Penn State Is No. 3 in This Poll

Penn State is No. 1 in the polls, but Miami and Michigan have better football teams, according to a team that has played and lost to all three.

Maryland lost to Penn State, 20-18; to Michigan, 20-0, and to Miami, 29-22.

Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post, after polling 11 Maryland starters and applying his own point system, came up with these ratings: Miami 18, Michigan 14, Penn State 1.

Some comments by Maryland players:

Tackle Tony Edwards: “Miami is the best team I ever played against. They have the best quarterback in Vinny Testaverde and the best pair of running backs in Melvin Bratton and Alonzo Highsmith.”

Fullback Rick Badanjek: “Michigan shut us down. They were the toughest. That was the only team to physically beat us, and man, they beat us.”

Badanjek on Penn State: “It’s hard to believe they’re 11-0.”

Trivia Time: What do coaches Forrest Gregg, Bud Grant and Hugh Campbell have in common? (Answer below.)

Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times, after a visit to the Southland, said he couldn’t find anybody who was bowled over by the Freedom Bowl matchup of Washington and Colorado.

As for the outcome, Kelley said: “Washington’s Mo Hill probably will catch a game-winning touchdown pass. He can then turn to the television cameras and proclaim: ‘We’re No. 25!’ ”

Jeff Kemp of the Rams, reflecting on Sunday’s disaster at New Orleans: “Typically, I think we’ll come back and play hard and well after a bad performance. But it’s a stupid way to motivate yourself.”

What makes Terry Donahue a good recruiter? For one thing, he apparently has good help.

National scouting expert Tom Lemming, asked about Vinnie Cerrato of the University of Minnesota, told Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press: “He’s an unbelievably good recruiting coordinator. I think he’s in line right behind Bill Rees of UCLA as the best in the country.”

Former Notre Dame Coach Dan Devine, who coached the Irish to a national title in 1977, told Steve Jacobson of Newsday that Lou Holtz might get some surprises at South Bend.

“There’s not nearly as much emphasis on football internally as you’d think,” Devine said. “We got players later to practice than anybody; kids went to lab instead of practice. And he’ll find out that no longer does Notre Dame get all the kids it wants; no longer is there that feeder system where every Catholic high school star automatically wants to go to Notre Dame.”

Add Devine: He said the biggest problem with the alumni is they can’t believe that Rockne, Leahy or Parseghian ever lost a game.

He said that when he was an assistant coach at Michigan State, the Spartans beat Leahy by scores of 35-33, 35-0 and 21-3.

“But if I stood up in front of the Notre Dame Chicago alumni and told them that, they’d say, ‘You’re a liar,’ ” Devine said. “They’ve chosen to forget that.”

Trivia Answer: All three were head coaches in the Canadian Football League.

Quotebook

Don Riley of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, on the idiocy of counting the number of punches in fights by computer: “Next, they’ll want to count dribbles in basketball.”