COLLEGE FOOTBALL ’87 : COACHES, PLAYERS, TEAMS AND TRENDS TO WATCH THIS SEASON : THE NEW, IMPROVED SEASON : Here Are 16 Things That You Will Need to Know

If college football gets another year of publicity like last year’s, the sport is likely to be doomed altogether to coverage in Crimewatch, or wherever police blotters are published.

Drug use, police actions, the flouting of academic requirements, cheating--it all went well beyond the boys-will-be-boys stage. It went far enough that one school’s program was given the death sentence.

But college football probably won’t get that kind of press.

If you’ve noticed, there’s been a rediscovery and celebration of old-fashioned values, or so it would seem. It’s an interesting swing of the pendulum. From Brian Bosworth’s purple hair to Gordie Lockbaum’s crew cut. From Miami’s jungle fatigues to Penn State’s blue blazers. This is the year that Alabama--win-crazy Alabama!--hires a new coach and gives him this strange mandate: Graduate your players.

Whether this backlash, this return to the wholesome ‘50s, survives the first kickoff is a good question.

Here are 15 more:

1. IS THIS THE YEAR OF THE QUARTERBACK?

You asked that last year, as if you’d never heard of Vinny Testaverde. But this season, it’s a fair question. Oh, you’ll hear about Kerwin Bell at Florida and Todd Santos at San Diego State. Probably more of Santos, who has a chance to break Kevin Sweeney’s record for passing yardage. But, for once, you may hear more about catchers than passers.

Both of the returning consensus All-Americans on offense are receivers--Oklahoma tight end Keith Jackson and Stanford running back Brad Muster. A third would have been Ohio State’s Cris Carter.

Almost certain to eclipse the above, however, is Notre Dame’s Tim Brown, who averaged 15 yards every time he touched the ball. And Brown touches it a lot. His coach, Lou Holtz, has said that the only way to keep the ball out of Brown’s hands is to intercept the pass from center.

That’s a good one, Lou.

2. SPEAKING OF LOU, IS THIS THE YEAR THEY WIN ONE FOR THE QUIPPER?

Probably not. The best little 5-6 team in the country last season--the Irish lost five games by a total of 14 points--once again has a tough schedule, third-toughest as rated by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. And although they have Tim Brown, there is some question as to whether there is anybody to give him the ball.

Quarterback Terry Andrysiak can run the option, but can he pass it? Terry Rice, a sophomore, may be the man to do it.

“They tell me he can throw the ball 80 yards,” Holtz says. “I just don’t know whether it’s to our guys or not.”

Lou, you kill us.

3. WHY IS PENNSYLVANIA FOOTBALL THE WAY TO BET?

Because Penn State, the defending champion, has the longest winning streak in big-top football at 12 games, and Pennsylvania has the longest in Division I-AA at 11. However, the longest unbeaten streak is 50 games and that belongs to Augustana of Rock Island, Ill. It’s been four years since Augustana lost a game or didn’t win the Division III football championship.

Poor Columbia is the flip side. The Ivy League team hasn’t won in three years, during a 31-game losing streak. Coach Larry McElreavy said he “did not find the season at all fulfilling.” If this season is any less fulfilling, Columbia will break the all-time losing streak of of 34--set by Northwestern--Oct. 11 when it plays Princeton.

4. HOW COMICAL WILL THIS YEAR’S PUSH FOR THE HEISMAN TROPHY GET?

Not as comical as last year’s when Temple put out a comic book for Paul (Boo Boo) Palmer, but there are possibilities. At Florida, they have invested $5,000 in a campaign for Kerwin Bell, most of the money going into a color poster titled “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Well, we know where he toils, anyway.

Bell, actually, is a deserving candidate, with the kind of hook that pulls in votes. He’s a walk-on fifth stringer who not only cracked a big-time lineup but who has thrown for an awesome 5,816 yards and 47 touchdowns. However, because of previous NCAA sanctions at his school, Bell has yet to play a televised game or be seen by a bowl crowd.

Highest returning vote-getter, fifth, is Holy Cross’ Gordie Lockbaum, whose hook is that he was a Division I-AA All-American on offense and defense. The campaign is low-key, although Holy Cross publicist Greg Burke invested bus fare to take Lockbaum to the big city--”The Clampetts go to New York,” Burke snorted. Most of the attention has come to Lockbaum unbidden, but he will do more magazine and network interviews than other candidates combined.

Other, more likely candidates such as Michigan State’s Lorenzo White, UCLA’s Gaston Green and Notre Dame’s Tim Brown apparently intend to campaign on their own merits. Nobody--yet--has contacted a New York PR firm as Oklahoma’s Bosworth did last year.

5. WHO’S ON THE HOT SEAT THIS YEAR?

Would you believe Miami’s Jimmy Johnson, whose Hurricanes came within one bowl win of a national championship in each of the last two seasons?

Johnson, though regarded as the builder of a burgeoning power, is nonetheless held responsible for Miami’s vice image. His approach to irrepressible athletes--showing up in fatigues before a championship game, talking the kind of trash that had Bosworth envious--was strictly hands off. We like to let our kids mature on our own, was how he defended the policy.

Policy, though, was rethought at a higher level. Athletic Director Sam Jankovich, embarrassed by the team’s scrapes with local law enforcement and its outlaw image, issued a 46-page “Student Athlete Code of Conduct and Handbook.” This is now the team least likely to wear jungle fatigues, even though some players still have such togs in the closet. Coat and tie is mandatory wear on the road.

Two other coaches on the hot seat are Bill Curry at Alabama and Larry Smith at USC, even though each has yet to lose a game. Alabama fans want instant results from Curry, who had a losing record at Georgia Tech, and USC is out of patience with coaches who fail to win the big ones.

6. WHERE WOULD YOU LEAST LIKE TO ENDOW A FOOTBALL PROGRAM?

How about Wyoming, where Athletic Director-Coach Paul Roach has persuaded 15 boosters to buy life insurance policies ranging in value from $15,000 to $500,000, naming the booster club beneficiary.

“We haven’t cashed in yet, but the insurance people tell us if you have 100 donors, one and a half of them will reach their demise annually,” Roach says. 7. ANY CONSENSUS ON BEST TEAM YET?

Everybody seems to like Oklahoma, which, if you recall, was the case going into the season last year. This season, though, the Sooners do not play Miami, which knocked them off the pinnacle early on.

Actually, the Sooners play hardly anybody. Texas and Nebraska, and that’s about it.

Quarterback Jamelle Holieway, who runs the option brilliantly, and a defense that will not suffer all that much by the Boz’s premature departure, should once more demolish the rest of the Big Eight. Last year, Oklahoma won its conference games by an average score of 43-4.

The other team getting mention is, well, Nebraska, which is typically huge and strong and which expects to play in a record 19th straight bowl game this year. That means a Nov. 21 showdown with Oklahoma to see if this year’s bowl is Orange. 8. WHO’S GOT THE BIGGEST SHOES TO FILL?

Poor Steve Walsh, a third-year sophomore, has to continue a legacy left by quarterbacks Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar and Vinny Testaverde at Miami.

He’s not in their league. And then there’s Dante Jones, who inherits Bosworth’s linebacking position. Jones, who made nine unassisted tackles in the Orange Bowl when the Boz wuz banned, can make it on the field, but not off. He should be as quiet as, well, Steve Walsh.

9. WHAT KIND OF COLORFUL THINGS WILL WE BE READING IN YOUR NOTES COLUMN?

Right now, it looks as if it will be running to reptiles. At Pitt, roommates Tony Siragusa and Burt Grossman planned to bring alligators named Jewels and Frank, and a seven-foot python.

Baylor offensive tackle Joel Porter, whose enviable nickname is Boxhead, had hoped to bring his pet snakes to Waco, but was overruled.

Arkansas nose guard Tony Cherico had a boa constrictor in his dorm until Coach Ken Hatfield suspended the snake.

That kind of thing. 10. WHAT IS THE UNLUCKIEST TEAM IN THE COUNTRY?

It could be Colorado, a team that was seemingly on the verge of breaking through. The Buffaloes, who won six of their last seven games, including an upset of Nebraska--the scoreboard lights were kept on for two days afterward and the town turned the clocks back an hour to savor the victory even a little longer--have been disintegrating in the off-season.

Outland Trophy candidate Curt Koch suffered a torn knee ligament in a hit-and-run accident during spring break, standout linebacker Don DeLuzio went down with a knee injury in non-contact drills, fullback Anthony Weatherspoon broke his hip in a summer accident, and quarterback Mark Walters tore a knee ligament during a play on which he wasn’t hit.

And then O.C. Oliver, the team’s leading rusher from last year, hurt his shoulder scrimmaging.

11. WILL THERE BE ANOTHER NATIONAL PLAYOFF GAME, LIKE LAST SEASON?

Why do you ask? Because it worked so well in determining the national championship? Because 70 million tuned in to the Fiesta Bowl?

No, there won’t be another national playoff game.

That was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, with an independent bowl subsidized to the max, luring two independent teams, who happened to be Nos. 1 and 2 in the ratings. We’ll see Halley’s Comet before that happens again.

The NCAA, however, will consider a proposal for a championship game later this year. The earliest such a game could happen would be 1990.

12. WHY DO THEY CALL DICK TOMEY OLD NEWS IN TUCSON?

Ten years ago, the Tucson Citizen ran the following headline: “Tomey to Be Named UA Coach Soon.” Time, apparently, is relative. Last spring, Tomey was finally appointed to replace Larry Smith. You hardly know what to think, then, when Tomey says Arizona will win soon.

13. WHY ARE THEY CALLING IOWA’S HAYDEN FRY THE NEW CASEY STENGEL?

Earlier this year he was complaining about the loss of defensive players. “We might just have to outscore people to win the early games,” he said.

14. WHAT ARE SOME STRANGE MATCH-UPS?

The University of Miami, in Florida, is scheduled to meet Miami University (of Oxford, Ohio) on Nov. 7, so look for scoreboard fun in the Orange Bowl.

And then suppose UCLA and Iowa play in the Rose Bowl. UCLA linebacker Ken Norton Jr. could well end up chasing down Peter Marciano, the Rock’s nephew.

15. WHAT’S BECOME OF SMU?

It’s been atomized, blown off the face of this earth as far as football is concerned. The first school to receive the NCAA’s so-called death penalty--something about a $61,000-slush fund involving 13 members of last year’s team, this after six probations--SMU is out of the game for two seasons, the second voluntarily.

As a consequence, all but three of SMU’s 56 scholarship players have scattered to 26 different programs, where the NCAA has allowed them immediate eligibility. Strangest transfer is defensive end John Robinson, who went to Columbia.

Meanwhile, SMU is converting the football stadium into a soccer stadium--you know how crazy Texas is for its soccer--and a Mustang alumnus is trying to find a place for restless fans by promoting Saturday afternoon polo at a local country club. They’ll never miss it.

Oh, next game: Rice, Sept. 9, 1989.