DISNEYLAND PIGSKIN CLASSIC : Teams Earned the Right to Kick Off First

Colorado meets Tennessee. It is not a Big Eight--Southeastern Conference clash for the ages, but it is one for 1990.

The Buffaloes and the Volunteers have often been the other guys in their powerhouse conferences.

But this year, the Buffaloes and the Volunteers get to kick off before anyone else--a tribute to their 11-1 records last year and to their top 10 preseason rankings this year.

Both will be trying to prove they belong among college football’s elite when they meet Sunday at Anaheim Stadium in the first Disneyland Pigskin Classic.

“It wasn’t very long ago that Colorado would have given anything to have somebody pay attention to them,” Coach Bill McCartney said Friday after his team arrived for the game, which will have its own kickoff at noon Sunday. “Now we have the opportunity to play a game that kicks off the college football season.”

This is the beginning of a season in which Colorado is trying to show it belongs.

“I think we have to prove we can do this year after year,” McCartney said. “Other teams have had Cinderella seasons, then faded back into their own mediocrity. That could happen to Colorado.”

Said linebacker Alfred Williams: “Last year wasn’t a fluke. We came together and played well. I can understand how Tennessee feels. Every time I see an article, it’s, ‘Can Colorado repeat--question mark.’ Maybe we can put an exclamation point on it this year.”

Tennessee, which struggled to beat Colorado State by three points in its season-opener last year, wants to get off to a better start. The Vols are just 5-7-1 in openers under Coach Johnny Majors.

“If I was looking to improve my record, I probably wouldn’t have scheduled Colorado,” Majors said. “But we think we can win.”

If you want to watch the game like a pro scout, watch either end of the line. That is where the battle will be played out between Colorado’s outside linebackers, Alfred Williams and Kanavis McGhee, and Tennessee’s offensive tackles, Antone Davis and Charles McRae.

Williams (6-6, 240) and McGhee (6-5, 250) are widely considered the best pair of linebackers in the country, and both are predicted to be taken near the top of the next NFL draft.

Majors says he has never seen a better pair of tackles than Davis (6-4, 310) and McRae (6-7, 291).

“(Williams and McGhee) are two fine players and there’s been a lot written about them,” Davis said. “This is almost like a debut for the four of us. I’m trying not to think about the scouts. I don’t want to think, ‘If I don’t block this guy, the scouts aren’t gonna think so much of me.’ ”

Williams, who is already the Colorado career sack leader with 22 1/2, knows what he’s up against.

“Antone Davis, he can run you in the ground if you give him a chance,” Williams said. “McRae, I haven’t seen anybody get a sack against him so far. It’s probably been done, but I haven’t seen it.”

Pat Blottiaux, the kicker who made 10 field goals of more than 50 yards while playing at Servite High School, was set to be Colorado’s starter last spring. But he won’t be doing the kicking Sunday because he was beaten out by Jim Harper of L.A. Valley College.

“We weren’t looking for a kicker, we just came across this guy we couldn’t pass up,” McCartney said.

Harper, a junior, beat out Blottiaux and Eric Hannah, a junior from Capistrano Valley High School whose career has been dogged by a back injury first sustained in an auto accident during high school.

“There’s an easy way to pick a kicker,” McCartney said. “You chart ‘em, and the guy who makes the most, he’s your kicker.”

The battle for the position probably isn’t over, however.

“We elected to go with him for the game, but that’s not locked in concrete,” McCartney said.

Blottiaux, a sophomore, played in three games in 1988, including the Freedom Bowl.

Notes

Colorado tailback Eric Bieniemy, suspended for the game after his arrest following an altercation with firemen, made the trip, and will be on sideline. . . . Ticket sales have reached between 33,000 and 35,000, although organizers still say they are expecting a paid attendance of 40,000 for the game. Tennessee sold about 7,000 tickets in Knoxville, and Colorado sold about 5,000 in Boulder.