College Football / Jerry Crowe : Instead of Clock, Cal Could Use a Wakeup Call

A clock that malfunctioned late in the California-Oregon State game last Saturday left Cal Coach Bruce Snyder ticked off.

Cal and Oregon State played 61 minutes in the game at Corvallis, Ore. Cal led, 16-6, in the fourth quarter when, instead of reading 10:00, the scoreboard clock showed 10:99. The clock operator caught the error but reset the numerals to 10:59 instead of 9:59.

Nobody noticed, and Oregon State scored 11 points in the last 1 minute 53 seconds, winning on a 23-yard field goal by Troy Bussanich with 16 seconds left, 17-16.

The error wasn’t discovered until after the game, when somebody in the press box noticed on the play-by-play sheet that Cal’s Robbie Keen had punted at 10:12 but that Oregon State had run the first play of the ensuing series at 10:59.

“I have a lot of emotion about the whole game,” Snyder said. “The thing that we told the club was the fact that it was a 61-minute game did not change the fact that we did not play very well, very efficiently. They beat us when we did not play up to our standards.

“On the other hand, I think the thing with the clock represents very poor game management in allowing that to ever happen. I’m also surprised that they did not catch it, surprised that someone in the (press) box did not catch it--the timer, the clock operator, the play-by-play person. Someone.”

How about one of Snyder’s 11 assistant coaches?

Three yards and a mushroom cloud? Woody Hayes probably would not have approved, but Big Ten teams are dropping bombs on the opposition this season.

According to statistics compiled by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., only teams from the Western Athletic Conference have thrown for more yardage this season than those from the Big Ten.

WAC teams have passed for 230.7 yards a game, Big Ten teams for 194.4.

Teams in the Pacific 10 Conference have passed for 192.6 yards.

If Miami remains unbeaten and Steve Walsh remains uninjured, Walsh could become only the fifth T-formation quarterback in the 52-year history of the news-service rankings to lead his team to consecutive national championships.

The last to do it was Steve Davis, who led Oklahoma to national titles in 1974-75.

Others were Johnny Lujack, who led Notre Dame in 1946-47; Jimmy Harris, who led Oklahoma in 1955-56, and Jerry Tagge, who led Nebraska in 1970-71.

A single-wing tailback, Bruce Smith, also should be included. He led Minnesota to national titles in 1940-41.

Lujack actually started for 3 national championship teams, taking over as the starter in the seventh game of the 1943 season after Angelo Bertelli, winner of the Heisman Trophy that year, joined the Marines.

Walsh, a red-shirt junior, could be in line to match that feat next season, provided he doesn’t make himself available to the National Football League, as he has indicated he may do.

Upset that he had missed an extra point and a short field-goal attempt in the first half last week against Mississippi, kicker Kendall Trainor of Arkansas removed his right shoe at halftime and threw it into the trash.

With a new shoe, Trainor kicked 3 field goals in the second half of the Razorbacks’ 21-13 victory.

Said a bemused Arkansas Coach Ken Hatfield: “I don’t know how to coach kickers.”

Blowhards: Coach Jackie Sherrill questioned the motives of Alabama Coach Bill Curry, who had said he pulled out of last week’s game against the Aggies at College Station, Tex., because he feared flying close to the Texas coastline during Hurricane Gilbert.

At the time of the scheduled kickoff, the temperature in College Station, Tex., was in the low 90s, with sunny skies and light winds.

“Their quarterback was hurt, and that’s why they didn’t want to play this game,” Sherrill said.

David Smith, the Crimson Tide’s starting quarterback, had injured his knee earlier in the week, leaving backup Jeff Dunn less than a week to learn the complicated system of offensive coordinator Homer Smith.

“I’m sure it was a simple decision for Jackie Sherrill, who suddenly became an expert on hurricanes,” Curry said. “I made the decision not to go because, to tell you the truth, it wasn’t a difficult decision to make.”

The game has been rescheduled for Dec. 1, by which time Smith should be recovered.

“This is a million-dollar game for us,” Sherrill said. “You can’t take that out of anybody’s budget. We’re not going to get 73,000 people here in December.”

No dummy: Kirk Wendorf, starting fullback at Arizona State, has an unusual double major: English and biomedical engineering.

“Oddly enough, knee surgery my freshman year made me re-focus my goals from athletic to academic,” he said. “Discipline is very important to academic success.”

To that end, Wendorf parks his car after practice in a pay parking lot on campus and heads for the library, where he stays until after 11 p.m.

“If I leave before then, I have to pay $2.50,” he said.

Columbia, which last won a football game in 1983, talked confidently last week of ending its record losing streak against Harvard, the defending Ivy League champion.

Instead, the Lions were mauled, 41-7, extending their streak to 42 games.

The lopsided result didn’t dull the optimism of sophomore running back Solomon Johnson, though.

“I’m still confident about the season, about winning the Ivy League,” Johnson told USA Today.

Columbia hasn’t won the Ivy League championship since 1961.