Analysis : Sooners No. 1, but the Margin Is Pretty Slim

As 1985 dissolved into 1986, the college football season ended Wednesday night with a new champion, Oklahoma.

But Penn State, formerly No. 1, was more bother than the Sooners had expected.

And, for the Miami Hurricanes, so was Tennessee.

The battle of words for No. 1, due today between those who support Miami and Oklahoma, has been postponed. Indefinitely. If not longer.

The Hurricanes and their celebrated passer, Vinny Testaverde, disappeared before halftime at the Sugar Bowl under mobs of Tennessee tacklers and sackers, and were finally buried, 35-7.

At the Orange Bowl, the Sooners’ wishbone offense didn’t produce a touchdown until the last two minutes, when Penn State wilted after missing the easy field goal that would have shortened Oklahoma’s lead to 19-13. At that point, on a wishbone buck, Oklahoma fullback Lydell Carr went 61 yards to make his team the winner by a deceptively big score, 25-10.

So the Sooners have emerged as the best that college football had to offer in 1985, but they aren’t best by much.

Parity is gaining these days in the college ranks, as well as in the pros.

The Army Cadets can play football. They beat a pretty good Illinois team this week. The Tennessee Volunteers can play. They smashed No. 1 candidate Miami. The Texas Aggies can play. They upset an Auburn team that often seemed No. 1 earlier this season.

In short, college football’s top 10 or 12 are a pretty good fit now, more closely matched than they were five years ago, and the top 20 are a lot closer.

A major reason for this is that the game’s defensive talent has been well distributed throughout the land. From 1 to 20, these teams can all play defense.

Penn State, for example, came into the Orange Bowl undefeated with an ordinary offense and a great defense that controlled Oklahoma’s wishbone attack until, due to turnovers, all hope was gone.

The Nittany Lions held Oklahoma’s Jamelle Holieway, who has been described by some coaches as the most artistic wishbone quarterback yet, to a minus six yards in the first half on nine carries.

Eventually, Holieway did a little better, but his main contribution in this game was one long pass that made him look like Testaverde for an instant.

Although the bomb went for the touchdown that broke up the game, it is doubtful if Holieway, a running quarterback, could duplicate it today in a dummy scrimmage.

When he was doing his thing, rolling out on the option, Penn State hammered him.

Offensively, Penn State was worse than Oklahoma. It had one thing in common with two other losers on New Year’s Day, Miami and Iowa.

They all self-destructed in the pressure of the biggest games that college students can play.

There was more than the usual amount of interest in potential No. 1s this winter, and the coaches all had a lot to say about it. At times, Jimmy Johnson seemed to claim No. 1 for Miami, Barry Switzer for Oklahoma, Hayden Fry for Iowa, and Joe Paterno for Penn State.

Switzer turned out to be right, but the pressure he and the other coaches made for their teams was obviously felt up and down the line.

Every time the Nittany Lions got something going Wednesday night, they threw an interception or fumbled.

Only one team escaped the tension of New Year’s Day, and that, significantly, was the team that played at home, UCLA.