SPOTLIGHT : FACTS, FIGURES AND COMMENTS FROM SATURDAY’S GAMES

NOTEWORTHY

Hyland Hickson, who ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns in Michigan State’s 14-9 victory over Wisconsin, finished the regular season with 1,128 yards. That, combined with Tico Duckett’s 1,376 yards, makes them the first Big Ten duo in 15 years to combine for more than 2,000 yards rushing.

Temple, which was 1-10 last season, finished its season with a 29-10 victory over Boston College and a 7-4 record. Bob Wright kicked five field goals--from 27, 35, 37, 38 and 49 yards--to finish the season with 12 consecutive successful kicks.

STREAKS

Miami’s 33-7 victory over Syracuse was the Hurricanes’ 38th in a row in the Orange Bowl. . . . Wisconsin lost a school-record 13th consecutive conference game, a 14-9 defeat to Michigan State. Michigan State ended the regular season with five consecutive victories. . . . Michigan, which has beaten Ohio State three consecutive seasons, ended its regular season with a 16-13 victory over the Buckeyes, the Wolverines’ fifth victory in a row. . . . Texas Christian, which was 5-1 after its first six games, lost its last five to finish the season 5-6. Texas A&M; defeated TCU, 56-10, the 18th consecutive time the Aggies have beaten the Horned Frogs.

Texas won its first Southwest Conference championship outright since 1983 with a 23-13 victory over Baylor at Waco, Tex. The Longhorns, who will play in the Cotton Bowl Jan. 1, won at Waco for the first time since 1982. For the fifth time this season, Texas (9-1) came back to win. After quarterback Peter Gardere was sacked four times and the Longhorns rushed for minus-six yards in the first half to trail, 10-0, they scored 17 points in the third quarter. Afterward, Texas Coach David McWilliams was given a new five-year contract.

Howard Griffith rushed for a school-record 263 yards in Illinois’ 28-23 victory over Northwestern. Griffith broke the one-game school rushing mark set by Jim Grabowski, who gained 237 yards against Wisconsin in 1964. Griffith also set school records with 15 touchdowns this season and 33 in his career, two more than Red Grange.

Ty Detmer set an NCAA season record for passing yardage in Brigham Young’s 45-10 victory over Utah State. Detmer’s 4,869 yards broke the record of 4,699 set last year by Houston’s Andre Ware. Detmer has 339 completions, 26 shy of Ware’s record. Detmer, who has one game remaining, has thrown 527 passes, 61 fewer than Ware threw a year ago. Detmer passed for 560 yards, increasing to 23 in a row his NCAA-record streak of games with 300 or more passing yards.

Carlos Huerta set an NCAA record with his 136th consecutive extra point when he converted in the first quarter of Miami’s 33-7 victory over Syracuse. Huerta added two more extra points and four field goals in five attempts, the longest a 52-yarder that equaled his career best.

HOME, SWEET HOME?

In the Big Ten finale for both teams at Minneapolis, Minnesota played host to Iowa before 64,694, the second-largest crowd to see the Gophers play in the Metrodome since they moved their home games there in the 1982 season. (The largest crowd was 65,018, also against Iowa, in 1986.) But about 30,000 fans made the 220-mile trip from Iowa City for the game. The large visiting crowd became so loud in the third quarter that officials had to stop play twice because the Gophers couldn’t hear quarterback Marquel Fleetwood’s signals.

THE ROSE SHUFFLE

It was so improbable--and it almost happened. Illinois would have been the Big Ten representative in the Rose Bowl if: Minnesota beat No. 13 Iowa, Illinois beat Northwestern and No. 15 Michigan and Ohio State tied. That would have left Iowa and Illinois with 6-2 conference records and Ohio State at 5-1-2. Big Ten rules consider ties as half a victory and half a loss in the standings, so the Buckeyes’ record also would have been considered 6-2. Illinois would have been the Big Ten representative, using the extensive tiebreaking procedures for the conference. The Illini came within one play of making the trip to Pasadena. Minnesota did beat Iowa, and Illinois also won. Had Michigan’s J.D. Carlson missed his field-goal attempt from 37 yards on the game’s final play, the Wolverines and Buckeyes would have tied, 13-13. But he didn’t, and the Wolverines won, 16-13, to put Iowa in the Rose Bowl.

BIG PLAY

Kentucky led Tennessee, 21-14, at halftime before Dale Carter sparked the Volunteers to 21 third-quarter points. Carter returned the second-half kickoff 69 yards to set up one touchdown, returned a punt 29 yards to set up another and scored with a 41-yard interception return. Tennessee won, 42-28.

IN QUOTES

Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne, whose Cornhuskers lost to Oklahoma, 45-10, Friday and on Saturday accepted a bid to play in the Citrus Bowl against Georgia Tech: “Well, I’m kind of speechless today, obviously. We feel badly about yesterday, I know everybody in the room does, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. We hope we can do a good job come Jan. 1.”

Texas Christian Coach Jim Wacker, after a 56-10 loss to Texas A&M;: “We messed up about every way possible. The Aggies whipped us until the end. There’s not much else that you can say about this one.”

Tackle Mike Sullivan of No. 2 Miami, after a 33-7 victory over Syracuse: “We’re perched and ready to grab that championship . “

NOT SO SWEET

Former No. 1 Virginia’s bumbling finish--three losses in its last four games--means the Cavaliers will play in the Sugar Bowl Jan. 1 as the losingest team since the 1973 season. Virginia (8-3), which will play the winner of the Southeastern Conference, will be the first team with three losses to play in the bowl game since Nebraska 17 years ago. It might not be a great game, but Mickey Holmes, executive director of the Sugar Bowl, doesn’t seem to care. “While we may not have the greatest ranking potential, this could be one of the greatest games insofar as the economic potential for the city,” he said.

CALLING ALL COACHES

Replacing Mike Archer as Louisiana State coach hasn’t been easy. LSU Athletic Director Joe Dean had reduced the original list of 40 candidates to four--Georgia Tech’s Bobby Ross, Southern Mississippi’s Curley Hallman, North Carolina State’s Dick Sheridan and former Pittsburgh coach Mike Gottfried. But Gottfried, Ross and Sheridan pulled out of the running, leaving Hallman the only remaining member of the final four. Hallman has said he expects to be offered the job. Dean said he expects to name a coach by Wednesday.

FLYING AZTECS

In San Diego State’s 58-31 victory over Texas El Paso, Patrick Rowe caught seven passes for 161 yards to tie an NCAA record with eight consecutive games of 100 or more yards receiving. Rowe, who increased his season total to 1,290 yards, tied the record set by Howard Twilley of Tulsa in 1965 and matched by Henry Ellard of Fresno State in 1982. San Diego State became the second school in NCAA history with two players having 1,000 yards receiving in one season. Arey caught eight passes for 105 yards, pushing his season total to 1,017 yards. The first receiving duo with 1,000 yards each was James Dixon and Jason Phillips of Houston in 1988.

THANK YOU, SMU

Arkansas, which will play in the Southeastern Conference in the 1992 season, wrapped up its next-to-last season in the Southwest Conference with a 42-29 victory over lowly Southern Methodist. The Razorbacks, ranked as high as 13th early in the season, had lost all seven of their conference games before finally beating SMU, the only other team without a victory in the conference. The victory kept Arkansas out of the SWC cellar, but it didn’t do much for Arkansas Coach Jack Crowe’s frame of mind. “Winning our first conference game doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “A loss today would have meant something.”