BIG EIGHT BALL : Eric Bieniemy and Colorado Are Closer to Getting Out From Under the Shadow of Big Two and His Big Fumble

Eric Bieniemy, the runaway boulder from Boulder, the 5-foot 6-inch neutron who dots the power-I in the University of Colorado’s offense, was last seen on a Big Eight Conference football field stumbling and fumbling in Nebraska territory, wrecking a drive to help seal his team’s eventual 7-0 defeat.

This is not the lasting memory of choice for Bieniemy, the 19-year-old sophomore from West Covina who became the first Colorado player since 1977 to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season. This is not the parting shot he wants to take into the off-season, to mull over and over during the snow-bound months ahead.

For that reason, Eric Bieniemy is thankful there’s a Freedom Bowl.

Because of a hamstring pull he sustained in the Nebraska game, Bieniemy missed Colorado’s regular-season finale, a 56-14 rout of Kansas State. He also missed a shot at the school’s single-season rushing record--at 1,243 yards, he needed 143 more, and Kansas State’s defense seemed certainly willing--but that, for Bieniemy, was the least of it.

Bieniemy needed to purge the Nebraska defeat, and his own personal Cornhusking, from his system--and the only way to do that, he figured, was to return to the scene, to pick up the football and try again.

Fortunately, there are more than enough bowl games to go around these days. For every 8-3 team, there’s a home, and Colorado, for the second time in 4 years, landed in Anaheim. Thursday night at Anaheim Stadium, the Buffaloes will face Brigham Young (8-4) in the fifth Freedom Bowl.

Bieniemy, who has resumed practicing with Colorado, will soon be on the run again.

“I’m excited,” he said after a 2-hour workout on Christmas Eve. “This is a big chance for us. We win the Freedom Bowl and we’re 9-3. That’ll give us a shot at the top-20 preseason polls and that could put us in a dominant role next year. Next year, we could be the team to beat.”

The team to beat? In the Big Eight, land of Nebraska and Oklahoma and Barry Sanders?

“Big Eight champions,” Bieniemy says. “I want to take Colorado to the Orange Bowl. I’m tired of finishing behind . . . well, I’m not going to call them the Big Two. If we win the Big Eight, that would fulfill all my dreams.”

With Oklahoma facing bowl probation and Colorado expected to have 18 starters return for the 1989 season, those could be more than pipe dreams. It could be Nebraska and Colorado for the Orange Bowl next season, which only adds to Bieniemy’s frustration over the missed opportunity in 1988.

Bieniemy injured his right hamstring on the first play of the Nebraska game. He tried to keep playing, but managed just 5 more attempts for a net total of 33 yards.

And one fumble.

It was only Bieniemy’s second fumble of the season, but it still leaves him shaking his head. He shouldn’t have dropped the ball, he says, mainly because he shouldn’t have run the play.

“It made the hamstring worse,” Bieniemy said. “I pulled it even more on the fumble. After that, it hurt so much, I could barely walk with it.”

Colorado had lost its main offensive threat--and with it, any realistic hopes of beating the Huskers.

“Coming into the game, we felt like we could put up a lot of yards on the ground,” Bieniemy said. “We felt our offensive line could dominate them up front. (The coaching staff) wanted the tailback to get over 200 yards. That was the game plan.”

It never panned out, but it is worth noting that the Colorado game plan calls for a tailback. That’s new this season in Boulder. Since 1985, Coach Bill McCartney had tried his luck with the wishbone, but the recruitment of Bieniemy from Bishop Amat High helped convince him that a switch to the tailback-oriented power-I might be in order for 1988.

Bieniemy rushed for 2,002 yards and 30 touchdowns during his senior season at Bishop Amat. As a Colorado freshman, he started all 11 games and netted 508 yards in 104 attempts--a 4.9 average.

Good but, as a halfback in the Colorado wishbone scheme, he wasn’t getting the ball often enough.

“The wishbone is a quarterback-fullback offense,” McCartney said. “It’s not a halfback offense. We were neglecting guys like Eric and J.J. (Flannigan, now Colorado’s No. 2 tailback). We weren’t making the best use of our talented tailbacks.”

So McCartney scrapped one offense and built another, basically, to accommodate Bieniemy.

One big step for Colorado football . . . and a bunch of little ones for Bieniemy.

The power-I debuted with a 45-3 thrashing of Fresno State. Bieniemy gained 118 yards. Then came Iowa and 153 yards for Bieniemy. Oregon State and 211 yards for Bieniemy. Kansas and 195 yards for Bieniemy.

“We got to be Eric Dickerson and Marcus Allen again,” Bieniemy said with a laugh.

Only Dickerson and Allen never quite ran this way. At 5-6 and 190 pounds, Bieniemy ricochets more than runs. His running style has been described as “a bowling ball with grease,” and as he darts back and forth behind Colorado’s huge offensive, Bieniemy resembles nothing so much as a cartoon character. Hence, around the Colorado locker room, Bieniemy goes by the handles Beep-Beep and Scooter.

“He’s something else to watch,” said Erik Norgard, the Colorado center. “We’ll run an outside play, I’ll take my guy out and look up and see that Eric’s just got hit. Just as I’m going to help him up, Eric starts spinning and he’ll go for an extra 20 or a touchdown. I’ve seen him do that many times.”

Tough to tackle is how the Bieniemy scouting report reads. As with others of similar build--Joe Morris, Robert Newhouse--this is traditionally attributed to one’s having “a low center of gravity.”

But with Bieniemy, it’s more than that. With Bieniemy, it also has to do with having a high threshold for pain.

Consider his assessment of the long-gone wishbone formation.

“I kind of miss it. I miss the contact,” he said. “I did more blocking in the wishbone and I love to block. That was fun, getting up there and knocking people down.”

McCartney noted this personality quirk right away in Bieniemy.

“The first game he started for us, as a wishbone halfback, he had 12 ‘knockdowns’--12 blocks where he completely knocked guys off their feet,” McCartney said. “Here’s this little freshman, going after guys and taking them out.

“From that moment on, we knew there was something special about him.”

Then again, maybe Bieniemy simply needs his eyes checked. Every time he looks in a mirror, he sees a 6-4, 240-pound fullback.

“I like to take the ball up the middle,” he said. “I love the inside. Once you get past the linebacker, you’re one-on-one with the DB. And I’ll take that, any day, over going one-on-one with a linebacker.”

And, to the surprise of many linebackers, Bieniemy does get past them.

“A lot of people look at my size and expect me to lay over and let them destroy me,” Bieniemy said. “But they don’t see what’s inside. I rely a lot on my heart. It’s what gets me through.”

Occasionally, too, it can get him into trouble.

Last February, Bieniemy and teammate Kanavis McGhee were involved in a fist-swinging incident in a Boulder nightclub prompted by what Bieniemy calls “a racial slur.” Bieniemy responded with a hard right hook to the jaw and by night’s end, he and McGhee were arrested and charged with third-degree assault.

Bieniemy pleaded no contest to the charge and was placed on a year’s probation.

“It could’ve been avoided,” Bieniemy said. “It was a racial slur and I got upset, but I learned my lesson. I learned you can’t go around knocking people in the head, especially with me being a public figure.”

Bieniemy also learned, quickly, how such public figures can be perceived.

“I got a lot of stares and glares while walking around campus,” he said. “I felt like I wasn’t being accepted at my own school. It was hard to take.”

At the time, Bieniemy admits, he considered transferring from Colorado.

“It crossed my mind,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why should I stay here if I’m getting treated this way?’

“But looking back, I felt I was being tested. If you’ve got a problem, stand up and face it. You can’t run away from your problems.”

So Bieniemy stayed and limited his running to the football field. By late November, he had been named Colorado’s most valuable player by his teammates. He was also placed on the All-Big Eight first team by writers and coaches. He became this season’s Football Hero on the Colorado campus.

Amazing what 1,200 rushing yards can do for one’s public image.

And what about an appearance in the 1990 Orange Bowl?

That’s the great quest around Boulder, and already, the hype is picking up speed. Words such as top 10 and Heisman were getting tossed around the other day at Colorado’s Freedom Bowl practice site at UC Irvine.

“We’re excited about the prospect of having a big season next year,” McCartney said. “If we can win this game, I think we’ll go into the season highly regarded.”

And Bieniemy?

“It’s early to talk about the Heisman, but assuming he continues to make progress, he’s going to get strong consideration,” McCartney said.

“This year, Barry Sanders ran in an offense that has five seniors in the line, a fifth-year senior at fullback and an experienced tight end. Eric will have a much more experienced offensive line next year and that should mean additional things to him.”

Said Bieniemy: “The Heisman is always something that goes through your mind. I’ve got 2 more years and I’m placing it in the back of my mind. My main thing is getting Colorado in the Orange Bowl.”

But before Buffaloes can dream of Orange Bowls, they must tend to more modest details. There are Freedom Bowls to play, BYUs to beat, fumbles to be forgotten.

Little steps, little steps.