COLLEGE FOOTBALL / THE BOWLS : FIESTA COLORADO vs. NOTRE DAME, Today : Holtz Hasn’t Forgotten Clipping Call

The last time Notre Dame and Colorado met in a bowl game was the 1991 Orange Bowl. Colorado was going for the national championship, and Rocket Ismail was having a career season for the Irish.

Late in the game, Ismail took a Colorado punt at his own nine-yard line and weaved his way 91 yards for a touchdown that would have cost the Buffaloes their eventual No. 1 status. But a clipping penalty was called on Notre Dame’s Greg Davis, and Colorado won, 10-9.

Irish Coach Lou Holtz, when asked about that this week, was perhaps more outspoken on the subject than ever before.

“There’s no way it was a clip,” he said. “The two officials right there didn’t think it was a clip, but the guy 35 yards away thought it was. . . . It was called a clip. A tree is a tree is a tree. If it looks like a tree, acts like a tree and somebody calls it a tree, than it must be a tree.”

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What kind of impact has Bill McCartney had on the Colorado program in his 13 seasons? The Buffaloes have lost only four games, in the 152 he has coached, where they’ve been ahead at any point in the fourth period. Also, since 1989, the Buffaloes have set 263 team records and tied 38 others, including establishing new marks in 51 categories and tying four more this season alone.

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The full-court press is on to convince Rashaan Salaam to stay for his senior year at Colorado, rather than turn pro.

McCartney said Friday: “The advice I would give him is that there is nothing he can do in a lifetime that compares with the intercollegiate experience. He can make a lot of money and do a lot of good things professionally, but that doesn’t replace the college experience. If he stays in school, he can come back and win the Heisman again next year.”

Rick Neuheisel, who will replace McCartney immediately after the Fiesta Bowl, was a bit more subtle, but not much. In a feature story on senior receiver Michael Westbrook in a Phoenix newspaper earlier in the week, one of the things Neuheisel said was how proud he was that Westbrook didn’t go pro last year, and showed the class “to fulfill his commitment” to Colorado.