COLLEGE FOOTBALL / GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI : Irish Can Only Stew in Aftermath

The upset aftermath. Four first-week games and one legal battle that turned college football sideways. (Or why Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz walked into his postgame news conference last Saturday and said, “Other than the assassination, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”)

1) NORTHWESTERN 17, NOTRE DAME 15

A dream come true for NU , screamed Sunday’s 84-point headline in the Chicago Tribune, which hasn’t been this enthusiastic about anything since Dewey beat Truman. Not to be outdone, the Chicago Sun-Times went with its super-sized Al Michaels package: Do You Believe in Miracles? YES!

Armistice Day didn’t get this kind of play.

Mildcat Mania is sweeping Evanston. . .sort of. Quarterback Steve Schnur, who helped engineer the biggest upset in school history, received a 5:15 a.m. limo ride Monday to ABC’s Chicago affiliate for a live appearance on “Good Morning, America.” No word of the show’s ratings in South Bend, Ind.

Coach Gary Barnett almost saw the Wildcats, 27-point underdogs against the Irish, receive their first Associated Press top 25 ranking since 1971. They’re 29th, which is a start. Meanwhile, Notre Dame dropped from No. 9 to No. 25.

Northwestern kicker Sam Valenzisi still has the handful of sod he pulled from Notre Dame Stadium after the victory. The grass might die, but the memories never will.

“I think what we have to contend with now is everybody’s shooting for us,” Valenzisi said.

Huh? Shooting for Northwestern ? Isn’t that what Notre Dame used to say?

Not any more, it isn’t.

2) AIR FORCE 38, BRIGHAM YOUNG 12

Your tax dollars at work: Air Force officials are busy replacing another pair of goal posts at Falcon Stadium, where cadets and fans are getting good at destroying government property--not that anybody at Air Force seems too upset.

This is the second consecutive home game at which the goal posts ($2,500 apiece) have been torn down after a Falcon victory. Last season, they fell after a victory over ranked Utah. This season, they toppled after Air Force ended its 12-game losing streak to the Cougars, who were favored to win the Western Athletic Conference title. Many more victories and they’ll have to start greasing the crossbar.

School officials say Air Force, not Uncle Sam, will foot the bill for the new goal posts. The cost will come out of its TV revenue and ticket sales. The way Air Force figures it, it’s money well spent.

Anyway, after Saturday’s stunner against BYU, Brig. Gen. John D. Hopper, the Academy’s commandant, announced that the cadets would receive a “nonchargeable” weekend this month. In other words, time to party hearty.

Sophomore cadets, who usually get weekend leave only once during September, are free to leave campus Friday and Saturday nights. The same goes for the poor freshmen, who usually get weekend leave only once a semester. Hopper also allowed the freshmen to be “at rest” this weekend, which means the upperclassmen can’t harass the newcomers for two whole wonderful days.

And how about this for a strange-but-true game to watch? Sept. 23, Air Force at Northwestern.

3) PURDUE 26, WEST VIRGINIA 24

After the victory over then-No. 23-ranked West Virginia--only the Boilermakers’ sixth victory in the last 23 games--Purdue Coach Jim Colletto was a guest on ESPN’s radio talk show. Usually the only way Colletto gets on the air is if he calls in himself and says he’s Jim from West Lafayette.

4) IOWA STATE 36, OHIO 21

Any time the Cyclones beat anybody--including dreadful O(for its last 12 games)-hio, it’s an upset. So rare was the Cyclone victory that new Coach Dan McCarney said he drove through campus on his way home after last Thursday night’s game and saw Iowa State students lugging a piece of the goal post. McCarney nearly had to pull over and wipe a tear from his eye.

“It was real emotional, to be honest with you,” he said.

Rumor has it that the goal posts were dumped into a nearby lake, the same lake where goal posts from a 1992 upset of Nebraska are swimming with the fishes. Kids.

For McCarney, whose job status was in jeopardy even before he coached his first game, the victory was sweet, indeed. In March, published reports of McCarney’s troubled marriage, which included allegations of wife beating, forced school officials to consider buying out his five-year contract. They stood by McCarney, but the controversy remained.

“It was just great for something positive to happen to this university,” he said of the victory over Ohio.

5) LIBERTY 1, NCAA 0

Liberty University founder Jerry Falwell, whose school bankrolled a suit against the NCAA last week, knows his 1964 Civil Rights Act. Maybe that’s why the NCAA wisely agreed to amend its no-prayer rule if Liberty told the lawyers to get lost.

Liberty dropped the suit the next day and the NCAA, apparently worried about an impromptu rendition of an end zone Passion Play, dropped its ridiculous attempt to legislate celebration out of the game. According to the new guidelines, players can pray briefly after, say, a touchdown, but only if they don’t bring too much attention to themselves.

GARY WHO?

Stick the word interim in front of a coach’s name at Michigan and suddenly the improbable happens.

Steve Fisher was a little-known assistant on the 1989 Wolverine basketball staff when then-athletic director Bo Schembechler made him the interim head coach shortly before the NCAA tournament. All Fisher did was lead Michigan to a national championship. He also got a promotion.

Now comes Lloyd Carr, another longtime Wolverine assistant who finds himself with the interim tag after an off-season arrest resulted in Gary Moeller’s resignation. In what amounts to a one-season audition, Carr has led Michigan to its greatest comeback in school history (an 18-17 victory over Virginia), a 38-14 mauling of Illinois at Champaign and a No. 11 ranking. With Memphis coming to Ann Arbor on Saturday, the Wolverines soon should be 3-0.

“How good we are?” Carr said. “I don’t know. I do know that we have a lot of room for improvement and a long way to go.”

The same could be said of Carr, who was smart enough to talk to Fisher about being an interim coach.

“Lloyd and I have talked a couple of times about the pressures that come with that label and come with being a head coach,” Fisher said. “I have not tried to give him advice. We just talked about some of the things that happened with me and how I handled them. We talked about the media and how the focus is on you.”

Fisher has known Carr since 1982. Both built their reputations as assistant coaches. Both are big on loyalty. Fisher made the most of his opportunity. Carr is doing the same.

“I can identify [with Carr] in a lot of ways,” Fisher said. “I know that Lloyd Carr belongs as a head coach at this level. If you’re here, you appreciate how good he is. I can relate to that.”

Oh, and one other thing: “Sometimes you have to be lucky. I was lucky. I thought I was good too, but sometimes you have to be lucky.”

Will the 18-point comeback against Virginia do?

THE REST

Northwestern’s Valenzisi, a fifth-year senior who didn’t make the travel squad when the Wildcats went to Notre Dame in 1993, had one field goal, two extra points, two kickoffs for touchbacks, one solo tackle on a kickoff and one assist. He had five tackles last year. And by the way, this was the last year of the Northwestern-Notre Dame series. . . .With Air Force ahead of BYU at halftime, 21-0, a three-star general walked into the stifling hot Falcon Stadium press box and asked one of the local writers what he thought of things. The sweating writer sarcastically said, “I wish there was more. . .heat in here.” End of conversation. . . .Iowa State’s McCarney, a former Wisconsin assistant, still can’t believe visiting Colorado, only a 1 1/2-point favorite, overwhelmed the Badgers, 43-7. “That score just shocked me,” said McCarney, who watched the game and later called Wisconsin Coach Barry Alvarez with condolences. Badger fans were in a foul mood after the game. As Colorado players huddled at midfield for a team prayer, thus delaying the postgame performance by the Wisconsin marching band, fans began chanting, “Get off the field.”

In what must have been a package deal, Cincinnati played Kansas last Saturday and Kansas State this Saturday. . . .With few reference points to prepare for Saturday’s game against Michigan State, Nebraska coaches are looking at film of the 1994 Cleveland Browns. New Michigan State Coach Nick Saban was the defensive coordinator for the Browns. . . .Deion Sanders, the former Florida State All-American, never did it, but Jermaine Green did. For the first time in Coach Bobby Bowden’s 20 years at Florida State, a Seminole played offense and defense. Green, a second-team cornerback and fourth-team tailback, had the only interception in Saturday’s 70-26 victory over Duke and also rushed for seven yards in two carries.

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Top 10

As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

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No. Team Record 1. Nebraska 1-0 2. Florida State 1-0 3. Florida 1-0 4. Texas A&M; 1-0 5. Auburn 1-0 6. Michigan 2-0 7. Tennessee 1-0 8. Penn State 0-0 9. Ohio State 1-0 10. Colorado 1-0

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Waiting list: 11. USC (0-0); 12. UCLA (1-0); 13. Alabama (1-0); 14. Oklahoma (0-0); 15. Texas (1-0); 16. Arizona (1-0); 17. North Carolina State (1-0); 18. Colorado State (1-0); 19. Virginia Tech (0-0); 20. Washington (1-0); 21. Virginia (1-1); 22. Syracuse (1-0); 23. Northwestern (1-0); 24. Air Force (1-0); 25. Miami (0-1)