COLLEGE FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : ACROSS THE NATION : Gibbs Steps Down as Oklahoma Coach

Gary Gibbs inherited a scandal-ridden program, cleaned it up, and led Oklahoma to six consecutive winning seasons. It still wasn’t enough.

Gibbs, who couldn’t win the big games and championships that Oklahoma fans have come to expect, resigned Monday.

“I’ve taken a bunch of bullet holes the past 5 1/2 years,” he said. “This is a better program today than it was in ’89.”

Gibbs replaced highly popular Barry Switzer, who won 157 games, three national championships and a dozen Big Eight titles in 16 years.

Gibbs took over a team that was on probation. The program also had been shaken by a shooting, rape and drug arrest involving five Sooner players.

He said he will coach the team through a bowl game, most likely the Copper Bowl on Dec. 29 at Arizona Stadium in Tucson. Copper Bowl officials are expected to invite Brigham Young to play the Sooners.

Athletic Director Donnie Duncan said he had no list of candidates to replace Gibbs, but he would like to hire a replacement by mid-December.

Oklahoma is 44-21-2 under Gibbs, has twice won nine games and is 2-0 in bowl games. But the Sooners have finished no better than third in the Big Eight, and are only 2-14-1 in games against the Sooners’ biggest rivals--Texas, Colorado and Nebraska.

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Telephone circuits at the University of Oregon were jammed and the line of students waiting to buy Rose Bowl tickets stretched around Autzen Stadium.

“The fact is that so many people are starved to go to the Rose Bowl that they’ll do almost anything to get a ticket,” said Tom Hager, the university’s director of communications.

About 6,000 tickets allocated to students went on sale at 9 a.m. at the Casanova Athletic Center in Eugene.

The line of people waiting to buy them began forming Saturday, immediately after Oregon beat Oregon State, 17-13, to clinch its first Rose Bowl berth in 37 years.

The university received 39,000 tickets. Sales were limited to students, season-ticket holders, athletic department donors and Alumni Association members.

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Ohio State Coach John Cooper, who a few weeks ago reportedly was in danger of losing his job, will meet with Athletic Director Andy Geiger to begin contract extension talks. . . . Mississippi will appeal the portion of the NCAA penalties against the school’s football program dealing with a drastic reduction of scholarships. . . . Jim Marshall was fired after six seasons as head coach at the University of Richmond. Under Marshall, the Spiders were 19-47.