Freedom’s Trail Forced to Follow Low Road

From Heisman to the Heistmen.

Those Boilermakers pack quite a kick, don’t they? One fourth-quarter field goal by Purdue on Saturday and the Freedom Bowl is waylaid, losing Anthony Thompson one second and replacing him the next with Team Renegade, the Florida Gators.

Or, what’s left of them.

Florida is playing out the season with an interim coach. The incumbent, Galen Hall, was forced to resign on Oct. 8 amid charges that he made illegal payments to a player and two assistant coaches.

Florida is also playing out the season with an interim quarterback. The starter, Kyle Morris, was dealt a year’s suspension for betting on college football games.

And now, Florida is playing out the season as the Freedom Bowl’s interim opponent for Washington. Indiana was Anaheim’s team of choice until Saturday, when the Hoosiers were forced to resign. A 15-14 upset loss to 3-8 Purdue did them in, leaving Indiana with a 5-6 record and ineligible for bowl consideration.

Florida has a winning record. It also has a reputation. The football program is under NCAA investigation, but in the Freedom Bowl, the Gators have found sanctuary--one last fling before the first sanctions fall.

“They aren’t under NCAA sanctions right now,” says Freedom Bowl executive director Tom Starr, looking on the bright side. “That certainly doesn’t bother us. I guess you’re innocent until proven guilty, right?”

Starr scans this year’s bowl-bound map and finds Florida keeping, well, high-profile company.

“If you look across the country, you see so many allegations,” Starr notes. “There are allegations at Nebraska, at Minnesota.

“You don’t know what are causing those allegations, disgruntled players or what. Again, until you’re proven guilty . . . “

Feel for Starr. It has to be tough directing a bowl game on the backpedal.

And before Saturday, it seemed all so easy. All Starr needed was one Indiana victory over a ninth-place Purdue team--the Hoosiers were 16 1/2-point favorites, which Kyle Morris probably knew--and Heisman Trophy front-runner Thompson was coming to Anaheim.

Starr and other Freedom Bowl representatives flew to Indiana, primed for a night of toasts and handshakes. Hello Anthony, hello sold-out Anaheim Stadium. The whole gang was going to celebrate later that night at the Indiana-Miami (Ohio) basketball game, court-side with Bobby Knight.

Starr still has his ticket. Unused.

“I’ve been in the bowl business 10 years and I usually have premonitions about these things,” Starr said. “But, to be honest, I was caught off guard. I thought Indiana was pretty safe.”

Now, the Hoosiers are out and Thompson’s Heisman hopes have been damaged, perhaps terminally. Purdue held Thompson, the nation’s leading rusher and scorer, to 97 net yards and kept him out of the end zone.

Now, Houston quarterback Andre Ware has moved ahead of Thompson in most informal Heisman polls.

It was a lost afternoon for everyone who had the most to gain.

For Thompson, it was a big disappointment.

For the Freedom Bowl, however, it is simply a way of life. From Game I, when the teams from Texas and Iowa nearly drowned in a December downpour, a hard rain has been falling on Starr and associates.

That year, the deluge ensured a meager turnout of 24,093.

The next, a top-10 Air Force team led on Starr for weeks and then abruptly committed to the Bluebonnet Bowl, forcing an 11th-hour scramble that left Freedom II with some 7-4 leftovers from Colorado.

And this year, three of the four California Pac-10 teams--UCLA, Stanford and Cal--did nose dives and the fourth, USC, qualified for the Rose Bowl. Like that, the Freedom Bowl was shut out of a local draw.

Ultimately, it turns to Indiana to save Dec. 30--and Anthony Thompson turns it over.

Bring on the backup. Hail Florida. And hope the NCAA gets through December without deciding to jail Florida.

“Florida will be on national TV this weekend against Florida State,” Starr says. “Hopefully, people will look at the quality of the team Florida has and the kind of quality back Emmitt Smith is.”

And look the other way on the other stuff.

Then again, that could be part of Freedom Bowl VI’s ticket drive. Catch The Gators While You Can. You never know when Florida might be allowed to play in one of these things again.