COLLEGE FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK : Orange Bowl Selection Officials Deny That They Beat the Clock

There are at least three weeks to go in this college football season, but the postseason bowls seem sewn up. Depending on which bowl director is asked, the reason is because the Orange Bowl lined up its guests early and forced everyone else to scramble for position.

Of course, if the question is directed to Orange Bowl executive director Steven Hatchell, he will tell you something else.

“The bowl pick ‘em day is the third Saturday after the third Tuesday in November,” said Hatchell. “That’s a week later than usual. It falls after Thanksgiving and it will again next year, too. If you look at the schedules, most teams are through their conference schedules by then, and you can put your hand on the number of top independents.

“By Thanksgiving, everyone wants to know where they’re going.”

Of course, Hatchell has known that No. 2 Colorado only has to beat Kansas State Saturday to assure the Buffaloes of a date in the Orange with Notre Dame. It is a fact that made Hatchell more than a little happy and his fax machine more than a little busy, with friends taking the time to harass him about his alma mater -- Colorado.

Part of a letter from Southern Mississippi basketball Coach M.K. Turk:

“Let me see, your job is to pick one team for one day to play in one game and you spend 365 days doing it,” wrote Turk. “Do you have another job like that?”

Before and after Turk’s letter has come a deluge of paper.

“I’ve got a roomful of derivations of what a buffalo is supposed to look like and a lot of them have Ghostbuster signs through them,” said Hatchell. “The only problem is most of the drawings make the buffalo out to look like cows.”

Hatchell admits New Year’s Day he will unabashedly root for the Buffs.

Defensive back Jimmy DeMoss is not your usual big college defensive back. Saturday, against Virginia, DeMoss will come to the end of his football career at Maryland. It is a career in which he has played in one game in three years.

“I walked on my sophomore year, I stuck it out and I got in a game two weeks ago against North Carolina,” said DeMoss, a 5-foot-7, 173-pounder who played for Calvert Hall in Baltimore before going to Maryland. “It’s been worth it. I love this game and I got in. A lot of guys don’t.”

But even before DeMoss, an urban studies major, got in a football game, Maryland assistant coach Greg Williams said his services were particularly valuable this season.

“Because of all the injuries we’ve had,” said Williams, “we couldn’t have practiced if he and the other guys like him hadn’t been here. Jimmy has been great for us. Most walk-ons want to know what you can do for them, but that kid never asked. He stuck with us through all the work, the cold, the rain and everything else. If there’s any way possible, we’ll get him in this last game.”

DeMoss in Williams’ eyes is obviously DeMost.

Terry Donahue, whose UCLA Bruins are a surprising 3-7, walked into a press luncheon the other day and solemnly began reading a statement: “I’ve done a lot of soul-searching, made evaluations and talked to my athletic director about this.”

What was this? Resignation?

Donahue broke into a mischievous grin and said: “I, Terry Donahue, being of sound mind and body, declare myself insane to meet with sportswriters today.”

ESPN’s Lee Corso has finally proved he is from the World Beyond. Corso’s justification for saying Houston’s Andre Ware deserves the Heisman:

“If a Martian came down and was asked to pick the best college football player in America, what would he do? He’d look at the stats. And the stats show Andre Ware is the best player in the country.”

So, who would trust a Heisman vote to a Martian, anyway?