The Rout Mentality Could Make Them Sitting Ducks

In 1954, UCLA beat Stanford, 72-0.

B-i-i-g mistake!

Within two years, spearheaded by Stanford, the recruiting snitches had torn the conference apart to the point where the offending schools, USC and UCLA among them, could play their star seniors only half a season for two critical years.

In 1966, Notre Dame beat USC, 51-0.

B-i-i-g mistake!

Notre Dame did not beat SC again for six years thereafter and beat the Trojans only once in the next 10 years, by which time the coach who had engineered the 51-0 massacre, Ara Parseghian, was no longer at Notre Dame. In fact, in the last game ever coached by Parseghian, USC spotted Notre Dame a 24-0 lead in the first half--then beat the Irish, 55-24.

In 1944, Army beat Notre Dame, 59-0.

Not smart. An important series was allowed to dwindle. Army was able to beat Notre Dame only once more in its history and, by 1973, Notre Dame was beating the Cadets, 62-3.

The moral of these stories? Just win, baby. Don’t pour it on. Leave the other guys a shred of respect. Defeat, don’t humiliate. Never kick a man when he’s down. Gloat now, and you may pay later.

I bring this up because running up a big score on hapless opposition seems endemic in the body of college football today. Coaches who used to know better are turning into bullies.

The reason? The polls. The AP poll, the coaches’ poll, the bowl coalition.

Consult the record: Florida 73, Kentucky 7. Florida 70, New Mexico State 21. Florida 52, Georgia 14.

How about Florida State 56, Wake Forest 14? Florida State 59, Duke 20?

Then, there’s that other tradition-streaked Southern school, Miami. Get a load of Miami 56, Georgia Southern 0. Miami 47, Arizona State 10. Go ‘Canes!

Let’s move to the Midwest. Nebraska 70, Pacific 21. Nebraska 42, Missouri 7.

Now the Big Ten. Penn State 56, Minnesota 3. Penn State 61, Iowa 21. Penn State 63, Ohio State 14.

Not you, Coach Paterno. Say it ain’t so, Joe!

You wish you could say Rockne never did things like that. But he did. The record shows that rookie coach Knute Rockne beat Wabash, 67-7. Kalamazoo never scored on him in five years. Notre Dame beat Kalamazoo cumulatively, 229-0, in those five years. Kalamazoo gave up after losing, 74-0, in 1923.

John Heisman’s name stands for the tops in sportsmanship and achievement on the gridiron. The trophy named in his honor is the most prestigious in the game. But, a team he coached, Georgia Tech, once beat a school called Cumberland, 222-0. The only thing that comes close to that in the annals of one-sided war is Little Big Horn. And even Custer scored.

Speaking of war, how do you feel about our future generals and admirals being kicked around on the football field like rag dolls? How do you feel about Duke 43, Army 7? San Diego State 56, Navy 14?

What’s going on? How come a team like Illinois, not heretofore thought of as a national powerhouse, is humiliating Missouri, 42-0, and Iowa, 47-7?

Well, what’s going on is the polling.

There are about a half-dozen juggernaut teams in the country, all desirous of waving an index finger in the air and shouting, “We’re No. 1!” on camera. They want the best bowl listing. They want to establish a powerful future recruiting tool.

There’s no secret how you get to be good. You just go out and dip into that pool of certified brutes that every coach knows is there. Your job is to get more than your share. The eight teams who get them dominate their conferences and go to the bowls and get voted Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.

Everybody knows who they are. Sometimes, so do the police. You don’t get them out of Sunday school. And you don’t get them out of chemistry labs. I don’t say you get them out of a police lineup, but that’s a place to look.

You don’t look in your back yard, either. Of the 21 blue-chip recruits for Nebraska in 1994, only three were from Nebraska. Their star quarterback is from a suburb of Lincoln called Bradenton, Fla. His receivers never husked corn, either. They’re not from places along the Platte.

But once you have more than your share of able-bodied ruffians, future Green Bay Packers, you can’t just win. You have to dominate, obliterate. Take no prisoners. Roll up the score. Impress the pollsters. Winning isn’t enough anymore. Look at Penn State. The Nittany Lions went from No. 1 to No. 2 in one poll just because they only beat Indiana, 35-29, while Nebraska was pounding Kansas, 45-17. Nebraska claimed the top spot.

That’s the name of the game now. Pour it on. Everybody’s doing it. Colorado beats the reigning Rose Bowl champion, Wisconsin, 55-17. The Buffaloes beat Oklahoma, 45-7.

Is it necessary? Is it even sporting?

We’ve always had these insensitive types in coaching. Ohio State had a coach so ruthless he was known as “Close the Gates of Mercy” Schmidt. He used to beat Western Reserve, 76-0. He beat Drake, 85-7. He beat NYU, 60-0. He beat Chicago one year, 61-0. Presumably, on his days off, he pulled the wings off butterflies.

The difference today is, these coaches probably know they’re breeding a scab on their noses. The Big Ten admitted Paterno’s team--but not to beat their old established institutions like Ohio State by running up 60 points. That’s like inviting somebody to your house and he starts insulting the help, making long distance calls, wrecking your car and kicking your dog. Can you imagine Woody Hayes losing to an upstart like that, 63-14?

It’s a problem of some immediacy to the Pac-10. Consider this: The Rose Bowl is coming up and the chances are that Oregon, which hasn’t gone since 1958, will represent the West.

Penn State will represent the Big Ten.

Now, Nebraska will be matching some head-knocking team from Florida in a bowl on New Year’s Night, Colorado will be trading concussions with one of the other Florida teams on Jan. 2--and Penn State’s only hope of attracting attention, and votes, will be winning by 80.

Just remember, no team has scored as many as 50 in a Rose Bowl game. But this is because, in the very first game in 1902, Stanford, behind 0-49, wisely decided not to play the fourth quarter.

Penn State must feel it has to win 80-0--or lose. It may not be a game, but a track meet. The original West Coast Rose Bowl team refused to play the last quarter. This year’s probably should refuse all four.