PACIFIC 10 FOOTBALL / MAL FLORENCE : Holtz Puts Irish in Another Zone for Stanford

Lou Holtz, Notre Dame’s night owl coach, adjusted schedules for his team this week in preparation for playing Stanford tonight in an 8 o’clock game at Palo Alto.

“Playing at 11 o’clock at night is different,” Holtz said, referring to the time zone in South Bend, Ind. “With a young team, we’ll probably take a nap at halftime.

Players juggled schedules to fit in a mid-evening practice session about five hours later than normal. And during the game, Holtz plans to keep an eye on his most energetic players, concerned that if they run down, the others may be even further gone.

His most elaborate tactic of the past, though, won’t work this time. When the Irish played USC at the Coliseum during the Thanksgiving weekend in 1988, Holtz put the team in a time warp.

“Tuesday when they got out of class, we set our watches back three hours, and we did everything on a three-hour difference,” he said. “So they got up at 11 our time, which was 8 o’clock California time. They went to bed at 1 o’clock our time, which was 10 o’clock California time.”

Practice times were switched as well.

“We went out there and I thought we were in pretty good rhythm because we had kept that clock,” Holtz said.

That rhythm worked for a 27-10 victory over USC.

A repeat of the elaborate rescheduling is impossible this season because classes and examinations are in full swing.

But does it really make a difference? Last year, Stanford went into South Bend and upset the No. 1-ranked Irish, 36-31.

Trivia time: Name the only Pacific 10 school besides USC and Stanford that has beaten Notre Dame.

Even though Washington is a substantial favorite to beat Arizona today in Seattle, Husky Coach Don James is reportedly concerned about stopping Charles Levy, the Wildcats’ all-purpose runner.

Levy’s average of 199 yards leads the Pac-10 in all-purpose running and ranks fourth nationally.

“I wasn’t sure that I would see anyone quite like (Stanford’s) Glyn Milburn, but he’s a big Glyn Milburn,” James said of Levy, a 6-foot, 200-pound redshirt freshman from Lynwood High. Levy plays tailback, quarterback and wide receiver, and also returns kicks.

Levy ran for 93 yards and two touchdowns and a two-point conversion in a 45-21 victory over Cal State Long Beach State last Saturday as Arizona improved to 2-2. He also returned three kickoffs for 94 yards, caught a pass for four yards and completed one for 50 yards.

So far, he has carried 44 times for 218 yards, caught 13 passes for 192 yards and returned 14 kicks for 386, averaging 27.6 yards per return.

Levy said that at times he finds himself in a daze on the field.

“Sometimes I can’t believe that I’m out there, or sometimes I’m really not believing that I’m doing the things that I’m doing. I always thought I could, but now I’m proving to myself that I can.”

Doing it against Long Beach is one thing. Third-ranked Washington is another.

Bay Area remembers: San Francisco Chronicle writer Glenn Dickey has his own perspective on today’s Cal-UCLA game at the Rose Bowl.

“If they (Cal) win, it will confirm what some of us already think--that this is the best Cal team since the Joe Roth-Chuck Muncie team of 1975, which was probably the best team not to go to the Rose Bowl,” Dickey writes.

“That was, of course, because the Bears lost to UCLA. It’s revenge time.”

Washington State Coach Mike Price on Jason Hanson, who kicked a 62-yard field goal last Saturday against Nevada Las Vegas, the longest in NCAA history without the use of a kicking tee:

“Jason is unbelievable. Without seeming bashful, he is the best kicker who has ever kicked in college football. He is breaking all the records when the NCAA (with its rules) is doing everything they can to stop the kick in football.”

Trivia answer: Arizona. The Wildcats beat the Irish, 16-13, in South Bend in 1982.

Pac-10 Notes

Jason Hanson’s 62-yard field goal broke the Pac-10 record of 60 yards set by USC’s Don Shafer against Notre Dame in 1986. . . . Tonight’s 8 o’clock kickoff will be the latest ever in Stanford Stadium, which was built in 1921.