COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Pacific 10 Race Narrows to Three Teams

One by one, teams that were expected to contend for the Pacific 10 championship have fallen by the wayside.

UCLA is out of it. So are Oregon and Washington. USC, the preseason favorite, is 4-0 in the conference, and Arizona (4-1) is the only remaining challenger unless Oregon State (3-1-1) upsets the Trojans Saturday at the Coliseum.

If USC wins and Arizona beats California at Berkeley Saturday, the probable championship showdown would be Nov. 11 in Tucson.

Arizona is the only Pac-10 school that hasn’t played in the Rose Bowl, and it hasn’t been a contender this late in the season. In fact, the Wildcats’ 4-1 conference record is their best at this point of the season since the school joined the Pac-10 in 1978.

One would assume, considering the stakes, that Arizona would be looking ahead and have difficulty focusing on its game with Cal, 2-6 overall and 0-5 in the Pac-10.

But Arizona Coach Dick Tomey said it won’t be a problem.

“We won’t have any trouble focusing on California,” he said. “We remember very vividly that they beat us last year. The Cal game is a key to everything.

“We’ve never played for first place this late in the year. We’ve never been 4-1. We’re trying to get to a new level so we can control our own destiny.”

Arizona gained some stature by beating Oklahoma, 6-3, earlier in the season. Then the Wildcats routed UCLA, 42-7, on Oct. 14.

It was theorized at the time that Arizona surprised UCLA with a power-I formation, an offensive diversion from its standard wishbone formation.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal,” said Tomey, who had dispatched two of his assistant coaches to Boulder, Colo., the previous week to study the power-I option offense that has been so effective for Colorado.

“The I-formation is so conventional. Everyone sees it all the time. So it wasn’t a radical thing. We added only one new play and blocked for it the same as we do (in) the wishbone.”

In any event, the Wildcats gained 480 yards rushing on the Bruins, the most UCLA has yielded on the ground since its inaugural game with USC in 1929, when the Trojans gained 753 yards rushing, still a conference record.

Tomey has made another late-season adjustment-- replacing starting quarterback Ronald Veal with redshirt freshmen George Malauulu, formerly of Carson High School.

“We have confidence in both quarterbacks,” Tomey said. “We feel fortunate that we have two guys here who can do the job.”

And if Arizona does the job against Cal, it will reach an unfamiliar level.

The Big Eight has been referred to as the Big Two because the conference has usually been dominated by Oklahoma and Nebraska.

Now Colorado has an opportunity to change the power structure when it plays Nebraska Saturday at Boulder, Colo.

The conference’s other coaches slightly favor No. 2-ranked Colorado over No. 3-ranked Nebraska.

Some opinions:

--Iowa State’s Jim Walden: “Nebraska has to throw the ball and they’re not going to want to. They’re a better throwing team than Oklahoma, but if you don’t throw the ball on Colorado, they’re going to beat you into submission because they’ve got as good a front seven as any team in the United States.”

--Oklahoma State’s Pat Jones: “My gut feeling is Colorado will win. We haven’t played them yet, but I’ve seen them on film. I think they have the most talented team in the league, with height, weight and speed. It’s not vintage Nebraska, but Nebraska knows how to win.”

--Missouri’s Bob Stull: “They’ve both got good sets of running backs. I’d say Colorado’s are faster and Nebraska’s are a little stronger, more balanced. The striking thing about Colorado is team speed. They’re very similar on defense.

Nebraska is led by fifth-year senior Gerry Gdowski, while Colorado quarterback Darian Hagan is a good option runner who is also an accurate long passer.

Said Jones: “They’re totally different types of athletes. Hagan is a quick guy, very explosive, who can make things happen. Gdowski is not that kind of quarterback, although he makes few mistakes and does a great job of taking advantage of the people around him.

“I think if Nebraska can contain Hagan, make him have a subpar game, then Nebraska will have a real chance to win.”

“Stagg Fears Purdue” was a famous headline in a Chicago newspaper many years ago when Amos Alonzo Stagg was coaching at the University of Chicago.

Update that headline to “Bo Fears Purdue.”

That’s right, Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler, whose team has a 6-1 record and is 4-0 in the Big Ten, said he’s nervous about a team that has lost six consecutive games.

“I figure if I get nervous, the kids will do the same things,” said Schembechler, noting that Purdue scored 21 points against Michigan State in the last 6 1/2 minutes while losing, 28-21.

“An underdog will come in and let it all out. But it is how we think that will determine if we win the game.”

Michigan is a 35-point favorite.

If top-ranked Notre Dame remains unbeaten, it will probably play the winner of the Colorado-Nebraska game in the Orange Bowl Jan. 1 with the national championship possibly at stake.

“That’s the logical thing right now if we remain unbeaten,” said John Heisler, Notre Dame’s sports information director.

However, if you believe Lou Holtz, the Irish might not even accept a bowl bid because the scheduling of final exams would make it difficult to prepare his team for a New Year’s Day game.

Sure, Lou. Notre Dame will pass up a possible $4.1-million payday and the opportunity of repeating as national champion.

The Fiesta Bowl, which has been the site of two national championship games in the past three years, hasn’t despaired of a matchup involving Notre Dame.

Nor has the Sugar Bowl, suggesting a matchup of the Irish and fifth-ranked Alabama before a large Catholic population in the New Orleans area.

If Oregon State upsets USC, it will be the first time that the Beavers have beaten the four California schools in the same year.

The Beavers haven’t defeated the Trojans at the Coliseum since 1960, John McKay’s first game as USC’s coach.

Florida State has rebounded from an 0-2 start to win six consecutive games, and Coach Bobby Bowden said his Seminoles may be as good as any team in the country.

Bowden said of his team’s 24-10 win over previously No. 2-ranked Miami last Saturday: “Them and us might be as good as anybody. We’ll find out when Miami plays Notre Dame (on Nov. 25).”