COLLEGE FOOTBALL / GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI : Cornhuskers’ Place in Poll Has Them Saying ‘Shucks’

Nebraska is a nice place to visit if you like ethanol fumes, fresh vegetables and “Honk If You Love Lard” bumper stickers. As for college football, that’s a given: You absolutely must adore the Cornhuskers. . .or else. In fact, it might be state law.

In Nebraska, to root for any team but the Cornhuskers is to root for drought and locusts. That is the Nebraska way. Fervent. Passionate. Paranoid.

Listen hard and you can still hear the howls from the plains. That’s because Cornhusker followers are seeing red over the latest results of the bowl alliance poll, which has Notre Dame No. 1, Florida State No. 2 and Nebraska No. 3.

If the regular season ended today, the Irish would play the Seminoles in the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship. Those are the rules of the bowl coalition agreement--if possible, No. 1 must always face No. 2.

Meanwhile, the Cornhuskers, who are obligated to play in the Orange Bowl because of their Big Eight Conference ties, probably would play the winner of Saturday’s Miami-West Virginia game. In short, the Orange Bowl result would mean nothing.

Cornhusker fans are outraged. They can’t understand how a 10-0 Nebraska team is ranked below the Seminoles, whose seven-point loss to Notre Dame last weekend dropped them to 9-1. They don’t comprehend how the coaches could vote Nebraska No. 2 in its poll, while the sportswriters and broadcasters, in the Associated Press poll, vote Nebraska No. 3, thus giving Florida State just enough ballot points to move into second place overall.

This is typical. After all, Cornhusker zealots think the N on their team’s football helmets stands for knowledge.

Some things for the bread-basket yahoos to keep in mind:

--None of this is chiseled in granite.

For Notre Dame and Florida State to meet in Tempe, Ariz., for a rematch, the Irish must first beat No. 17 Boston College on Saturday at South Bend. The Eagles have won seven consecutive games and are good enough to upset a Notre Dame team still savoring an emotional victory over the Seminoles.

“I think Boston College can give them everything they want,” said Pittsburgh Coach Johnny Majors, whose team lost to the Irish by 44 points and to the Eagles by 33. “I think it can be a whale of a ballgame.”

As for Florida State, the Seminoles have to recover in time to beat North Carolina State (7-3), which almost sneaked into the top 25 this week, and then travel to Gainesville and defeat eighth-ranked Florida on Nov. 27. Victories are essential to the Seminoles, blowouts are preferable, especially against the Wolfpack. A so-so effort might give voters reason to drop Florida State down a notch or two.

--Nebraska isn’t home free yet.

The Cornhuskers face No. 15 Oklahoma in Lincoln on Nov. 26. A loss to the Sooners would put a quick end to Nebraska indignation.

FLORIDA STATE-NOTRE DAME--THE AFTERMATH

Disgust with the rankings isn’t confined to the borders of Nebraska. Big Eight neighbor Jim Walden of Iowa State, who voted Irish, Cornhuskers and then Seminoles on his weekly coaching ballot, is amazed at the poll results.

“People ask if it’s fair to Nebraska,” Walden said. “My answer is, ‘I don’t think it’s fair to Notre Dame.’

“The American way of life in college football has always been, ‘You get one chance, baby. You got 11 to 12 weeks only. This ain’t pro football. We’re not going to play each other once in exhibition, twice during the season and all that crap.’ ”

Walden, never one to edit his opinions, has had it with what he perceives as a pro-Bobby Bowden mentality among his coaching peers, as well as media representatives. He said Bowden is a wonderful person and an accomplished coach--”I shouldn’t even be put in the same breath as Bobby Bowden, in terms of winning and losing”--but enough is enough.

“I think every coach in America wishes right now that we could get Bobby Bowden a national championship,” Walden said. “It’s like it’s been the goal for the last five years. It’s like every year, Bad meets Good. (The voters) made Dennis Erickson and his Miami team out to be the scourge of the earth and they want to keep this white hat-black hat thing going, too. I feel sorry for Dennis. I feel like the more he wins it and Bobby doesn’t, the more they make him out to be the devil and Bobby the good guy.”

Before ending the phone interview, Walden offered a hypothetical situation.

“If Florida State was exactly where Nebraska was Saturday and Nebraska had played Notre Dame, would Florida State feel like it should be No. 3 and Nebraska No. 2?” he asked.

IN DEFENSE OF ST. BOBBY

As one of the 62 AP voters, our ballot read in part: 1. Notre Dame, 2. Florida State, 3. Nebraska, 4. Ohio State, 5. Auburn.

The order had nothing to do with Nebraska’s dismal postseason record of years past, or Bowden’s one-liners, or the hopes of a rematch in the Fiesta, or Lou Holtz’s Our-Lady-on-top-of-the-Golden-Dome speech. It had to do with performance.

Notre Dame was a no-brainer. The Irish played brilliantly against the Seminoles and deserve every compliment available. Holtz and his staff were better prepared than Bowden and his assistants. And once kickoff arrived, Holtz did a superior job of adjusting his game plan to the wind, to Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward, to the Seminoles’ ill-advised trick plays and to the his opponent’s overmatched defensive line.

Florida State dropped only one notch because, quite simply, the Seminoles are the second-best team in the country. Yes, they lost. . .by seven points, on the road, with one week of preparation compared to Notre Dame’s two. The Irish made the Seminoles look awful at times and yet, Florida State still nearly left South Bend with a tie or victory.

Nebraska, which we moved up three places, is the third-best team in the nation. Maybe.

The Cornhuskers are unbeaten, but so are Auburn, Ohio State and West Virginia--and you don’t hear them pouting.

Nebraska is 3-0 against teams currently in the rankings--No. 16 UCLA, No. 18 Colorado, No. 20 Kansas State. Florida State is 4-1--a loss against No. 1 Notre Dame, victories over No. 4 Miami, No. 13 North Carolina, No. 23 Virginia and No. 24 Clemson.

Florida State beat Kansas by 42. Nebraska had to stop a last-minute two-point conversion attempt to beat the mediocre Jayhawks by one.

And although it’s true that the Seminoles led a crummy Maryland team only 28-20 at halftime, also remember that Florida State eventually won the game, 49-20, and did so with Ward on the bench the entire game.

Nebraska has a right to be frustrated, but not much else. Even though the Cornhuskers finished second in the USA Today-CNN coaches’ poll, they didn’t exactly receive a mandate from the people. When the votes were tallied, Nebraska led Florida State by a scant 10 points, 1,443-1,433.

In the end, this may not matter. There’s a decent chance that Florida could beat Florida State and then travel to Birmingham, Ala., and beat the Crimson Tide in the Southeastern Conference championship game. Meanwhile, Nebraska could stumble against Oklahoma and suddenly we’re saying hello to the Sugar Bowl and a Notre Dame-Florida matchup.

ELECTRIC BILLS BE DAMNED

In South Bend, Holtz now can walk past Grace Hall, training camp dorm of the Irish, and see a welcome sight: a banner, bearing No. 1 on it, atop the roof, illuminated by several small spotlights.

It’s Notre Dame tradition. Whenever the Irish climb atop the polls, a few students climb on the dormitory roof and flip a light switch.

Now then, will the banner be there after the bowl games?

Holtz said the Irish will go where they are told, even if it means playing Florida State again. He has only one request: “If we meet them again and they win, I think we should share (the national championship).”

It’s just a guess, but we get the feeling that Holtz isn’t thrilled with the idea of having to play the Seminoles twice to earn a national title. But before you condemn the coalition agreement, remember this--it could happen in a playoff system, too.

Ever the diplomat, Holtz voted Notre Dame No. 1 and had Florida State and Nebraska tied for second on his ballot. Two of his coaching peers weren’t as generous. They cast their first-place votes for the Cornhuskers.

“I have no problem with that,” Holtz said. “I’m not saying we’re the No. 1 team in the country. All I’m saying is that we were the best team (last) Saturday, but not by a whole lot. Hey, I have no problem with them not voting us No. 1. I would if it were Jan. 2.”

THE REST

--The Football Writers of America goofed big time when they failed to include Holtz or Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez as coach-of-the-year finalists. Nothing against the four nominees--Ohio State’s John Cooper, Kansas State’s Bill Snyder, Florida State’s Bowden and Auburn’s Terry Bowden--but certainly a place could have been found for Holtz, whose team was ranked seventh in the preseason AP poll and fell to 11th Sept. 6.

--As if the relationship between Illinois and Wisconsin wasn’t strained enough, now comes word that Badger assistant coach Bill Callahan was caught inside the Illini coaching booth shortly after Illinois had beaten Purdue Oct. 2.

Callahan was scouting the game for Wisconsin and entered the booth shortly after Illini coaches left for the locker room. According to the Chicago Tribune, an Illinois student manager found Callahan looking at material left by the coaches and asked him to leave the room.

The incident was reported to the Big Ten and an undisclosed penalty was levied.

Top 10 As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

No. School Record 1. Notre Dame 10-0 2. Florida State 9-1 3. Nebraska 10-0 4. Ohio State 9-0-1 5. Auburn 10-0 6. Miami 8-1 7. Tennessee 7-1-1 8. West Virginia 9-0 9. Texas A&M; 8-1 10. Florida 8-1

Waiting List: North Carolina (9-2), Alabama (8-1-1), Wisconsin (7-1-1), Penn State (7-2), Oklahoma (8-2).