FIESTA BOWL : PENN STATE 14, MIAMI 10 : Nittany Lion Eyes Testaverde, Who Had No Lyin’ Eyes

It was fourth down for the Miami Hurricanes and national championship to go.

With 18 seconds remaining and the clock stopped, the Hurricanes were 13 yards away from the Penn State goal line. They had to have all of it. But that is not too much to ask when you have Vinny Testaverde at quarterback.

So what if he already had thrown four interceptions? He won the Heisman Trophy this season by throwing 26 touchdown passes. He hadn’t thrown one Friday night, but all that meant was that he was due. Didn’t it?

On the Penn State sideline, Coach Joe Paterno didn’t know what to think.

“There wasn’t much for me to do over there,” he said. “I’m not the kind of guy who likes to pray to the Good Lord to help us win a football game. He’s got other things to do.

“But I was tempted to pray.”

Testaverde called a play.

But when he got to the line of scrimmage, he didn’t like what he saw. He said later that Penn State’s right inside linebacker, Pete Giftopoulos, was in the pattern.

Testaverde called an audible.

Then he noticed that Giftopoulos shifted, again moving into the area where Testaverde wanted to throw.

Even though he had time to call an audible again, Testaverde chose not to, a mistake he said will haunt him for a long time.

Giftopoulos said all he did was follow Testaverde’s eyes.

Wherever Testaverde looked, Giftopoulos went.

“He had a tendency tonight to look to the area where he was going to throw,” Giftopoulos said. “On that last play, he was looking right at that spot from the time the ball was snapped. All I had to do was follow his eyes. He threw the ball right to me.”

Giftopoulos, who also had an earlier interception, caught the ball at the Penn State one, wrapped his arms securely around it and after a couple of steps fell to the ground. But not back to earth.

It will be a while before any of the Nittany Lions touch down there again.

This is the second straight year they had gone into their final game with a chance to win the national championship. They were ranked No. 1 last year but lost convincingly to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. Ranked No. 2 this season, they were expected to leave the Fiesta Bowl empty-handed because of Miami’s superior passing attack.

But on this particular evening at Sun Devil Stadium, it was Penn State’s defense that was superior.

“Our defense played about as well as I’ve ever seen a college football team play defense,” Paterno said.

He said that knowing that the Hurricanes had just gained 445 yards, 285 in the air.

But an offense that was not held to less than 23 points in any game this season and scored 34 or more in eight games could put the ball into the end zone only once against Penn State.

“I feel pretty good about our offensive team,” Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson said. “Most times when we hit the field, we’re going to be able to score more than 10 points.

“But Penn State just has a great defensive team. They’ve given up only 10 or 11 points a game. They not only did a great job tonight, they’ve done a great job all year long.”

That has been particularly true inside their own 20, where they have found themselves on numerous occasions. Both Notre Dame and Maryland had the ball deep inside Penn State territory late in their games against the Nittany Lions but had no more success than the Hurricanes at scoring the winning points.

“When you give, give, give, people are going to move the football on you,” Paterno said. “We spend an awful lot of time inside our 20, but we’ve been awfully tough down there. We play with a lot of confidence down there.”

For example, Penn State’s All-American outside linebacker, Shane Conlan, said he was concerned when Miami had the ball on fourth and goal at the 13.

But he also said he wasn’t worried.

“I was thinking that somebody’s got to make a play,” he said. “There had been so many big plays in the game, I had a gut feeling somebody was going to make another one. Luckily, Pete came up with it.”

On two earlier occasions, Conlan had come up with the big play.

In the third quarter, with the score tied, 7-7, Miami was threatening with third and seven at the Penn State 21. But Conlan intercepted a Testaverde pass at the 17 and stumbled to the 25 before falling.

He explained that he had reinjured his knee in the first half and could barely stand up, much less run.

“Everybody was laughing at me, but I had no feeling in my leg,” he said.

When asked why he hadn’t taken himself out of the game, it was Conlan’s turn to laugh.

“They would have had to cut my leg off to get me out of there,” he said. “Then I would have hopped back out there.”

Conlan did considerably more than hop the next time he got his hands on the ball, intercepting Testaverde for a second time at the Miami 43 in the second quarter and returning it to the 5 before he tried to hurdle two Hurricanes and lost his footing.

Two plays later, the Nittany Lions scored on a six-yard run by tailback D.J. Dozier. It turned out to be the winning score.

Conlan gave credit for the victory to defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

“It was our most sophisticated defensive scheme of the year,” he said.

Asked for the reason, Conlan said, “Because we were playing Testaverde.”

Conlan said the Nittany Lions changed defenses often from man-to-man to zone and back, often after the Hurricanes had already called audibles. He said he thought Testaverde was confused.

But Giftopoulos said the Nittany Lions were just as confused on several occasions.

“About half of us were playing one defense and the other half were playing something else. It was hard to hear out there so we didn’t always know what signals had been called. I can see why he would be confused.”