COLLEGE FOOTBALL / CHRIS DUFRESNE : Maybe It’s Not Revenge, but It’s Sweet

Colorado administrators might not have been promise keepers in 1994 when they hired blond-haired, blue-eyed Rick Neuheisel to succeed outgoing evangelist/coach Bill McCartney.

Neuheisel, then 33, had been on staff for one year.

The alternative was defensive coordinator Bob Simmons, an African American and seven-year CU assistant who reportedly had received McCartney’s endorsement.

“At the time, I was a candidate for the job, they chose Rick Neuheisel, that was fine,” Simmons said by phone from his office in Stillwater, Okla. “Is this revenge? No.”

Things worked out OK, as in Oklahoma State. Simmons drifted off to the plains, where it was assumed he would grow wind-chapped and withered.

Neuheisel took over McCartney’s team and has kept Colorado at a high national peak.

Until this year. This year Colorado is the Continental Divide, with stories of rifts between McCartney’s senior holdovers and Neuheisel’s recruits.

The Buffaloes are 2-3 and out of the Associated Press poll for the first time in 143 weeks.

The school that knocked the ranking out of Colorado last Saturday night was Simmons’ Oklahoma State Cowboys, who defeated the Buffaloes, 33-29, to go 6-0 for the first time since 1945.

Simmons defeated his old school with help from his quarterback, redshirt freshman Tony Lindsay, a Denver product Neuheisel didn’t recruit, and running back Nathan Simmons, the coach’s son, who starred at Boulder High.

You couldn’t blame Simmons if he gloated a bit, but it has never been his style.

He never raised the race issue on his way out of Boulder. Simmons barely raised his voice. “You have to wonder how much time you have to put in,” was about his strongest outgoing comment.

Instead, Simmons settled into a job that better suited him.

“The bulk of those players there were Bill McCartney’s,” Simmons said of Colorado. “And you really won’t be able to judge what you do until after his players leave.”

Simmons, 49, wanted to be judged sooner, so he took on a program that had won 18 of its previous 66 games before he arrived.

“It would have been nice to coach at Colorado,” Simmons said. “But for me, if you trace my history in the coaching profession, I’ve always been in programs that have been down. I was well-schooled on how to put programs back together.”

Oklahoma State was Humpty Dumpty, but after losing seven of his first nine games in 1995, Simmons has won 13 of his last 20.

Oklahoma State, No. 16 in this week’s AP poll, has not lost since Nov. 9 (to Oklahoma).

Thing is, there was no whiff of this turnaround coming outside core believers in Stillwater. Oklahoma State was picked to finish fifth among six teams in the Big 12 Conference’s South Division.

Last summer, Simmons lost 10 players, five of them probable starters, to academic suspension. The players met NCAA minimum eligibility requirements, but not the university’s.

“One thing we talked about,” Simmons said, “is that we can’t worry about something we can’t control. Let’s come together and focus on what we have.”

What the Cowboys have is a defense, led by first-year defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, Buddy’s son, who has installed his version of his dad’s famous “46.” Anchored by 300-pound run-stopper Jamal Williams, the Cowboys are ranked third nationally against the run, giving up 60 yards a game. Junior receiver/defensive back R.W. McQuarters gives the Cowboys a two-way jolt, while senior cornerback Kevin Williams (five interceptions) has been a burst of light.

“The guy has shined all year long,” Simmons says of Williams.

Nathan, the coach’s son, isn’t bad either, having gained 66 yards in the victory over Colorado while splitting time with Jamaal Fobbs.

“In my heart, I like to think I treat him the same,” Simmons said of his son. “Sometimes he tells me I don’t . . . I am proud. It’s hard to separate blood.”

NOTHING PERSONAL

Should USC’s 35-7 loss to Arizona State end up being a factor in costing John Robinson his job, no one will feel worse than Sun Devil Coach Bruce Snyder.

“John and I have known each other closer to 40 years than 30,” Snyder said this week.

Robinson was an Oregon assistant when Snyder arrived in Eugene as a player. Snyder later worked with Robinson on the staffs of Oregon, USC and the Los Angeles Rams.

“A lot of my thinking, how to deal with people, how to deal with players, particularly offensive schemes, I can draw a line between what I’m thinking back to John and that relationship,” Snyder said.

The game can be cruel. Saturday, Snyder’s team embarrassed USC so completely as to perhaps irreparably damage Robinson’s future.

Snyder says you can’t look at it that way.

“The thing about coaching, it becomes rather impersonal in a lot of ways during the contest itself,” Snyder said. “I very rarely look across the other side to see even who that other guy is. You become so consumed with just trying to make a first down, trying to get somebody stopped.”

Snyder doesn’t know what’s going to happen to Robinson.

“I’ve certainly have had my time on the hot seat,” Snyder said. “I think we all know what that’s all about and you go about doing your business and try to block out outside pressures that might be there.

“He’s trying to win games, I’m trying to win games. I think we all understand that.”

LET THE RACE BEGIN

Postgame Penn State partyers whooped it up in the Beaver Stadium parking lot Saturday night after learning of LSU’s upset of No. 1 Florida at Baton Rouge, knowing the Gator loss would make the Nittany Lions No. 1 in Sunday’s polls.

A couple of thoughts:

1. Penn State should never have lost its No. 1 ranking to Florida in the first place Sept. 22 after beating Louisville, 57-21.

2. It’s a tad early to start knitting national title quilts.

Florida’s defeat helped Penn State, but it helped another team more:

Nebraska.

No school has an easier path to a title-game in the Jan. 2 Orange Bowl than the Cornhuskers.

As big as that victory was over Ohio State, it is difficult to imagine Penn State going through the Big Ten season unscathed. After should-win games the next two weeks against Minnesota and Northwestern, Penn State closes with Michigan, at Purdue, Wisconsin and at Michigan State--opponents with a combined 20-2 record.

Three are top-25 teams, with Purdue close behind as one of the “others receiving votes.”

Remember too, that Penn State’s defense gave up an astonishing 565 yards to Ohio State.

Nebraska (5-0) might not play a ranked opponent until a showdown against Oklahoma State in the Big 12 championship.

With Penn State and Nebraska unable to play this season in a possible title game, the national title chase remains an open field.

Here are the other contenders:

* Florida State (5-0): The Seminoles go to the Orange Bowl as No. 1 or No. 2 if they win out. The problem is both of Florida’s make-or-break games are on the road: Nov. 8 at North Carolina and Nov. 22 at Florida.

* North Carolina (6-0): A Penn State loss clears the way for a possible Nebraska-North Carolina national title game in the Orange Bowl, assuming the Cornhuskers and Tar Heels win out. North Carolina has three testers left: at Georgia Tech, home to Florida State, at Clemson.

* Michigan (5-0): The Wolverines likely need help to get to the Rose Bowl ranked either first or second. Like Penn State, Michigan faces a brutal stretch: Iowa, at Michigan State, at Penn State, at Wisconsin and Ohio State. Good luck, fellas.

* Auburn (6-0): A great story; don’t get married to it. The Tigers still have Florida, Georgia and Alabama on the docket and then must win the Southeastern Conference title game to get to an Alliance bowl.

* Florida (5-1): Hey, the Gators recovered from last year’s loss to Florida State to win the national title. With Auburn, Georgia and Florida State left, Florida has the schedule power to maneuver back into the national title picture.

* Washington State (5-0): Pac-10 pipe dream: Cougars are 11-0 after beating Washington on Nov. 22 and take on No. 1 Penn State in the Rose Bowl for the national title.

* Longshots: Tennessee, Ohio State, Washington, Michigan State.

* Longer shots: Oklahoma State, Iowa, LSU.

COAST TO COAST

* The idea to mail out leaves to promote Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf’s Heisman campaign? It was Coach Mike Price’s.

“When he was a freshman we weren’t playing too well, we were having some quarterback problems, and someone sent me a leaf in the mail,” Price said. “I thought it was such a clever idea, and I just remembered it. It’s not like we have a huge budget around here.”

Price said about 650 leaves were collected around campus to send to Heisman voters. Price: “The people at the Heisman Committee called up the other day and said it’s the most original idea they’ve ever had.”

* Colorado’s Neuheisel, a movie buff, no doubt erred when he used “Ghost and the Darkness,” as this year’s motivational theme. The movie is about two lions who terrorized an African village in the late 19th century. Perhaps Neuheisel missed the part where the lions are killed.

* Most efficient use of a throwing arm award goes to option-happy Rice quarterback Chad Nelson, who completed two of three passes for 109 yards in Saturday’s 27-14 upset victory over Brigham Young.

* The Bowden family of coaches is 6-0 the last two weeks with two victories each for Bobby (Florida State) and sons Terry (Auburn) and Tommy (Tulane).

“I went home last weekend, we’d just won 49-10, and I looked at all the scores,” Terry Bowden said Wednesday. “We had the worst offense in the whole family. My dad got 57 points against Duke, then Tommy got 63 against Louisville. I feel so inferior.”

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Can’t Hold That Line

Iowa State is closing in on the record of most points given up per game, set by Texas El Paso, which gave up 49.5 points per game in 1973. The worst 10 teams this season:

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Team Average Iowa State 49.0 Southwestern Louisiana 47.0 Kent 46.7 Rutgers 46.0 Houston 44.2 Akron 43.5 Central Michigan 42.7 Tulsa 41.0 Baylor 40.4 Louisville 39.6

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