Northwestern lost its first game, 40-17, to Duke, they figured Green must have been joking.

He wasn’t.

The Wildcats upset Missouri, 27-23, last week in their second game.

That’s the same Northwestern that had won only seven games in four years under Green.

“It was no fluke,” said Green, whose team plays Northern Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota in its next three games. “We surprised the nation. If we continue to play well, we might even gain attention in Chicago.”

There was some question about who was more disappointed because of the Wildcats’ victory, the Missouri Tigers or the Northwestern faculty.

Of the faculty, Wildcat quarterback Sandy Schwab told the Chicago Tribune: “There’s a definite sense of antagonism toward football players. A majority of professors are against athletics at this (Big Ten) level. When we were in that long losing streak, a lot of them were in their glory.”

No one in Big Eight history has had a better day passing than Kansas quarterback Mike Norseth, who threw for 480 yards and four touchdowns in the 42-16 victory over Vanderbilt last Saturday.

That’s the same Norseth who wasn’t recruited by a major college when he was a senior at Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta. He went to Snow Junior College in Ephraim, Utah, where he broke several school passing records. Again, he was virtually overlooked, eventually signing with Kansas over Colorado State or Iowa State.

But now, Norseth’s talent finally has been recognized.

“Norseth is as good as I’ve ever seen,” Vanderbilt Coach George McIntyre said. “I think we’ll be seeing more of him on television in the future as a professional.”

A Dallas television station reported this week that a car dealer in that city, a Texas A&M; alumnus, leased a 1984 Datsun 300SX to Aggie quarterback Kevin Murray, then issued several $300 checks to the sophomore.

As evidence, WFAA-TV produced a 36-month lease agreement that allegedly contained Murray’s signature.

At a press conference, Murray said the signature was forged.

The Southwest Conference announced it is investigating.

Murray was involved in controvery in 1982, when he accepted a $35,000 bonus to play baseball for the Milwaukee Brewers. After one summer, he decided to play college football and won a court case to escape from his contract. He was allowed to keep the signing bonus.

College Notes

After Indiana ended the nation’s longest losing streak at 16 with a victory last Saturday over Louisville, Hoosier Coach Bill Mallory said: “It was nice to see the fans tear the goal posts down around here. I’d have been out there if I could have gotten to them first.” . . . When Northwestern beat Missouri, it was Tiger Coach Woody Widenhofer’s 11th straight defeat. He lost his last 10 games as coach of the USFL’s Oklahoma Outlaws. By the end of the afternoon, Missouri students were chanting, “We Want Warren.” They were referring to the unpopular Warren Powers, Widenhofer’s predecessor. “There are a lot of bullet holes in Woody’s wagon,” Widenhofer said.

With a game tonight at Houston, Washington faces the possibility of starting the season 0-3. Coach Don James said the Huskies will be 0-11 if they continue to play the way they did in losses to Oklahoma State and Brigham Young. “We played a rushing team and got killed, and then we played a passing team, and the same thing happened,” he said. “Next, we play an option team, and we’ll see how we do.” . . . James said Vince Weathersby, a redshirt freshman from Dorsey High School, will start at tailback against Houston instead of sophomore David Toy. . . . Notre Dame tailback Alonzo Jefferson, who fumbled the second-half kickoff in the loss to Michigan last Saturday, injured his knee on the play and probably will miss the rest of this season and all of next season. . . . “Controlled Chaos” is Rice Coach Watson Brown’s approach to the game. “We got the chaos part down last year,” he said of the Owls, who were 1-10 in 1984.

An observer at Texas workouts has been Mary Lou Retton. Her boyfriend is Shannon Kelley, a backup quarterback. . . . Rutgers Coach Dick Anderson believes that his team earned some respect in the South with a 28-28 tie against Florida. “They thought we were a bunch of slouches from the North,” he said. “Not one newspaper or newscast down here gave us a chance--just because Florida won its little Super Bowl with Miami last week.” . . . Penn State Coach Joe Paterno has the opposite problem--too much respect. “I tried to tell people we’re not a really good football team yet,” he said after the 27-25 victory over Temple. “I can’t get anybody to believe me any more.” The Nittany Lions won’t have tailback D.J. Dozier today against East Carolina because of a pulled hamstring.

If he had to do it over again, Baylor Coach Grant Teaff said he would still go for a first down instead of a field goal on fourth-and-two at the Georgia 11 with seven minutes left. The Bears were trailing, 17-7, at the time. They lost, 17-14. “We wanted to go for the touchdown,” said Teaff, whose team plays at USC tonight. “We didn’t go to Georgia to tie.” . . . Arizona State junior David Fulcher, a two-time All-American at free safety, began this season at roverback. Now, after the 12-3 loss to Michigan State, he has been moved to strong safety. “I wish they’d move him to the University of Arizona,” said University of Pacific Coach Bob Cope, whose team plays the Sun Devils today.