Michigan Is Thorn in Rose Bowl

It is one thing to hold up your end of the bargain.

It is quite another to wave it through the sky and dance with it in circles after sticking it through the hearts of those hated kids from down the street.

Several hours after one Rose Bowl team reneged, Arizona State rejoiced Saturday by keeping alive its quest for an unbeaten season and national championship with a 56-14 victory over rival Arizona.

So Ohio State choked and ruined the Rose Bowl’s hopes for a battle of unbeatens? So who cares?

So said the Sun Devils, who first wrecked the overmatched Wildcats, then celebrated by trashing their home field.

They spit on it, daring the crowd to stop them. They tore up chunks of it and threw them toward the stands.

They stood laughing while their own fans, who had traveled from across the desert in Tempe, climbed on one goal post and tried to dislodge it.

On a night when they beat their rivals for only the third time in their last 15 meetings, it was one of the few Sun Devil moves that didn’t work.

“Lot of those ghosts are gone,” said running back Terry Battle, who rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns. “We had to rub it in their faces this year. We had to stomp them. We definitely wanted to run up the score.”

Early in the fourth quarter, backup guard Glen Gable took it too far with an illegal hit on Wildcat Daniel Greer, who was wheeled off with a severely sprained ankle while a skirmish ensued.

It was a low block at the ankles, which might have been accidental except Gable was supposed to be chasing Arizona defensive back Mikal Smith at the time. Smith was in the process of returning an interception 98 yards for a touchdown.

The remainder of the game was a series of late hits, cheap shots, taunting, and flags that accounted for eight personal fouls and five ejections.

“That’s the most malicious thing I’ve ever seen,” Arizona Coach Dick Tomey said of the Gable hit while meeting Sun Devil Coach Bruce Snyder at midfield afterward.

He also said, “You have a hell of a team.”

He was right on both counts.

“Before this game I was watching Ohio State lose, and the announcers were talking about how we should also be worried, and it really made me mad,” linebacker Pat Tillman said. “Everybody was looking for us to cower. We showed a lot of character.”

While administering the worst beating in this series in 38 years, the Sun Devils gained such confidence that they don’t think the Buckeye loss will hurt them.

Popular opinion is that if Florida or Florida State finishes the season unbeaten after a victory over Nebraska or whoever in the Sugar Bowl, Arizona State will have no chance for the national title even if it finishes 12-0.

After all, in the Rose Bowl, they are now facing a team that doesn’t even remotely resemble Nebraska.

“Doesn’t matter,” said 250-pound fullback Jeff Paulk, who gained 82 yards in nine carries. “We figure Nebraska will beat whoever they play, Florida or Florida State. We beat Ohio State, we will be national champs.”

They certainly looked like that on Saturday while outgaining Arizona, 651-170.

Their offense was not stopped on downs after the first quarter. The defense allowed the Wildcats 21 total yards in six of their seven possessions of the second half .

“I’m voting our team No. 1 in the country,” Snyder said. “I have not seen a better team this year.”

Perhaps Ohio State should have placed orders with the vendor who covered baseball caps with the Sun Devils’ preseason slogan--ITCOB (“I Take Care Of Business.”)

The slogan helped them remain calm during an early-season upset of top-ranked Nebraska. It kicked in again Saturday, when, in the first 11 minutes:

--Guard Pat Thompson was ejected for fighting.

--Quarterback Jake Plummer missed--badly in some cases--on four of five passes.

--They were assessed a penalty when they wouldn’t call a play because they didn’t have enough men on the field.

Then it happened, as it has happened in every Arizona State game this season.

Somebody relatively small and quick and mean knocks somebody into next week.

This time it was linebacker Derek Smith sprinting 10 yards and flattening Arizona quarterback Keith Smith with a nine-yard sack on third down deep in Arizona territory.

“We don’t like them, and they don’t like us,” Smith said. “And that’s for real.”

According to the official stat sheet, Smith was, “Turned into pancake butter.”

And Arizona State turned Rose Bowl officials into a relieved group by scoring three touchdowns in the next 12 minutes.

The first score came after a three-play, 38-yard, all-rushing series featuring Paulk inside and Battle outside.

The next score came after Arizona tried a surprise quick kick from their 21-yard line. Shawn Swayda of Arizona State was rushing so hard he simply stuck up his hand and blocked it.

The third score came on a perfect 42-yard pass from Plummer to Keith Poole, giving the Sun Devils a 21-7 lead that they increased to 28-7 at halftime.

Poole later made a one-handed catch over the middle, followed by a leaping touchdown grab off the fingertips of defensive back Kelly Malveaux.

It was after this second score, which made it 35-7, that Poole dropped the ball and walked around the end zone with his hands out and his head shaking as if to say, “It doesn’t matter.”

The starters departed early in the fourth quarter to begin resting for Pasadena, where the Sun Devils, “will be facing a . . . Ohio State team,” according to Plummer.

Yet after one almost mystical night in the desert, they believe what Poole’s face said. It doesn’t matter.

“We haven’t lost,” Tillman said, laughing. “Why should we feel we’re going to lose?”