Holtz’s Injury Report Rated as Questionable

Will Lou Holtz cry wolf until New Year’s Night?

The Notre Dame football coach said Thursday that Raghib (Rocket) Ismail, the Irish’s All-American kick-return specialist, has a separated shoulder and probably will be sidelined for the Orange Bowl game against top-ranked Colorado.

“I found out when we got ready to practice (last week) and looked on the injury list,” Holtz said. “I think he’ll be on it from now on.”

That came as news to Ismail.

“What did he tell you?” Ismail asked reporters after they had spent an hour with Holtz. When the injury report was explained, Ismail rolled his eyes in disbelief.

Ismail, who suffered a separated left shoulder during Notre Dame’s loss at Miami on Nov. 25, acknowledged that he feels discomfort when he raises his left arm. “Right now, all I’m doing is resting it and trying not to aggravate it,” he said. “They told me if I had to play tomorrow, I’d be OK.”

Asked whether he would play at full speed in the Orange Bowl, Ismail answered without hesitation that he could. But he declined to speculate on why Holtz suggested otherwise.

“I have no idea what his intentions were,” Ismail said.

Ned Bolcar, co-captain of the Irish, might have summed up the situation when he said of Holtz: “He’s not always an optimistic person.”

Trivia time: On Dec. 16, 1930, who won the first James E. Sullivan Award?

Short-changed: Defensive end Charles Haley of the San Francisco 49ers is still angry over being ejected during the third quarter of Monday night’s game, after he was penalized for roughing Ram quarterback Jim Everett.

Haley’s ejection came when he allegedly pushed referee Gordon McCarter. Told that McCarter said he called the penalty because he thought Haley was trying to hurt Everett, Haley said: “No, man. I hit him right in the chest. If I’d known I was going to get kicked out of the game, I would have tried to cripple the s.o.b.”

Add NFL: Barry Sanders, the Detroit Lions’ rookie running back who skipped his senior season after winning the Heisman Trophy as a junior at Oklahoma State, says turning pro early was the best thing he ever did.

“I wish I had come out a year earlier than I did,” he said. “If you’re going to play football in college, it’s a job. You might as well get paid for it. They make it almost impossible to get a degree because you’re so busy playing football.”

Effortless performance: The Philadelphia 76ers’ Charles Barkley, after a 97-82 loss to the New Jersey Nets, said: “I don’t like a nonchalant attitude. I want these guys to play like they want to, and they definitely didn’t tonight. There’s no need to lose to a team like this by 15 points. We weren’t playing the Lakers.”

Trivia answer: Golfer Bobby Jones.

Quotebook: Former Michigan basketball coach Bill Frieder, now at Arizona State, contrasting the Pacific 10 Conference and the Big Ten: “So far in the Pac-10, I’ve been to Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. In the Big Ten, we would go to Columbus (Ohio), East Lansing (Mich.) and West Lafayette (Ind.). You figure it out, which league my wife likes to shop.”