COLLEGE FOOTBALL SPOTLIGHT

PASSING UP THE SCORE

Sportsmanship took a holiday Saturday.

At Tallahassee, Fla., Florida State had a 42-14 advantage and then threw for three touchdown passes in the second half in a 77-17 trashing of North Carolina State.

At Gainsville, Fla., Florida was beating Tennessee, 55-30, and then passed for a fourth-quarter touchdown in what became a 62-37 victory. As if to make matters worse, it came from Danny Wuerffel--the starter who played the entire game.

And at Lincoln, Neb., Nebraska was up, 70-28, against Arizona State when Matt Turner threw a scoring pass to Lance Brown. You’d have thought the Cornhuskers were taking out their difficult week on an innocent bystander, but at least Coach Tom Osborne later apologized for the play.

OKLAHOMA, NOT SO OK

The Sooners continue to play flag football.

One week after being penalized 15 times against San Diego State, Oklahoma was called for 14 penalties in a 24-10 victory over Southern Methodist. Things got so bad that at one point the home crowd in Norman counted down with the 25-second clock as the Sooners tried--successfully, as it turned out, to get off a punt in time. Coach Howard Schnellenberger said he felt like “a traffic cop” on the sidelines as he tried to help his offense manage the clock and pick up blitzes.

“It’s gotten to be total confusion, and we’ve got to get that corrected or we’ll never beat Tom Thumb or North Texas or Colorado,” Schnellenberger said.

He obviously hasn’t seen Thumb’s offensive line.

VOL-UNTARY INFORMATION

NCAA officials could be looking at several alleged improprieties at Tennessee, according to a Nashville newspaper.

In addition to accusations by the girlfriend of Volunteer Leslie Ratliffe that the offensive tackle accepted illegal payments from a booster, The Tennessean also reported that:

--Agent Michael Weisberg has been linked to former Tennessee players.

--A Knoxville-area golf course has been identified in allegations involving special privileges given to athletes.

--Brian Darden, who signed last year before failing to qualify academically, has also raised a red flag with the NCAA.

The school has not received a letter of inquiry involving any of the allegations.

Ratliffe stayed in Knoxville while the Volunteers were in Gainesville for a Southeastern Conference game with Florida.

WAKE UP, BUCKEYES

There was once a college football team at Ohio State. Check the history books.

Before returning to action with a 30-20 victory over No. 18 Washington, the Buckeyes had been idle for 20 days after playing Boston College in the Kickoff Classic--the longest in-season layoff during their 106-year history.

At least there were no signs of being stale. The Buckeyes (2-0) built a 23-7 lead by halftime as Eddie George rushed for 149 yards and a touchdown. He finished with 212 yards and two touchdowns.

HOW THE WEST WAS LOST

It was a good day for the California Golden Bears--they didn’t have to lose to another WAC team.

Beyond that, it was a bad day for the state and much of the region.

UCLA was stopped on fourth and goal at the two on the final play and lost to Oregon.

Oregon State lost to North Texas.

Arizona lost to Illinois.

Washington lost to Ohio State by 10, and it took 13 fourth-quarter points to make it that close.

Arizona State got demolished by Nebraska, 77-28.

San Jose State lost to Eastern Michigan, although the good news is the Spartans don’t have to worry about a fan backlash. Only 10,426 showed for the home game.

UNLV was beaten by Eastern Michigan, 51-6.

QUOTEWORTHY

Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz after checking out of the hospital following back surgery: “The doctors said that I was a great patient, I was a perfect specimen of health. So the people that eat junk food, sleep late, smoke a pipe, take heart.”

Oregon defensive end Troy Bailey, speaking to reporters about a perceived lack of respect for the 20th-ranked Ducks: “Anybody voting AP? You guys are all high.”

Coach Bruce Snyder, his Arizona State Sun Devils having just been buried by Nebraska, 77-28: “It was just kind of an avalanche. I’ve never been in an avalanche, but that was kind of the feeling. . . . You have a sense of helplessness.”

Alabama Coach Gene Stallings on using both Brian Burgdorf and Freddie Kitchens at quarterback: “If you just have one quarterback, you don’t have any controversy at all. Then when he gets hurt, you don’t have any offense at all. So I’d rather have a little controversy myself.”

NEXT WEEK: SPECIAL TEAMS

The Curt Enis who had 132 yards and three touchdowns on only 14 carries for Penn State against Temple?

Yes, he’s the same Curt Enis who played linebacker the week before against Texas Tech.

No wonder Coach Joe Paterno is in something of a quandary over his freshman. As in, where to play him.

“I honestly don’t know,” Paterno said. “I’ll have to see what our linebacking situation is. I don’t want to say that he’ll be a tailback, and then two weeks later he’s a linebacker.”

How can Enis, the Ohio prep player of the year in 1993, not remain at tailback? Nittany Lion teammates may be wondering the same thing after watching him replace an ailing Mike Archie and starring in the second half.

Star receiver Bobby Engram delivered the highest compliment. When asked if that was Ki-Jana Carter in uniform No. 39, Engram smiled and said, “He [Enis] will be in that class before he’s done up here.”

HEY, COACH! GET A HOLTZ OF YOURSELF

It sounds like Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz has left his doom-and-gloom demeanor behind for good.

An emergency operation to correct a condition that could have left him paralyzed made him re-evaluate his life and what is important, Holtz said after being released from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and returning to South Bend.

“There’s a lot of pressure at Notre Dame, a lot of pressure you put on yourself and people are always comparing you with other people and that’s never good,” he said.

“I can’t be anybody else but Lou Holtz and maybe I haven’t done that as well as I should in recent times. I’m just going to be Lou Holtz, the plain and simple individual I was when I came here.”

Holtz had surgery Tuesday to relieve pressure on his spinal column, a condition that caused weakness in his arms and legs. Despite moving slower than usual, he seemed to have no trouble climbing down the steps of the Notre Dame airplane or walking across the Tarmac.

INTERESTED IN BUYING PLOT OF LAND, NORMAN?

Rarely has Nebraska needed to play a game as much as this week, if only to leave the mounting off-field problems behind for a couple hours.

Saturday, when Memorial Stadium was sold out again, making it the state’s third-largest “city” for the day, the Cornhusker faithful again proved to be among the most loyal in the country. Or the most delusional.

“It breaks my heart,” said Norman Korney of Omaha. “I think Coach [Tom] Osborne has been very fair with this whole thing. He runs the cleanest show in the country.”

AERIAL OFFENSE

A parachutist jumping into Rutgers Stadium prior to the start of the Navy-Rutgers game crashed onto the field and injured his hip, authorities said.

One jumper landed around midfield around 5:50 p.m., with Henry Dell’Osso closely behind as the crowd of about 30,000 looked on. A gust of wind apparently took his parachute past midfield and toward the north end zone.

Dell’Osso tried to make a sweeping turn and head back upfield, but that only seemed to increase his rate of descent for the final 100 feet, and he fell hard to the grass surface. He landed around the 20-yard line, making a divot in the grass.

Dell’Osso was helped off the field and had his legs wrapped on the Rutgers’ bench. With fans applauding, he eventually was removed on a stretcher.

The parachutist was one of two jumpers who regularly deliver game balls for Rutgers home games.

And here we thought there must have been a boxing match nearby.

NOTEWORTHY

Texas A&M;’s Leeland McElroy had 285 all-purpose yards against Tulsa: 116 on 23 rushes, 128 on four receptions and 41 on two kickoff returns. He also scored four touchdowns. . . . The 49-14 victory by St. John’s (Minn.) over Bethel was Coach John Gagliardi’s 319th, tying him for third with Pop Warner on the all-time victory list. . . . Prairie View’s 68-6 loss to Southern University moved the Panthers within a game of tying the all-time record for consecutive defeats. They can move alongside Macalester, a Division III school that once dropped 50 in a row, with a setback next week at Tarleton State. . . . Nebraska’s 77-28 rout of Arizona State was the most points scored by the Cornhuskers since an 84-13 victory over Minnesota in 1983. . . . Florida State set a school record for most points in a game by beating North Carolina State, 77-17, behind five touchdown passes from Danny Kanell. . . . Koy Detmer broke his own school passing record with 426 yards in Colorado’s 66-14 victory over Northeast Louisiana. And he played less than a minute in the second half, after the Buffaloes built a 49-7 halftime lead. . . . Arizona Coach Dick Tomey missed the Wildcats’ game at Illinois to be in Los Angeles to attend the funeral of Damon Terrell, his tight end who died Sept. 7. . . . Kentucky snapped the nation’s longest major-college losing streak at 12 games with a 17-10 victory over Indiana.

--Compiled by Bob Cuomo, Emilio Garcia-Ruiz and Scott Howard-Cooper.

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TOP PERFORMERS

PASSING

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Player Comp. Att. Yds. TD DETMER, Colorado 19 27 426 4 WUERFFEL, Florida 29 39 381 6 FISCHER, Duke 32 50 362 2 BUTTERFIELD, Stanford 30 42 335 3 MANNING, Tennessee 23 36 326 2 KANELL, Florida St. 28 32 310 4 BROWN, Texas 18 36 306 2 FOUTS, Utah 15 21 285 4 PLUMMER, Arizona St. 12 26 273 3

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RUSHING

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Player Carries Yards TD SINGLETON, Texas El Paso 37 232 2 WHATLEY, Kent 22 213 3 GEORGE, Ohio St. 36 212 2 WILLIS, Rutgers 35 207 2 McCULLOUGH, Wisconsin 34 204 1 McPHAIL, East Carolina 20 178 1 SHAW, Iowa 32 178 1 DARTEZ, Tulane 24 155 2 CHILDS, Nebraska 12 143 2

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RECEIVING*--*

Player No. Yards TD HARRIS, Stanford 10 142 0 REDWINE, North Texas 10 123 3 R. WILLIAMS, Arizona 9 128 1 HILLIARD, Florida 9 112 4 OPALENICK, Duke 9 114 1 JOHNSON, USC 8 176 2 COOPER, Florida St. 8 114 2 POOLE, Arizona St. 6 200 3 TURNER, Colorado St. 6 107 2

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