Ace NCAA Passer Was Born to Play at Fresno State

Vinny Testaverde, who finished a distant fifth in last year’s balloting, probably will win the Heisman Trophy next month for being the most formidable forward passer in the country this year.

This is curious because the quarterback who will probably break the all-time passing yardage record, set by 1984’s Heisman winner, Doug Flutie, will doubtless be a distant trailer in the balloting.

The reason is simple: Testaverde plays for the celebrated University of Miami (“We’re No. 1!”); the other quarterback plays for Fresno State (“Yes, we’re a four-year school, damn it!”).

Fresno State? What on earth is a player with Heisman credentials doing at Fresno State? Did someone make a terrible mistake? Where were USC, Notre Dame, BYU, for that matter Miami, when he was signing a letter of intent?

Well, the NCAA may be interested in why Kevin Sweeney opted for Fresno State.

The coach made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. In fact, the coach gave him a deal that would put any other coach in the country on probation well into the 21st Century.

The offer included not only room, board and tuition but as many new cars as he might want, the use of the coach’s car any time he wanted, all the spending money he would need, all the clothes he could wear, any trips he might want to take. The coach did the same for his mother and the rest of his family, too, which is strictly against NCAA rules.

Besides, the coach had paid for Kevin’s teeth to be fixed whenever they needed it, had bought him his first bike, first car, paid all his medical bills.

If the coach at Notre Dame housed the quarterback under his roof, made him a beneficiary in his will, the NCAA would probably throw the book at him.

But the coach at Fresno State is brazen about it. He even lists the quarterback on his income tax as a dependent.

It would pass for the most outrageous kind of chutzpah--except for the fact the quarterback is a dependent.

The NCAA can’t penalize the coach for paying all the quarterback’s bills when he has paid them since the quarterback’s birth. It’s against the rules to give money to your quarterback--unless you’re married to the quarterback’s mother and have been for more than 30 years.

A coach is a father figure anyway, but Kevin Sweeney took it one step further. This coach is not only a father figure, he is the father. Period. Kevin could skip one step in the cliche award ceremony where he thanks his coach and his parents for bringing him to this stage. In his case, his coach and parent are one and the same--Jim Sweeney.

The Sweeney and Sweeney act has been dazzling Fresno for two years now. In that time, the Bulldogs have locked up a 19-2-1 record and won a bowl game, beating Bowling Green, 51-7.

Sometime this weekend, Kevin should put away the NCAA record for passing yardage. He needs 173 yards against Utah State Saturday evening to overtake Doug Flutie’s 10,529 yards.

In anticipation of the event, the community has already painted a six-mile red-and-yellow line from downtown to the stadium.

Kevin has already climbed past Jim McMahon, John Elway, Chuck Long and Robbie Bosco on the ladder, and ordinarily, he could pick up 173 yards on his way out of the locker room or before the echoes of the national anthem had died. But Utah State has his coach worried.

“If we were just thinking of the record, we would just fill the air with footballs,” Jim Sweeney said.

“But it got so that when the ball was snapped, the defense would just turn around and start running like hell for their own goal line. They were so afraid of the long ball from Kevin.

“My philosophy is to win the game the easy way. That’s the reason we only put the ball in the air an average of 19 times the last few games.

“Not that I’m against throwing the ball 50 times. I say that, if you throw the ball 50 times because you have to, you will lose. But, if you throw the ball 50 times because you want to, you will win.”

The Sweeney family has given the “That’s My Boy!” syndrome a new dimension, a heart-warming indication that the generation gap is not as bad as we’ve been led to believe. There are still some kids who do what their parents tell them. Kevin probably didn’t even hold out for long hair.

Would it have been better for him, his Heisman chances, his pro draft prospects, if he had gone to a more famous school, a more difficult competition, say Washington, where he wanted to go, or USC, which wanted him badly?

“I had no intention of recruiting him,” the elder Sweeney said. “I felt he could go to USC, where John Robinson wanted him, and he could go across the street there and play big-time baseball, too. I had a 6-5 quarterback named Robinson at the time, but he went and signed with the Minnesota Twins.”

Like any good recruiter, Coach Sweeney checked his computer for the best available replacement. It served up this 5-11 190-pounder from Bullard High where he broke Pat Haden’s state record for touchdown passes in a season with 35.

“I know the kid!” Coach Sweeney said. “I know his mother. I’ve bought drinks for his father.”

So, Kevin joined the family business, like any other dutiful son.

What will he be once he’s on his own, when the head man on the bench isn’t even related?

“Maybe it’ll be a relief when he can criticize the coach right out loud,” Sweeney the elder said, grinning.

Maybe it’ll be a relief, too, when, if he goofs up, the coach can’t send him to bed without his supper, or take back the keys to the car or cut his allowance. Or make him do windows.