THE BATTLE FOR NO. 1 : Miami to Play Penn State Tonight in an Atmosphere of a College Super Bowl

The Fiesta Bowl, which had assumed many characteristics of Wrestlemania this week, finally returns to the college football format tonight. And Penn State and Miami, the game’s oft-hilarious good-guy/bad-guy show, will determine not just good or bad but, ultimately, best.

That’s right, fans. Villains and heroes aside, this is for the national championship, a game of top-ranked undefeateds. For numero uno , king of the hill, top of the heap. For two-point-four mil and all those Nielsen points.

Watch this game; you’ll probably want to tell your grandchildren.

Oh, sure, bowls have decided national champions before. But parade routes were no sooner swept than the results would yield to argument. In the end, it was decided by a vote. That’s fine for democracy, but not so good in a sport so decidedly military that gunfire signals a game’s conclusion.

This game is a little different: Two teams, independent of any bowl affiliation, matched in a prime-time melodrama. No. 1 vs. No. 2. It’s the equivalent of a playoff, in the only sport that disdains playoffs.

This rare event is possible only because (1) two powerhouses remained undefeated; (2) NBC agreed to a prime-time slot away from the New Year’s Day welter of traditional bowl games; (3) Sunkist, a bowl sponsor intent on elevating the Fiesta to Big Four status, funded a kitty that would pay each team $2.4 million, and (4) certain planets were in alignment.

You’ll probably want to show the grandchildren the tape. A game like this is the Halley’s Comet of college football. You might not see it again in your lifetime.

Say, we’re getting a little carried away here, aren’t we? Anyway, didn’t that comet kind of fizzle out? Also, don’t these two teams have a little history of slipping on banana peels in the big ones?

Well, yes, there is that. Both teams date their most recent losses to last season’s bowl schedule, when, playing for the putative national championship in different games, they clutched their throats and keeled over. But that was a year ago, and an ensuing season of excellence and determination and domination have only turned those memories into motivation.

“There are a lot of fifth-year seniors who decided to come back because of that loss,” Penn State center Keith Radecic said. “I’m sure it’s the same with both teams. Nobody wants to lose that last game.”

Since those losses, the two teams actually have taken parallel courses to get to the game somebody won’t lose--barring, of course, a tie. Miami, though ranked high to begin with, assumed top ranking when it beat defending champion Oklahoma early in the season. Penn State, which lost its bid for a championship last season in a game against Oklahoma, gained contention this time around when it demolished Alabama midway through the season. Penn State and Miami have been 1-2 ever since.

The look and play of these two teams, however, couldn’t be more dissimilar. The Nittany Lions reflect the conservative reserve of their coach, Joe Paterno, and their locale, a college town so collegiate that it is actually called State College. Penn State is noted for defense, the usual corps of linebackers and a relentless running attack. It is, as usual, so team-oriented that it is hard to identify a star. Linebacker Shane Conlan, the leading tackler, or tailback D.J. Dozier, who rushed for 811 yards, will have to do.

The Hurricanes, taking a cue from their team name, have assimilated the free-wheeling style of their urban cowboy coach, the impeccably groomed Jimmy Johnson. The team enjoys all the flash of its environment, all too often having incorporated “Vice” into its school name. Run-ins with police, students and store managers have gained the Hurricanes a lot of notoriety this season.

In further contrast to Penn State, Miami is a passing team, heralded by Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde, everybody’s top draft pick. Testaverde, who threw for more touchdowns in 10 games (26) than Penn State counterpart John Shaffer did in 4 seasons (18), is the kind of player who can take charge of a game. In the Oklahoma game, with the rest of the season on the line, he threw for 4 touchdowns and 261 yards. Wide receivers like Mike Irvin and Brett Perriman make the other end of the pass look just as spectacular.

In the week of this game, the two teams have done all they could to further heighten contrasts. Miami, which will apparently never weary of its outlaw image, embraced the role with a gusto. The Hurricanes arrived wearing battle fatigues, staged an orchestrated and well-publicized walkout at a function for both teams and just generally talked their heads off.

All-American defensive tackle Jerome Brown, who led the walkout after Penn State players insulted Johnson’s hair style in a sophomoric skit, has been talking the most. Regarding Penn State quarterback Shaffer, whom he regards largely as an hors d’oeuvre, Brown says Shaffer should have graduated on his three-interception debacle in last year’s Orange Bowl. “He thinks that was a bad dream? This will be a nightmare,” Brown says.

Even Johnson, as shrewd and well-spoken a coach as you’ll ever meet on this beat, got caught up in the talk. The other day, the industrial psychology major from Arkansas inadvertently referred to the sometimes sanctimonious Paterno as St. Joe. Oops.

Paterno, who has managed to remain pleasantly unruffled by the talk of Penn State’s squeaky-clean image, came to a later press conference, saying: “I left my halo at the house.” Then, when told that Johnson was moving the Hurricanes from team headquarters for a final day of preparation, Paterno said the Lions would just spend the day sitting around. “And I say Mass every day, you know,” he said.

The fun of the week hasn’t just been Miami playing out the bad-guy role. It also has been seeing Penn State accept its role with such enthusiasm. Although they were appearing at initial press conferences in T-shirts and jeans, the Nittany Lions buttoned up their blazers as soon as Miami broke out the fatigues.

And Penn State players weren’t above flying their academic standards, although in good fun, you understand. Asked about Testaverde, Shaffer admitted he didn’t really know, although he’d heard good things about him. “A lot of people make a big deal out of him not going to class,” said Shaffer, a finance major who probably will find life after football next week. “But that doesn’t make him a bad person.”

All this was fine for the pre-bowl week of attention. But tonight, under the glare of lights in Sun Devil Stadium, these images will be shed with some ease. There are some Penn State players who behave like neither officers nor gentlemen. Says Radecic: “We’ll shock them. They’re not used to getting hit that hard or that long. They say, ‘Oh, they’re good boys.’ But if it’s holding, then it’s holding. Just so you don’t get caught.”

And the Hurricanes are not nearly as out of control on the football field as they might lead you to believe. Their passing attack is pro caliber, and the team is otherwise more disciplined than its antics suggest. They may talk trash and their dress might not even be up to contra code, but they are exceedingly business-like. Early in the week, they asked Johnson for an earlier curfew. They’ve wanted out of as many activities as possible, so as to concentrate on what they call a mission.

The contrasts, for whatever they’re worth on a football field, provide a matchup of some mystery. Here are two teams, reborn from bowl ignominy of a year ago, strengthened from defeat and intent on victory. Shaffer, who was long haunted by his three interceptions in that bowl game but who rebounded to a season in which he threw just four--total--can safely speak for the players of both teams when he says: “It’s the biggest game of my life.”

Whatever happens, he’ll want to tell his grandchildren.