FIESTA BOWL : PENN STATE 14, MIAMI 10 : Notes : Idea for Game Gets Mixed Reviews

Don Meyers, an attorney who is one of the 16-year-old Fiesta Bowl’s founders and who is currently chairman of the team selection committee, is getting mixed reviews on the strategy he devised that enabled the Fiesta Bowl to come up with Friday night’s national championship game.

He figured out how to outbid the Citrus and Gator Bowls and he also sweet-talked the University of Miami into resisting political pressure from the governor of Florida to stay “home” and play in either Orlando (Citrus) or Jacksonville (Gator).

Meyers’ stroke of genius was getting NBC to agree to televise a Miami-Penn State shootout in prime time on Friday night rather than Thursday afternoon. The switch even preempted “Miami Vice.”

Meyers has been getting a lot of pats on the back. But John Scovell, a former president of the Cotton Bowl said: “Nothing good is coming out of the prostitution for the dream bowl. What’s happening is that Penn State is for sale. So is Miami. College sports has no black eyes left.”

Bruce Skinner, executive director of the Fiesta Bowl, took exception to that. “It’s not prostitution,” he said. “It gives the institutions the opportunity to choose. We did not engage in a bidding war. All we did was step up and pay what the other New Year’s Day games pay.

“Whenever you have the opportunity for No. 1 to play No. 2 you should do it, whether it’s in the Orange, the Sugar, the Cotton or the Fiesta Bowl. It’s what’s best for college football.”

The seventh bowl meeting of the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the 51 years of The Associated Press poll drew an overflow crowd of 73,098, more than 2,000 above the listed seating capacity of Arizona State University’s Sun Devil Stadium.

The numbers lied. The loser of this Fiesta Bowl outrushed the winner 160 yards to 109 and outpassed the winner, 285-53, for a total offense advantage of 445-162.

Overlooking the fact that his defense had given 445 yards, Penn State Coach Joe Paterno said: “Our defense played the greatest game I’ve ever seen a football team play.”

The Hurricanes (11-1) assumed the No. 1 ranking after beating Oklahoma, 28-16, on Sept. 27.

The final polls will be released today, but Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson saw no reason to wait for that formality. He said, “Penn State is to be congratulated . . . Penn State played great--they’re the best team in the country.”

Penn State will be presented with the UPI Coaches Trophy, sponsored by the Gerrits Foundation, at the American Football Coaches Assn. meeting in San Diego on Wednesday. The award is accompanied by a full four-year scholarship to a non-athlete.

Shane Conlan, the Penn State All-American linebacker who came up with two of Vinny Testaverde’s interceptions, was voted the most valuable defensive player of the game. But he wanted to give more credit to his team’s cornerbacks, whose hard-hitting, he reasoned, caused Testaverde’s receivers to want to avoid catching the ball. Testaverde’s receivers dropped five passes and fumbled two others.

Conlan’s second interception set up the winning touchdown in the fourth quarter when he ran it back 43 yards to the Miami 5. So why couldn’t he make the last five yards to score? He said: “My knee had snapped when I was hurt in the first quarter, and it was weak the rest of the game. I couldn’t really run with that intercepted pass. I had nothing left.”

Penn State quarterback John Shaffer, who threw three interceptions against Oklahoma last year, said: “I didn’t go into the game seeking revenge. We just wanted to go out and prove to people we had one of the best football teams in the nation, and just win the game.” Shaffer completed only 5 of 16 passes for 53 yards with one interception, but he ran his personal record to 65-1 in games he has started at quarterback, dating back to seventh grade. Shaffer is from Cincinnati’s Moeller High.