Central Florida Is No Mickey Mouse Team

By CHRIS DUFRESNE

Sept. 18, 1997 12 AM PT

Central Florida obviously doesn’t understand the mercenary business.

The deal is this: To generate cash flow for your lowly and/or upstart program, you barnstorm the country collecting fat paychecks in return for serving as a crash-test dummy for major University X, Y or Z.

Most adhere to the policy.

“Take the money and forfeit,” is how Bowling Green Coach Gary Blackney explained it after his team’s 44-13 defeat at Ohio State last weekend.

Central Florida, frankly, is playing itself out of the meat-market racket.

This is the Golden Knights’ second season at Division I-A, hardly the time to be rattling the chains

of college powerhouses.

Yet, in three weeks, Central Florida has scared the cleats off two schools from the nation’s best conference, the Southeastern, then nearly upset the best program of the late 20th century.

Central Florida is the best 0-3 team in the country, a half-dozen plays from maybe being the best 3-0 team.

In its opener, Central Florida lost in overtime at Mississippi, 24-23, when star quarterback Daunte Culpepper tripped over his guard’s foot as he was set to score the game-winning two-point conversion.

A week later, the Golden Knights jumped to a 24-14 lead before losing, 33-31, to South Carolina at Columbia.

Saturday, Central Florida led Nebraska, 17-14, at halftime and trailed by a touchdown with 3:08 remaining before losing, 38-24, at Lincoln.

Nebraska began the game with a 37-game home winning streak.

“I tell our players the NCAA does not prohibit us from winning these games,” Central Florida Coach Gene McDowell said by phone from Orlando.

But what about the part where you wait for the check to clear, then lie down like Prairie (View) dogs?

“We won’t be intimidated by anybody,” Culpepper said. “Being down in Florida, and Florida being such a good football state, that’s basically the mentality of the team. We respect everybody, we don’t fear any of them.”

What are the Golden Knights possibly thinking?

Would you believe the national title?

“If we have solid recruiting years the next three or four years, there’s no rule that says we can’t be as good as anybody,” said McDowell, in his 13th season.

Central Florida is an independent desperately seeking the security of a conference. McDowell says his team takes to the road so often because no quality opponent will play the Golden Knights at the Citrus Bowl.

Central Florida will net $1.4 million for seven road games this year, with trips yet to come against Auburn and Mississippi State.

The school received $475,000 for the Nebraska game last weekend, volunteering to fill the spot on the schedule after Bowling Green begged off last year upon learning it actually could not “take the money and forfeit.”

How did the Golden Knights get this good this fast?

“Location, location, location,” McDowell chuckled.

Central Florida is smack-dab in the middle of the nation’s football hotbed.

More than 200 Florida high school players received Division I scholarships last year, and not all of them could go to Florida, Florida State and Miami.

Central Florida discovered you can build a pretty good team with somebody else’s leftovers.

Ninety-eight percent of the players on this year’s team are home grown, including Ocala’s Culpepper, one of the nation’s unsung superstars.

The 6-foot-5, 240-pound junior quarterback was recruited by all the major Florida schools, but they backed off after initial questions about his test scores.

“A lot of the big schools that recruited me didn’t think I was going to make it,” Culpepper said. “I don’t blame them.”

Culpepper decided to enroll at Central Florida, which was loyal throughout.

“He’s your consummate franchise player,” McDowell said. “He’s a linebacker with a quarterback’s number and a linebacker’s mentality.”

Culpepper passed for 318 yards against Nebraska.

“Considering the competition, there’s probably not any quarterback in the country that could have done better,” McDowell said.

McDowell admits Central Florida is essentially auditioning to get into a conference, where it would enjoy the comforts of a built-in schedule and revenue sharing.

“Our credibility is a whole lot better than it was three weeks ago,” McDowell said.

Good thing Central Florida’s schedule is set through 1999, a season in which it makes another gantlet run at Georgia, Florida, Georgia Tech and Virginia.

It won’t be long before no one will want to play Central Florida.

This week, the school hosts tomato-can Idaho.

You figure Idaho’s in it for the money.

BEATING BUCKEYES IS NICE, BUT . . .

Michigan is the biggest tease in college football. Has been for eons. The Wolverines have led the nation in attendance for 23 consecutive years, sport the planet’s coolest helmets, boast one of the two or three best fight songs, recruit top-10 talent annually and serve maize and blue tortilla chips at home games.

Did you know: Michigan has defeated the last five top-10 teams it has faced: Colorado twice, Ohio State twice and Colorado State back in 1994?

Strangely, Michigan has not won a national title since 1948, has not been to the Rose Bowl since 1993, and has lost four games each of the last four seasons.

Last year, impressive victories over Colorado and Ohio State were trumped by giveaway losses to Northwestern and Purdue.

Why should this year be different?

Saturday, Michigan looked like the undefeated Tampa Bay Buccaneers in smothering No. 8 Colorado, 27-3. The Wolverines held the Buffaloes to 1.8 yards per rushing attempt and appeared at times to have 13 defenders on the field.

Michigan players hit so hard you could hear the helmet cracks from the press box. Eleven of the players on the two-deep defensive depth chart are either freshmen or sophomores.

So, what, 8-4 again?

“There’s something special about this team,” junior safety Marcus Ray said after the game. “I can’t tell you what it is today. It’s a little gift. I can feel it. This game was on national TV, we wanted to show the people: Stop talking about us, we haven’t gone anywhere. We’re Michigan.”

We’ll see. Saturday, Michigan hosts Baylor in a classic letdown opportunity with Notre Dame next on the schedule.

IRISH WOULD SETTLE FOR 2 1/2 HORSEMEN

“Discombobulated” was not what Notre Dame had in mind when it hired Bob Davie to succeed Lou Holtz.

But that’s the word Davie used to describe the state of the Irish after Saturday’s shocking road loss to Purdue.

Notre Dame is 1-1, out of the top 25, looking like a bad winter replacement series for NBC and staring down the barrel at Michigan State, Michigan and Stanford the next three weeks.

No sweat, Bob, you get two or three more days to straighten this out.

News item: It isn’t going to happen. The simple truth: Davie inherited a slow, plodding 8-3 team from Holtz and is trying to change systems in mid-scream.

Davie has opened up the offense, as promised. Quarterback Ron Powlus has attempted 72 passes in two games. Yet, unless the Irish get a quick offensive infusion from two highly touted freshmen--receiver Joey Getherall of Bishop Amat and tailback Tony Driver--the team is looking at a 7-4 finish, maybe worse.

Some Notre Dame loyalists are already pining for those cloud-of-dust days under Holtz. But Davie is dead-on right when he says he must change the system now to attract recruits who have opted for Florida sunshine in recent years.

“I think until we become balanced, until we get some big plays, I don’t know if we’re going to get to the next step in this program,” Davie said.

Good luck the rest of the way, Irish. We’ll check back in ’98.

COAST TO COAST

* Boy, could John Robinson use him now: Saladin McCullough, the former Pasadena Muir High star whose dream of playing tailback at USC was derailed by an SAT score controversy, has scored 18 touchdowns in his last eight games at Oregon. McCullough leads the Ducks with 153 yards rushing and has returned a kickoff for touchdown.

“He’s probably the best natural running back I’ve ever coached in 25 years of coaching college football,” Oregon’s Mike Bellotti said.

* It’s bad enough stadium names have been sold to the highest bidders, but athletic directorships? Michigan announced last week that Tom. A. Goss had been named the Donald R. Shepherd Director of Intercollegiate Athletics. Shepherd endowed the position. Here’s a thought. How about someone at Ohio State endowing its rival’s head coaching spot so that it might be forever known as the “Woody Hayes Head Coaching Position at Michigan.”

* Marshall sophomore Randy Moss has averaged 1.9 touchdown catches per game in college. He has scored at least one touchdown in all 18 games he has played. His numbers through three games this season: 20 catches for 487 yards (24.4 yards per catch) and seven touchdowns.

* Texas’ 63-point loss to UCLA was the most lopsided defeat for a top-25 team since the Associated Press poll began in 1936.

* NCAA alert: Freshman safety Damien Demps was listed in both the Nebraska and Central Florida media guides when the schools met Saturday in Lincoln. Demps, thankfully, played only for Central Florida. Demps, from Miami, was headed for Nebraska before making the last-second switch.

* You could look it up: The last time Texas, Notre Dame and Miami lost on the same day was Oct. 22, 1960.

* Iowa tailback Tavian Banks has 517 rushing yards in two games and, with upcoming games against Iowa State and Illinois, could crack 1,000 before the end of September.

* Northwestern Coach Gary Barnett, after pulling out a squeaker against winless Duke: “We’ve got a long way to go to be a good football team.”

* Which is more accurate, the writers’ poll or the coaches’?

“We’re ranked higher by the media,” Arizona State Coach Bruce Snyder said. “I think the media is right.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Dropping Football

Twenty-one colleges have discontinued their football programs in the 1990s, including eight in California. A look:

* 1990--Lamar, Lincoln (Mo.)

* 1991--Brooklyn (N.Y.), Tarkio (Mo.), West Texas A&M;*

* 1992--Long Beach State, Pacific (Ore.), St. Mary of the Plains (Kan.)

* 1993--Cal State Fullerton, Cameron (Okla.), Ramapo (N.J.), Santa Clara, Wisconsin Superior

* 1994--Cal State Hayward, Lees-McRae (N.C.), Oregon Tech, Upsala (N.J.)

* 1995--San Francisco State