COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Irish Need More Than Love of Game to Hold off Miami

Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz has ridden an emotional roller coaster this season, downgrading his team at times and absurdly building up weak opponents.

Holtz has taken a different approach as the top-ranked Irish prepare for Saturday night’s game against No. 7 Miami in the Orange Bowl.

“We’re a tired team,” Holtz said. “It has been a long year. But we’re a team that loves football and that’s our saving grace.”

Holtz realizes, of course, that Notre Dame’s love of the game won’t be sufficient to beat Miami, which has been impatiently waiting to avenge last year’s 31-30 loss at South Bend, Ind., that cost the Hurricanes a shot at the national championship.

Holtz said Miami was the best team Notre Dame played last year and “certainly the best we’ll see this year.”

That quote may come back to haunt him when Notre Dame plays No. 2 Colorado in the Orange Bowl Jan. 1.

Holtz is talking about his tired team and Michigan’s Bo Schembechler is enthusiastic about his team’s Big Ten championship game Saturday with Ohio State at Ann Arbor, Mich.

If the Wolverines win, they’ll play USC in the Rose Bowl for the second consecutive year.

“Anybody in coaching likes to play these games,” Schembechler said. “That’s why we like to play the Notre Dames, UCLAs and the Miamis of Florida. We don’t always win these big games, but I like to play them and the players do, too.”

It’s unlikely that third-ranked Michigan, which has lost only to Notre Dame, will win the national championship even if it beats Ohio State and USC.

Schembechler has never won a national championship in his 21 years at Michigan, but he says his place in football history is secure, with or without the title.

“It doesn’t bother me,” he said. “You can say whatever you want about me, and people will, but I play as tough a schedule as anybody in the country. I’ve won three times as many games as some of these guys, but you’re telling me my career’s a failure because I’ve never been voted a national championship?”

Schembechler’s record stands at 233-64-8, the best among active coaches in wins and fifth on the all-time list.

Quiz time: When is the last time that a Big Ten team has won three (or more) consecutive years in the Rose Bowl game? Answer on C4.

Brave words dept.:

Northwestern Coach Francis Peay following his team’s 76-14 loss to Michigan State:

“I told my team something I always believed in, that once you enter a game your opponent is always trained to attack. He is not trained to retreat. We have to be ready to answer the call.”

USC linebacker Junior Seau, the Pacific 10 Conference defensive player of the year, is reportedly undecided whether or not he’ll remain in school for his senior season in 1990, or make himself available for the NFL draft.

In a recent interview with the Daily Trojan, Seau said: “I’m looking into (going pro) after the season is out. It would be for financial reasons, for my dad and mom and my family overall.”

Seau’s father is suffering from heart problems. It has also been rumored that free safety Mark Carrier, whose father is confined to a wheelchair, is also considering forfeiting his senior year to play in the NFL.

As for Seau, USC Coach Larry Smith said: “That’s contrary to what I heard. I talked to Chris Allen (USC’s defensive coordinator) and Seau told him a few days ago that that he hasn’t talked to anyone. He also said that’s what newspaper people are saying he’s going to do and he has no intention of doing that.

“When I talked to him last week he said people are putting words in his mouth and that he just wants to play football.”

Stay tuned.

“Next year we think we’ll have the best six (running) backs in the (Pacific 10) conference.”

Larry Smith didn’t say that.

Neither did Terry Donahue.

That quote came--surprisingly--from Stanford Coach Dennis Green after his team beat California, 24-14, last Saturday.

Long identified as a school with a big-time passing attack and a mediocre--or less--running game, Stanford is changing its image.

Green’s optimism is based on the return of freshman tailback J.J. Lasley and Tom Vardell, along with Jon Volpe, an all-Pac 10 selection in 1988, and Charlie Young. Volpe and Young were injured this year.

Moreover, two transfers, fast Glyn Milburn from Oklahoma, and Ellery Roberts, a 220-pound fullback from Miami, will be eligible next season.

Brigham Young quarterback Ty Detmer didn’t have a problem on the field last Saturday while completing 18 of 22 passes for 358 yards and four touchdowns in a 70-31 rout of Utah.

However, he needed to use the bathroom in the fourth quarter and found the locker room door shut tight. He used a public facility instead.

“It was hard to go to the bathroom because the fans kept coming up and talking to me,” Detmer said.

Answer: The Big Ten representative won six consecutive games from 1954 through 1959.