College Football : It’s Getting Hard to Ignore These Orangemen

The big three--Oklahoma, Nebraska and Miami--have so outdistanced the competition this season that at least one National Football League man proposed that they substitute for the pro teams during the recent strike.

Certainly, they’ve been playing out of their league, but that’s what has been expected of them since the first kickoff.

Beneath this elite layer, however, there have been some surprises. One of the biggest will be on display again today when Syracuse plays host to Penn State.

The Orangemen are a surprising 5-0 going into this game, which in years past was something of a rivalry until Syracuse lost 16 in a row to the Nittany Lions. The Orangemen are ranked in the top 20 and, for once, are inspiring enthusiasm and confidence on campus.

Friday night, the mayor held a pep rally on the steps of City Hall, and there was something to cheer about. There was a lot of cheering in 1959, when Ben Schwartzwalder’s team won a national championship, but there hasn’t been much lately.

In recent years, a strained mediocrity has characterized the program made famous by Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Floyd Little and Larry Csonka.

Schwartzwalder himself led a decline in the program, failing to adjust to changes in society and football. In 1970, the last time Syracuse beat Penn State, his black players walked out of spring practice and never returned. He clung to old-fashioned formations and defenses as well as tenets, and by 1972, the team had its first losing season in 23 years.

But today’s coach, Dick MacPherson, has moved into the 1980s in a positive way. Arriving a year after the Carrier Dome was constructed, MacPherson set about finding the kind of players the facility deserved.

“We’re the only Division I school in a state of 17 million people,” he has said. “If we can’t find 25, 30 football players in that group, we’re whistling ‘Dixie.’ ”

Traditionally, Syracuse and Penn State have competed for many of the same players. MacPherson snagged former All-American tackle Tim Green out from under Joe Paterno and snapped up a couple of Long Island players--quarterback Don McPherson and nose guard Ted Gregory.

McPherson holds 12 school records and is the first quarterback to throw for more than 4,000 yards. Interestingly, he is black, which shows that Syracuse and times do change.

Still, Syracuse has a way to go.

On regaining equality with Penn State, McPherson told the Philadelphia Daily News: “All we have to do is beat them three, four times in a row, win three national championships, go to big bowls every year and we’re right back with them.”

Other surprises:

--Oklahoma State is 5-0, behind the nation’s leading rusher, Thurman Thomas, who is averaging 140 yards a game.

--Indiana is 5-1 overall and leads the Big Ten at 3-0.

--Oregon is 4-1 with upset wins over Washington and USC.

Of course, a few things could change. Oklahoma State plays Nebraska today, and Oregon is up against UCLA.

The Big Ten is in something of a muddle after the ol’ dependables, Ohio State and Michigan, got upset on the same day last week.

Explained Iowa Coach Hayden Fry: “Anybody in the Big Ten can win the Big Ten this year because there’s not a truly outstanding offensive football team from a consistency viewpoint. There’s not really that many great quarterbacks.”

The conference’s leading passer is Iowa’s Jim Hartlieb, whom Fry doesn’t always start.

Heisman Trophy 1988, continued: Joining Pitt’s Craig (Ironhead) Heyward and Penn State’s Blair Thomas in the running is Florida’s Emmitt Smith, the No. 2 rusher in the nation, right behind Oklahoma State’s Thomas.

Smith, a freshman from Pensacola, Fla., has announced his campaign as follows: “I want to win it as many times as possible. I want to win it once or twice. I want to be the first to win it three times in a row. It’s going to be hard, but ain’t nothing wrong with wanting it.”

Smith, considered by many to be too small and too slow, has rushed for more than 100 yards in each of his last five games. And his team usually wins because of it.

Before he turned out for Escambia High in 1983, his school had won six games in five years. With Smith, the team won 41 of its 48 games and two state championships. Florida, with its 4-2 record, isn’t doing quite as well, but it can look forward to three more seasons of Smith.

Congrats to coaches Fred Akers of Purdue and Jim Walden of Iowa State. Each finally got his first victory since bailing out of, respectively, Texas and Washington State.

Akers’ Boilermakers whomped Illinois on three field goals, 9-3, and Walden’s Cyclones routed Northern Iowa, a Division I-AA school, 39-38.