College Football Notes : Freedom Bowl’s Starr Calls New Scouting Rule Unworkable

Press boxes at college football games across the country will be minus a few orange and turquoise and Chartreuse sports jackets for at least another month. The jackets belong to postseason bowl scouts, who earlier this year agreed to stay away from games until Oct. 14.

Many welcomed the move. Others went along with it a bit more grudgingly; for instance, Tom Starr, executive director of the Dec. 30 Freedom Bowl.

“To me, it’s not a workable rule,” Starr said this week from the game’s headquarters in Anaheim. “There are too many loopholes in it. It was done more for the New Year’s Day bowls than the non-New Year’s Day games.”

Among the loopholes Starr is alluding to is that bowls with conference affiliations can send scouts to see games at conference sites, such as when Penn State visits Texas on Sept. 30.

Or that bowls can visit the schools which participated in last year’s game, giving the Fiesta Bowl clearance to play host to a party at Notre Dame this weekend. Or that any bowl can send scouts and have them sit in the stands.

The decision was made at the College Bowl Assn. meeting in San Diego last April, presumably to cut down on the speculation that begins every September and goes on until the invitations are sent out in mid-November.

It was also done to cut costs.

“But it’s not very cost-efficient for us,” Starr said. “Take this weekend, for example. Normally, I could go to see Ohio State at USC and Michigan at UCLA. That’s not to say we’re going to get any of those teams.

“But now, if Michigan and Ohio State drop out of the picture for some other games, we’re going to have to scout them somewhere down the road.”

To the major bowls, the new rule will have little effect.

“The word ‘scouting’ has been a misnomer,” said Bruce Skinner, the Fiesta Bowl’s executive director. “We’re really on a sales mission. The only reason you went out in September is because the other guy was going out.”

“If this hadn’t been done, you would have seen eight to 10 scouts at the Michigan-Notre Dame game last week,” Cotton Bowl executive director Jim Brock said earlier this week from Dallas. “But in the long run, it doesn’t change anything.”

Certainly not for the major postseason games such as the Rose Bowl, which is committed to taking the Big 10 and Pac-10 champions. Or the Cotton, which takes the Southwest Conference winner and a highly ranked opponent. Or the Orange (Big Eight vs. independent) and Sugar (Southeastern vs. independent).

But for the have-nots, it could turn into a big-time problem.

“We’re going to have to scramble,” Starr said.

Starr was reported to be scrambling last weekend. He was spotted at, and later quoted about, the Oregon State-Washington State game. Oops.

Going into the Ohio State game at the Coliseum Saturday, USC Coach Larry Smith has an 0-4 record against Big 10 teams.

This after Trojan coaches had combined to win 17 straight against the conference.

One team that needn’t worry about the bowl picture is SMU, which came back from the so-called “death penalty” to win its first game since Nov. 15, 1986. The Mustangs beat Connecticut last Saturday in Dallas, 31-30.

“People have been saying all year that ‘You can’t . . . you can’t . . . you can’t, but we did,” SMU Coach Forrest Gregg said after his team of mostly first-year players overcame a 30-14 deficit going into the fourth quarter to beat the Division I-AA Huskies.

The victory must have been even more gratifying for the one player who stayed around while the program was shut down. Fifth-year receiver Mitchell Glieber, the son of the late CBS sportscaster Frank Glieber, caught eight passes for 117 yards, including a 43-yard touchdown.

Michael Bowen, who transferred to Georgia and later returned, caught the game-winner, a four-yard pass with no time left.

Texas A&M; tailback Darren Lewis was a dark horse candidate for the Heisman Trophy this year, having been the nation’s second-leading rusher last year (1,692 yards) behind Heisman winner Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State. But Lewis hasn’t made it out of the gate, with only 150 yards in the Aggies’ first three games.

This week’s game between unbeaten Arkansas (1-0) and undefeated Mississippi (3-0) marks the first time since the series was renewed in 1981 that both schools are unbeaten going into the game.

Though second-ranked Miami has suddenly become the hottest football ticket in town, selling more season’s tickets (52,000) than the Dolphins for the first time, Hurricanes fans can still be a tough sell. Junior quarterback Craig Erickson heard some boos during last week’s 31-3 victory over the California Bears. Erickson threw four interceptions and three touchdown passes against the Bears.

“I didn’t hear them, and I hope that’s not true,” first-year Miami Coach Dennis Erickson (no relation) said when asked about the boos.

After throwing for 281 yards in his debut against Wisconsin two weeks ago, Erickson was being touted as having a more successful first outing than any of his four famous predecessors. But consider this: Jim Kelly had 280 yards against Penn State, while Bernie Kosar (223), Vinny Testaverde (278) and Steve Walsh (234) all opened up against Florida.

“It (Erickson’s yardage stat) looks good on TV,” one Hurricane cynic said.

At least one member of the Cal coaching staff wasn’t impressed with the Hurricanes. “There are five teams in the Pac-10 better than Miami,” linebacker coach Denny Creehan said. “Print that.”

The Bears didn’t make any fans with a pizza shop near campus. After ordering 42 large pies from a chain called “Fatboys” on Friday night before the team left for Miami, the shop’s manager received a call after the pies had been made. The message: “Hold the pepperoni, and everything else”.

Did you see the feeble onside-kick attempt by Michigan with 4:08 remaining in last Saturday’s 24-19 loss to Notre Dame in Ann Arbor? It went three yards, hit a Michigan player in the back of the leg, and the ball was awarded to the Fighting Irish.

Many second-guessed the move, not the least of whom was Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler.

Schembechler justified his decision to try it so early by saying that the Fighting Irish hadn’t been passing (only two the entire game) and once they got possession “they’d . . . kill too much time.” Also, the Wolverines only had one timeout left. But after what happened if I had to do it all over again, I promise I’d kick it deep.”

Speaking of second-guessing some moves on that play, how about Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz using starting quarterback Tony Rice on the front line of the return team. Holtz kiddingly calls that front line his “Allstate” team, because “we’re in good hands.”

But don’t you think the nation’s top college football program can find anyone else with good hands besides Rice?

Quote of the Week: From Iowa Coach Hayden Fry after the Hawkeyes lost at home to Oregon, 44-6: “I can imagine every other team on our schedule licking their chops after this score. We’ve done a number on a lot of foes over the years, and this will be payback time for them.”