Rose Bowl Rerun Lacks the Luster : College football: When Washington and Michigan met last season, a share of the national championship was at stake.

Them again?

Yes, it’s Washington and Michigan in the Rose Bowl game this afternoon, but they won’t just show a rerun of last year’s contest, when the whole exercise was considerably more meaningful.

A year ago today, the Pacific 10’s Huskies beat Michigan, 34-14, finished 12-0 and claimed a share of the national championship. The Wolverines returned home to bury themselves in some snowbank.

But there has been a lot of Gatorade under the bridge since then. Much of the news has been bad and most of it has involved the Huskies, who have turned up enough problems with their program to age them considerably, especially since you have to count in dog years.

In no particular order:

--Billy Joe Hobert, last year’s star quarterback, the Rose Bowl MVP, took $50,000 in loans, in apparent violation of NCAA rules, and got kicked off the team.

--A linebacker was accused of selling drugs and got kicked off the team.

--Five former players alleged that they got paid for jobs, set up by alumni, that required little or no work, another apparent violation.

--The son-in-law of Coach Don James encouraged one of those former players to recant his allegations.

--The Secret Service questioned some players in a suspected cellular-phone fraud.

Other than that, it has been football as usual for Washington, which at one point was only a pardon away from another national title. It is by sheer coincidence, James insists, that the Huskies lost two of their last three games to go from 8-0 to 9-2 and drop from No. 1 to No. 9 in the polls.

So what kind of Rose Bowl game will James get from his team?

“I don’t have a clue,” said James, who figures his players may have a little problem focusing on the game and not on the guys in sunglasses and blue suits who keep showing up and asking questions.

“I can’t ask much more of the team,” James said. “They’ve worked hard, done all I have asked of them.”

Meanwhile, Michigan (8-0-3) arrives with its area-code record and Coach Gary Moeller’s fervent desire to get the underachieving Big Ten back on the Rose Bowl winning track. Recent history tells us it won’t be that simple. Teams from the Pac-10 have won 15 of the last 18 Rose Bowl games.

Michigan, with its No. 7 ranking, is trying to reverse that trend, which might look a lot more plausible if the Wolverines had somehow managed to avoid those three ties, which equaled an 82-year-old school record. Michigan tied Notre Dame, Illinois and Ohio State.

In tie No. 1, quarterback Elvis Grbac’s pass was intercepted in the last minute, which killed a potential game-winning drive in a 17-17 deadlock with Notre Dame. In tie No. 2, a 22-22 standoff with Illinois, the Wolverines fumbled 10 times and lost four of them. Tie No. 3 occurred when Michigan missed an extra point and blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead against Ohio State in a game that ended 13-13.

Regardless, Michigan posted its first undefeated season since 1973 and extended its undefeated streak to 19 Big Ten games. That ought to account for something, Wolverine defensive tackle Chris Hutchinson said.

“We’re still proud of our record,” Hutchinson said. “But we know that against a team like Washington, we have to play like we did early in the season. Late in the season, you’d look around in the huddle and it just wasn’t there.”

On the other hand, it seems as if these two teams are always here. Six of the last seven Rose Bowl games have included either Michigan, Washington or both, so if nothing else, they know how to get on the Pasadena Freeway.

Each team also knows how to win the Rose Bowl, something the Huskies did in 1992 against the Wolverines and the year before against Iowa. Michigan is the last Big Ten winner, having beaten USC in 1989.

Washington dominated the 1992 matchup, led by the now-ineligible quarterback, Hobert, and defensive tackle supreme Steve Emtman, now with the Indianapolis Colts. The Wolverines had only 205 yards in offense, and only 72 of those rushing. Grbac was sacked four times and threw an interception. Hobert, meanwhile, directed Washington to 404 yards of offense.

What should move Michigan is not so much the revenge factor, but the redemption factor.

“We played horrible,” offensive guard Joe Cocozzo said. “Guys just didn’t have their heads in the game. We played a team that was peaking and ready to play. We showed up and gave a horrible performance. It’s as simple as that.”

There were 11 Huskies drafted by the NFL after last year’s Rose Bowl game and James was having no trouble keeping busy even before all the allegations of wrongdoing started rolling in and consuming his time. James maintains that his football program is “very clean,” although he acknowledges that some of his current and former players made some poor decisions.

Said James: “It’s been a tough year.”

At least, though, he still has a trustworthy quarterback. Mark Brunell, who was the Rose Bowl MVP two years ago, replaced Hobert even before Hobert’s problems became public.

Michigan’s unbeaten season has not exactly been a bed of roses for Moeller, either. His team was supposed to arrive triumphantly in Pasadena feared by all, not tied by all.

“We’ve just got to pick it up,” said Moeller, who took every precaution against injury by ending practices in pads on Tuesday.

And after that?

“The only way they could get hurt was to trip over a fire hydrant,” he said.

Michigan against Washington . . . it should be a classic battle. Maybe not. But even if it isn’t, there probably isn’t any reason to worry about it. They will both be back next year, won’t they?

Rose Bowl Notes

Kickoff is 1:45 p.m. . . . The Huskies are 2 1/2-point favorites. . . . If Washington wins, Coach Don James equals the record of Howard Jones and John McKay with five Rose Bowl victories. . . . Because of this week’s rain, officials have decided not to use the Brookside golf course for parking. . . . Michigan Coach Gary Moeller hopes there is no more rain. “I don’t want a wet field,” he said. “I don’t think Don James does either. We want to be able to display all the talents we have.”