Tiller Cultivates Winning Feeling

Joe Tiller said he could see it coming.

Not Purdue’s 28-17 upset victory over Notre Dame, but the play that sent the Boilermakers on their way.

Notre Dame was within 14-10 until the fourth quarter when Purdue safety Adrian Beasley scooped up a fumble by Irish quarterback Ron Powlus and returned it 43 yards for a touchdown. It was Purdue’s first fumble return for a touchdown since 1994.

“I felt, and I don’t know why, sometimes you just have these feelings, I felt like they were going to turn the ball over,” said Tiller, who is in his first season as coach at Purdue. “Because the ball came out of their runners’, their receivers’ and even their quarterback’s hand several times today.

“I’m going to tell you what, folks, sooner or later, that oblong, spherical sucker is going to bounce your way. And it did once.”

FINANCIAL TIP

Bowling Green got waxed by ninth-ranked Ohio State, 44-13. No one, however, can say the Falcons suffer from a lack of money ballplayers.

Sure, Ohio State’s victory was its 17th win in a row over an in-state college. And the Buckeyes’ last loss to another institution from--what else?--the Buckeye state was in 1921 to Oberlin.

But Bowling Green collected $350,000 for Saturday’s appearance.

After the game, Bowling Green Coach Gary Blackney had some advice for the next Ohio college to play Ohio State.

“Take the money and forfeit,” he said.

IF YOU BUILD IT. . .

Renovated stadiums are all the rage in college football, but are there enough fans in Indiana and Illinois to fill them?

That’s what Northwestern must be pondering.

Last week, a few hours from the Northwestern campus in Evanston, Ill., Notre Dame had no problem drawing a record 80,225 to its opener against Georgia Tech in refurbished Notre Dame Stadium, which had undergone a $50-million makeover.

So Northwestern naturally expected a standing-room-only crowd for Saturday’s home opener against Duke after shelling out $28 million to refurbish what is now Ryan Field.

The Wildcats, however, drew only 36,225 to the new-look 47,000 seat facility.

TEAM EFFORT

Memphis got routed by No. 21 Michigan State, 51-21, but at least every Tiger took advantage of his opportunity to contribute.

After the game, Memphis Coach Rip Scherer lived up to his first name.

“That’s a long day at the ranch,” he said. “Everybody had a chance to play poorly, and everybody did.”

FORGETTABLE QUOTE

After two lopsided victories, Michigan State now travels to Notre Dame.

“It’s a big game,” Spartan linebacker Ike Reese said. “You don’t know how good you are until you play a great team.”

Looks like the Spartans won’t know how good they are until Oct. 25 against Michigan.

HOUSTON,

YOU HAVE A PROBLEM

Five-time Olympian Carl Lewis staged a farewell encore at halftime of the game between Houston and Pittsburgh, running a 400-meter relay with Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell and Floyd Heard on the track where his 18-year career began.

“It’s been a long road, been a lot of fights, it’s been a lot of fun,” said Lewis, who attended Houston and paid for the resurfacing of the school’s track in 1990. “But to quote a song by Frank Sinatra, ‘I did it my way,’ and that’s still pretty damn good.”

The same cannot be said of Houston.

The Cougars are 0-3 after losing, 35-24, on Saturday.

PELE IN PADS

Tavian Banks of Iowa said he mixed football with futbol en route to a school-record 314-yard rushing performance Saturday against Tulsa.

“Those [were] my soccer moves coming out,” said Banks, an all-state soccer player in high school.

Banks, who scored four touchdowns, broke Ed Podolak’s record of 286 yards set in 1968.

TALE OF THE TAPE

The crowd of 96,735 at Beaver Stadium was stunned when Temple took a 7-0 lead over top-ranked Penn State only 43 seconds into the game.

Not Temple.

Stacey Mack’s halfback pass to wide-open Troy Kersey gained 31 yards and, one play later, Mack went 17 yards into the end zone untouched.

“It was supposed to go for a touchdown,” Mack said about his throw.

The team had watched a tape of Michigan State pulling a similar play against Penn State last season. “It was something we thought we could do against them.”

NOTEWORTHY

Langston survived a scare to defeatPrairie View A&M;, 19-10, extending the Division I-AA team’s record losing streak to 70 games. . . La Salle’s 25-16 victory over St. Peter’s on Friday was its first college football win since Nov. 22, 1941. The Explorers (1-1) are playing their first season of college football since World War II. . . .Duke’s loss to Northwestern extended the Blue Devils’ losing streak to 15 games, longest in Division I-A.

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Airing It Out

Top five passing yardage totals by Purdue quarterbacks against Notre Dame: *--*

Yds Quarterback (Year) Com-Att Res. 368 Jim Everett (1985) 27-49 Win 354 Eric Hunter (1990) 21-37 Loss 352 Billy Dicken (1997) 26-39 Win 351 Mark Herrmann (1977) 24-51 Loss 283 Bob Griese (1965) 19-22 Win

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