COLLEGE FOOTBALL SPOTLIGHT : SHORT SHIFT

So confident were USC coaches that those assigned to watch the game from the Cotton Bowl press box left their seats with six minutes to play in the third quarter to join the team on the sidelines.

IN THEIR CORNER

Phil Grosz, Penn State’s biggest fan, has been railing away at pollsters this season in his column, “Phil’s Corner,” in Blue White Illustrated.

He has nothing against Nebraska, but . . .

“The national media has jumped on this so-called triumph-over-tragedy story and beaten it to death, and I’m sick of it,” he wrote of the sportswriters and coaches who voted the Cornhuskers No. 1 over Penn State.

“Tom Osborne’s club has by no means cornered the market on adversity,” he continued. “In fact, though it has not lost anybody of (Tommie) Frazier’s caliber, Penn State has overcome more injuries than anybody else in the top 10.”

COLOR THEM EMBARRASSED

Before Monday, the last time Notre Dame tried the green jersey routine--other than some green trimming on white jerseys in the 1992 Sugar Bowl--was the 1985 Notre Dame-USC game at South Bend, Ind. Gerry Faust’s team, dressed in traditional blue and gold, took a substantial halftime lead over the Trojans, in a game the Irish won, 37-3. Then, inexplicably, Notre Dame came roaring out for the second half in full green jerseys. The lasting result of that was, for the most part, infuriating lots of USC backers.

Which, in the minds of lots of Notre Dame fans, would qualify as reason enough.