COLLEGE FOOTBALL SPOTLIGHT : THE BOWL GAMES

MUTUAL RESPECT

The honor was shared when Illini star Howard Griffith met Red Grange, the ailing former Illinois great whose 66-year-old running records were broken by the senior fullback.

“I was sort of overwhelmed for him to say that he was honored to meet me,” Griffith said after visiting Grange in a Lake Wales, Fla., rest home.

Grange, 87, is suffering from Parkinson’s disease and pneumonia and staying in an intensive-care ward. But he was well enough to appreciate the significance of Monday’s meeting.

“He said a lot of people in the area of his home were a little disappointed that I had broken his records. But his message was, don’t worry about any of that--his records were meant to be broken,” Griffith said.

Griffith had eight touchdowns this past season against Southern Illinois to break Grange’s record for the most touchdowns in one game. He also broke Grange’s records for touchdowns in a season and a career, with 15 this season and 33 overall.

Griffith, in Tampa for the Hall of Fame Bowl game against Clemson, traveled two hours to meet Grange and said the trip was worth it.

Griffith said the conversation was short with Grange, who left Illinois to become a spectacular running back for the Chicago Bears.

“If you would state a question to him, it would take a little while for him to gather his thoughts,” Griffith said. “But he does understand everything that’s being said and what goes on around him. We are sure of that.

“So it wasn’t really a conversation, it was more of two people getting an opportunity to meet each other.”

Griffith gave Grange a school centennial banner, commemorating some of Grange’s feats.

“One said ‘Red Grange, All-American,’ and had his years on there,” Griffith said.

“He couldn’t move very much, but you could just see the joy in his eyes --his eyes kind of lit up when we held the banner up,” Griffith said.

“You may meet a great person in your life,” he said. “But for you to meet a gentleman, a living legend that knows you’re coming and is as excited and overjoyed as you are to meet him --it’s just tough to describe.

“You can’t put those kinds of things into words,” Griffith said.

BOWLED OVER

Surely, there must be a message here somewhere.

Of the first 11 bowl games played in this saturated postseason, only two were sellouts--the Blockbuster Bowl between Penn State and Florida State at Miami, and the Holiday Bowl matching Brigham Young and Texas A&M; at San Diego. The John Hancock Bowl matching Michigan State and USC at El Paso came close with 50,562 in a stadium that holds 52,200.

The others played to large numbers of empty seats, nearly 50,000 of them in the Liberty Bowl at Memphis, Tenn., for the game between Ohio State and Air Force; almost 36,000 in the Syracuse-Arizona Aloha Bowl at Honolulu, and about 32,000 in the All American Bowl that paired North Carolina State and Southern Mississippi at Birmingham, Ala.

Ohio State and Air Force drew only 13,144 to the 62,642-seat Liberty Bowl after a cold, rainy day in Memphis. Organizers had sold 39,000 tickets, just shy of the 40,000 break-even point. It means the game--one of the few with no corporate sponsor--will lose money for the first time in 26 years.

There may be a number of factors to explain the sagging attendance, but an obvious reason would seem to be the less-than-stellar matchups. There were teams with too many losses and the absence of natural rivalries to attract fan support.

New Year’s Day bowls fared better.

The Gator Bowl between Michigan and Mississippi attracted 68,927 to an 82,000-seat stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. The Hall of Fame Bowl between Clemson and Illinois drew 63,154 to 74,314-seat Tampa Stadium. The Fiesta Bowl between Louisville and Alabama brought in 69,098 to 74,865-seat Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.

Five sellouts emerged, and not surprisingly, they were from some of the best games of the postseason.

The Cotton Bowl, featuring national championship contenders in Miami and Texas, drew 73,521 to the 72,032-seat stadium of the same name. The Citrus Bowl, featuring the nation’s only undefeated Division I-A team (Georgia Tech) and a perennial power (Nebraska) attracted 72,328 to an Orlando, Fla., stadium with a 70,000-seat capacity. The Sugar Bowl, reduced to a relatively meaningless game between No. 10 Tennessee and unranked Virginia, packed 75,132 into the 73,520 Superdome in New Orleans.

The Orange Bowl, featuring a rematch between top-ranked Colorado and Notre Dame, drew 77,062 to the 75,000 stadium in Miami.

And the Rose Bowl loomed largest again, bringing 101,273 to Pasadena.

So what does it all mean?

Too many games.

Too little interest.

Except, that is, where tradition and significance are concerned. And in this bowl season, those factors didn’t often collide.

HOLDING THE LINE

Quarterback Elvis Grbac, a marquee name at a marquee position, passed for 296 yards and four touchdowns in Michigan’s 35-3 victory over Mississippi in the Gator Bowl, but he had no quarrel with the selection committee that bypassed him in naming the game’s most valuable player.

The award instead went en masse to the Wolverines’ offensive line, which paved the way for a school-record 715 yards in total offense.

“They were kind of giving it to me,” Grbac said of his line.

It was the first time in 46 Gator Bowls that an offensive line won MVP honors. The honorees were Tom Dohring, Matt Elliot, Steve Everitt, Dean Dingman and Greg Skrepanak.

Dohring said the MVP honor was “a nice present.”

“It’s really nice to be recognized. We wanted to be recognized as one of the best,” he said.

FLAG WAVING

By the end of the first half, fourth-ranked Miami had already shattered the Cotton Bowl record for penalty yards. But even that statistic didn’t slow the Hurricanes in their 46-3 dismantling of Texas.

With 10 first-half penalties for 132 yards, the Hurricanes surpassed the record of 90 yards set by Boston College in 1940 and tied by Houston in 1980.

Miami finished with 16 penalties for 202 yards, which also topped the bowl record of 11 penalties by Ohio State in 1987.

Texas was penalized eight times for 68 yards, giving the teams a Cotton Bowl-record 24 penalties for 270 yards.

“We probably could have called more penalties,” referee Jimmy Harper said. “When it starts getting out of hand, you try to stop it without calling anything, but so many times the fouls are obvious.”

IN QUOTES

Miami quarterback Craig Erickson, after the Hurricanes’ 46-3 victory: “I think any team in the country would have a tough time beating us. It was a great way for me to put up my Orange and Green uniform. A great way to go out.”

Miami Coach Dennis Erickson after his team was penalized a Cotton Bowl-record 16 times: “Hey, when you win 46-3, you don’t worry about penalties.”

Immediately after Georgia Tech’s 45-21 win over Nebraska in the Citrus Bowl, Coach Bobby Ross on his Yellow Jackets’ chances of being named No. 1 in the the final polls: “We played. We’re undefeated. We should be No. 1. I feel that we deserve it right now. I’m not going to gloat over it or wave a flag. I think we’ve done what we had to do.”

Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne on Georgia Tech: “I know they’ve got an argument to be No. 1 and anytime you go undefeated you’ve got an argument. I don’t know what people will decide, but I know we played a good football team today.”

Mississippi Coach Billy Brewer on Michigan, a 35-3 winner in the Gator Bowl: “They are the best football team we’ve ever played at Ole Miss, ever. “

Notre Dame running back Ricky Watters on the clipping penalty that nullified Raghib Ismail’s 91-yard punt return, which would have given the Irish the lead in the final minute of Colorado’s 10-9 Orange Bowl victory: “I can’t believe that. The dude comes up with a run like that. I don’t see how they can take it way from him.”

NAMES AND NUMBERS

The Hurricanes set Cotton Bowl records for most points and largest margin of victory. Boston College scored 45 points against Houston in 1985. Oklahoma routed Texas Christian, 34-0, in the 1945 game. Miami’s 46 points also was a school record for most points in a bowl game. The Hurricanes’ previous high was 37 in a 39-37 loss to UCLA in the 1985 Fiesta Bowl. . . . Miami Coach Dennis Erickson improved to 4-0 in bowl games. . . . Southwest Conference teams, which play host to the Cotton Bowl, are 24-25-4 in the game. It was the third consecutive victory for the visiting team.

Michigan set a Gator Bowl record with 715 total yards. The previous record was 569 by Florida State in 1985 against Oklahoma State. The Wolverines also set a record for the most first downs with 35, breaking the record set by Florida State of 31 in 1985. . . . Elvis Grbac passed for 296 yards, a Michigan bowl record, and a personal-best four touchdowns. . . . Sophomore Desmond Howard, a high school teammate of Grbac’s, established a bowl record for Michigan with 167 receiving yards, surpassing Anthony Carter’s 141 yards in a 1979 Gator Bowl loss to North Carolina.

Louisville quarterback Browning Nagle threw for a Fiesta Bowl-record 451 yards, including 223 during a 25-point first quarter. He broke the bowl record of 422 passing yards set last year by Florida State’s Peter Tom Willis. . . . Louisville recorded a game-record six sacks. . . . The Cardinals, making their first postseason appearance since the 1977 Independence Bowl, finished 10-1-1, the best record in school history.

Clemson has five consecutive victories in bowl games and has finished 10-2 four years in a row. The 30-0 victory over Illinois in the Hall of Fame Bowl was Clemson’s first bowl shutout. And it gave the Tigers’ seniors their 40th victory, an Atlantic Coast Conference record.

By combining for 80 points, Washington and Iowa broke the Rose Bowl record of 79 (USC 42, Wisconsin 37) set in 1963. . . . Tony Stewart became Iowa’s all-time leading rusher by gaining 21 yards in seven carries. He concluded his career with 2,562 yards, topping Owen Gill’s total of 2,556 from 1981-84. . . . With Washington’s victory, the Pacific 10 increased its lead over the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl series to 24-21. The Pac-10 has won the last two Rose Bowls and 18 of the last 22.

REPORT CARDS

The Atlantic Coast Conference, long considered a basketball league, put up some pretty fair numbers during the bowl season as well.

The ACC had the best winning percentage of any conference with more than one team playing in a bowl, getting victories from Georgia Tech, Clemson and North Carolina State.

A breakdown:

Conference W L T Atlantic Coast 3 1 1 Independent 4 3 1 Western Athletic 2 2 0 Southeastern 2 2 0 Big Eight 1 1 0 Southwest 1 1 0 Pacific 10 2 3 0 Big Ten 2 4 0