COLLEGE FOOTBALL : This Coach Is Thinking Ahead, and He’s Not Afraid to Admit It

If you wanted to talk bowl bids with a football coach at this point of the season, you’d be rebuked for even mentioning the subject.

Football coaches tend to chant the old “one game at a time” litany.

Washington State Coach Mike Price, though, is at least willing to concede that he has his sights set on a bowl game.

“That’s an important goal for us, and I don’t mind admitting it,” Price said. “But another important goal is that we take one game at a time. We’re stressing that, playing up to our potential and playing as hard as we can every week.”

The Cougars have a 5-1 record and are ranked 17th nationally.

“I think we’re four seconds away from being in the top 10,” Price said.

He was referring to Washington State’s 18-17 loss to USC on Sept. 30, when the Trojans drove 91 yards to a touchdown and then made a two-point conversion with four seconds remaining.

There’s an outside chance that the Cougars still might get to the Rose Bowl if they don’t lose any more Pacific 10 games.

USC and UCLA are the front-runners, each with a 2-0 conference record, but WSU and Arizona are still in contention, each with a 2-1 record.

Washington State, which beat Houston last season in the Aloha Bowl, has never played in bowl games in consecutive years. In fact, the Cougars have appeared in only four bowl games in the 99-year history of the school.

With an offense that is averaging 37.5 points a game, the Cougars are making frequent television appearances and are an attractive team to bowl scouts.

“I think, if halfway through the season is any indication, we would be on track for a bowl bid,” Price said.

Jim Walden, a former Washington State coach who left the school out of frustration three years ago, is frustrated again at Iowa State.

He has threatened to quit his job unless some measures are taken to provide him with more scholarship players. He has only 56. The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. allows a team to have up to 95.

“I’m not going to stand here and coach 56 guys for the rest of my life,” he said. “So get it changed, or there’s going to be a change. It’s just as simple as that. I don’t think anybody would throw a rock at me for making that statement.”

NCAA rules allow schools to offer no more than 25 scholarships a year. Walden has been pushing a plan that would allow a coach taking a job at a school that’s short of players to exceed the annual limit for two years so he could reach the overall limit of 95.

Walden said: “I’m here at a great school, coaching for tremendous people that deserve a better chance, and I’m not giving it to them. My organization is not allowing me and my coaches a chance to show these people how good we really are.”

Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler was steaming after his team had beaten Wisconsin last Saturday, 24-0.

“That’s the worst 24-0 victory we’ve ever had,” Schembechler said.

Don’t be so hasty, Bo. Have you forgotten Michigan’s 24-0 victories over Albion in 1886, or over Michigan Normal in 1897, or even over Case in 1911?

It doesn’t figure that No. 2-ranked Miami would want No. 1-ranked Notre Dame to remain unbeaten.

However, the Hurricanes want the Irish all to themselves.

“Deep down, mentally and physically, we think we’re the best,” Miami defensive end Willis Peguese said. “But we want Notre Dame to stay on top because we want to be the ones to knock them off. Nobody but us.”

Unbeaten Air Force would like to spoil Miami’s plan Saturday. So would USC, which has an Oct. 21 date with Notre Dame at South Bend, Ind.

While Notre Dame and Miami are on a collision course for a possible national championship showdown Nov. 25, unbeaten Houston is on a rampage in the Southwest Conference.

Houston beat Baylor last Saturday, 66-10. That’s the most points Baylor has yielded since a 77-0 loss to Texas in 1913.

Coach Jack Pardee’s Cougars lead the nation in total offense and passing, averaging 647.2 and 559.8 yards a game, while using a game-long two-minute offense.

At that rate, Houston will break the NCAA single-season total offense record of 548.2 yards a game set by Brigham Young in 1983 and the passing record of 409.8 by Brigham Young in 1980.

Houston quarterback Andre Ware is the nation’s individual total offense leader, averaging 439.5 yards a game. Brigham Young’s Steve Young set the NCAA single-season record of 395.1 in 1983.

Miami Coach Dennis Erickson, on Saturday’s home game against San Jose State: “They beat Stanford. They should have beaten California. They played both those teams on the road.”

Some trip. Going from San Jose to Palo Alto or Berkeley is a little different that going from San Jose to Miami.

Tim Kelly of Slippery Rock has the distinction of being perhaps the smallest defensive end in college football.

For sure, he’s odd-sized at 5 feet 6 inches and 195 pounds. Yet, he has 36 tackles, including a team-leading eight for losses.

“A lot of guys talk and laugh the first couple of plays,” Kelly said. “Then they figure they’re going to be in for a long game and the laughter stops.”

College Notes

The fastest team in the country? Syracuse Coach Dick MacPherson would vote for Florida State, which beat his team last Saturday, 41-10. “Florida State has the best speed in the country,” MacPherson said. “When they get prancing, they really get prancing.”

Arizona State kicker Alan Zendejas has missed four field goals this season, including two against UCLA last Saturday night, and his job is reportedly in jeopardy. It’s a family matter at the school. His brother, Luis Zendejas, missed a late, short-yardage field goal against USC in 1984 that would have tied the Trojans. Instead, USC won, 6-3.

Fresno State Coach Jim Sweeney has found a quarterback, but not for his own team. He suggested that Oregon State’s Matt Booher, who replaced injured Nick Schichtle in the Bulldogs’ 35-18 win over the Beavers, should be OSU’s starting quarterback. “He scrambles as well as I’ve seen a quarterback scramble,” Sweeney said of Booher.

Alex Van Pelt, the first freshman quarterback to start a season-opening game for Pittsburgh, is passing for an average of 257 yards a game, a pace that, if continued, will break Dan Marino’s single-season school record of 2,876 yards set in 1981.

Washington State, which hasn’t played in the Rose Bowl since 1930, plays only one Pac-10 championship contending team, Arizona, the rest of the season. . . . Cougar Coach Mike Price, on Aaron Garcia, a redshirt freshman quarterback: “He’s an 18-year-old kid and the only quarterback in the country to have started a junior varsity game against Walla Walla Community College and then against USC on national television in the same month.”