ASU Boxcar Finally on Right Track

Bruce Snyder figured the toughest job he’d ever have was the summer as a kid he worked in Indio shoveling chicken you-know-what out of railroad boxcars in 110-degree heat.

“I was never going to do anything that hard again,” Snyder said Monday as he peered out a fifth-floor conference room overlooking Sun Devil Stadium.

Then, in 1992, he left the University of California to become coach at Arizona State, only to be handed another shovel and led to a boxcar marked “ASU.”

The first time Snyder convened his players, he wondered out loud where all the big guys were. Ah, coach, those are your big guys.

Former coach John Cooper had flown the coop to take the Ohio State job the day after the 1988 Freedom Bowl, leaving Arizona State to twist in a warm wind under successor Larry Marmie.

Snyder’s first year was a vertigo spin into the abyss. “I was just hanging on,” he said. Snyder can’t recall whether there were more problems off the field or on it.

There were plenty of both.

Who could forget running out of eligible quarterbacks against Washington and having to start a redshirt freshman linebacker, Troy Rauer, in a Pacific 10 game?

It made Snyder almost pine for Indio.

“It was a mess,” he said. “It’s taken us this long to straighten it out.”

Almost five years after Snyder arrived with a five-year plan and a five-year contract, Arizona State is 5-0 for the first time since 1982 and ranked No. 4 nationally. The Sun Devils scored one of the more memorable upsets in recent sports history Sept. 21 when they ended Nebraska’s 26-game winning streak with a 19-0 victory.

Quarterback Jake Plummer is a Heisman Trophy candidate and Snyder is bucking for coach-of-the-year honors.

Knock on wood, but there hasn’t been an off-the-field incident involving an Arizona State player in three years. Snyder: “That may be a world’s record.”

After working up the coaching ladder--assistant stopovers at Oregon, New Mexico State, Los Angeles Rams, and head coaching stints at Utah State (seven years) and Cal (five)--Snyder has found bliss at 56.

All it took was time.

In a quick-fix world, Snyder preached the patience of his late father, Lyman, a hard-working businessman.

“He always said it’s the money that will come last in business,” Snyder said.

Snyder put a plan in place and waited. He went 6-5 in ’92 and ‘93, 3-8 in ’94 and 6-5 last season.

Lyman Snyder was right.

No one can readily explain Arizona State’s recent rise. On Oct. 7, 1995, a 30-28 loss to Stanford dropped the team’s record to 2-4.

While the vise tightened, Snyder remained eerily calm.

“I don’t know whether I was too dumb to feel the pressure,” he says now.

Snyder said the Stanford loss was a turning point.

“I know it was a loss, but I saw we were going to be a winning football team,” he said.

Since, the Sun Devils have won nine of 10 games, the lone defeat against archrival Arizona.

Snyder, followers say, has an uncanny knack of unearthing talent. He recruited Plummer with a passion, when few others had. One of his top defensive players is long-haired Pat Tillman, a 5-foot-11, 200-pound outside linebacker from San Jose who looks as though he just came from a poetry reading--oh, he hits like an anvil.

Snyder’s biggest break, however, came when his three star offensive players--Plummer, wide receiver Keith Poole and left tackle Juan Roque--decided not to turn pro.

They wanted to see Snyder’s plan through.

“It affirmed what we were doing,” Snyder said of the players’ decision.

No one is talking national title yet. The Sun Devils opened the season with five home games. Now, the tough part: this weekend at UCLA, then an epic Oct. 19 home showdown against USC. Then a Nov. 9 game at home against suddenly formidable Cal and a Nov. 23 date at Arizona, which has beaten Arizona State three in a row.

Whatever the outcome, Snyder says this has already been his favorite season. His future is secure. Kevin White, the first-year athletic director, loves him. Last year, Snyder’s contract was extended to the year 2000.

“This is a fun team, a fabulous team,” Snyder said. “When it’s all over, I think we’ll look back and say, ‘Wasn’t that fun?’ ”

. . . AND THE FLIP SIDE

Temple Coach Ron Dickerson received an anonymous letter last year from a fan asking him to resign.

Not because he thought Dickerson was incompetent.

The letter stated, “We love you, but you’re too nice.”

Dickerson’s refusal to dispense blame for Temple’s failures since he arrived in 1992 came to a head Saturday, when Dickerson did his maxima mea culpa after the Owls’ 53-52 loss to Pittsburgh.

Dickerson, as usual, turned inward, citing his ill-fated decision to try a fake punt from his own 43 with a five-point lead and 2:33 to play.

The play failed, and Pitt drove for the winning touchdown.

Dickerson announced his resignation after the game, then retracted his comments the next day after a sleepless Saturday night in which he sought comfort from wife, Jeannie, daughter, Rashawn, and son, Ron Jr.

Ron Jr. was blunt: “Dad, you’re not a quitter; you’ve never been a quitter your whole life.”

By Sunday, Dickerson, 48, had received dozens of phone calls from coaches and friends around the country offering support. After meeting with Temple Athletic Director Dave O’Brien, Dickerson had a change of heart.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself,” Dickerson said this week. “I’m one of those guys who can’t eat and don’t sleep. It’s physically taken a toll on me, but I’ve done it to myself. . . . I’ve beaten myself to death.”

No more, says Dickerson. Though his team is 5-33 in his four-plus seasons in charge, Dickerson says he’s going to start passing some of the buck.

“Either I’m going to have to do it or it’s going to kill me,” he said. “Because I have taken on too much. I have to start divvying up the blame. That’s what I’ve got to do. It will happen.”

HOW ‘BOUT SHIRTS VS. SKINS?

Maybe the schools could meet in a local park after the season.

Because of current Big Ten scheduling rotation, Ohio State and Northwestern will not play for the second consecutive season, depriving fans of a great matchup.

So which school goes to the Rose Bowl if both end up 8-0 in Big Ten play?

Ohio State, based on the second tiebreaker, overall record--the first, head-to-head, does not apply--since the Buckeyes would be undefeated. Northwestern, remember, lost its opener to Wake Forest.

Had both teams ended the season unbeaten overall, Ohio State would still go to the Rose Bowl based on the third tiebreaker, with the most recent representation, Northwestern, having gone last season.

“We’d love to settle that thing,” Ohio State senior linebacker Greg Bellisari said of unfinished business with Northwestern. “I’m sure they do. It’s only human nature.”

Northwestern Coach Gary Barnett, actually, voted in favor of the rotating schedule because he thinks playing more nonconference games brings the conference more visibility.

“That’s just the way it goes,” Barnett says of not being able to play Ohio State. “It’s a consequence of the of the decision, and I agreed with the decision.”

HURRY-UP OFFENSE

--What was John Junker, Fiesta Bowl executive director, doing at Saturday’s Ohio State-Penn State game? Although the Big Ten has locked in deals with the Rose, Citrus, Outback, Alamo and Sun bowls, the Fiesta Bowl has the right under the alliance to pluck any Big Ten or Pacific 10 team to play in its Jan. 2 game other than the conference champions, which are bound to the Rose Bowl. The Fiesta Bowl has the third and fifth selections in this year’s alliance rotation. Junker was taking a look at the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions.

--Nice to see that the coaches’ poll has now deemed Northwestern worthy of top-25 (No. 18 this week) consideration after snubbing the Wildcats for reasons that were, frankly, becoming suspicious. The coaches still don’t have a clue, though. They have Michigan (No. 13) ranked ahead of Northwestern despite the Wildcats’ 17-16 victory over the Wolverines last Saturday. Both teams have 4-1 records.

And yes, for the third consecutive week after Arizona State beat Nebraska, the No. 4 Cornhuskers remain ranked ahead of the No. 5 Sun Devils.

Florida Coach Steve Spurrier, one of 62 voting coaches, doesn’t understand.

“If both of them win out the rest of the way, I would think eventually somebody would put Arizona State ahead of them [the Cornhuskers],” Spurrier said. “Any time you beat somebody, you ought to be ranked ahead of them.”

--Minnesota Coach Jim Wacker, who needs five wins this season to keep his job, lost a chance to notch victory No. 4 Saturday when the Gophers lost, 30-27, to Purdue. Minnesota is 3-1 to date, while T-shirt sales supporting Wacker’s cause remain brisk: “The Drive For Five To Keep Wacker Alive.”

--You might think Arizona State football would be one of hottest tickets in one of the hottest towns. It’s not. The Sun Devils drew only 49,018 for last Saturday’s rout of Boise State and 54,618 the week before against Oregon. The fair-weathers did pack Sun Devil Stadium for the Sept. 21 Nebraska game, which drew 74,089.

--Swooners report: At 0-4, Oklahoma is off to its worst start in 35 years in what promises to be the worst season ever in Norman.

--Look for Mountaineer fans to start squawking about lack of respect now that West Virginia is 6-0, enough wins to qualify for a bowl game. The school didn’t win its fifth game last year until Thanksgiving Day. Reality: The West Virginia schedule was front-loaded with wins: Pittsburgh, Western Michigan, East Carolina, Purdue, Maryland and Boston College. The Mountaineers will go to 7-0 after beating Temple on Oct. 19, but then close with Miami, Syracuse, Rutgers and Virginia Tech.

--How dominant was Ohio State’s 38-7 victory over Penn State? Consider that the Nittany Lions played a near-flawless game, committing one five-yard penalty and no turnovers.

--Pass the syrup: Ohio State left tackle Orlando Pace recorded seven more “pancake” blocks last weekend, giving him 29 in four games.

--Pittsburgh Coach Johnny Majors on his team’s 53-52 victory over Temple: “We are the worst defense at this point than we’ve had in my career.” Majors has been a coach for 43 years.