Record Isn't a Hit Everywhere

L.A. Times Archives

Nov. 14, 1999 12 AM PT

Can’t we all get along?

When it became apparent last week that Ron Dayne of Wisconsin would run Ricky Williams out of the record book as major college football’s all-time leading rusher, the former Texas All-American said he probably wouldn’t even vote for Dayne for the Heisman Trophy.

His pick: Texas quarterback Major Applewhite.

“I think he’s the best player in college football,” Williams said.

Tony Dorsett, Earl Campbell and Archie Griffin were on hand in Austin last year when Williams claimed the record, but Williams has shown little respect for Dayne.

And Williams’ former teammates and coaches said Dayne’s eclipsing of the record set by last year’s Heisman Trophy winner shouldn’t take anything away from Williams, who broke a record that had been held by Dorsett since 1976.

“So many people were pulling for it and he did it in style,” offensive lineman Roger Roesler said last week. “With Ricky, no one approached the record for 22 years. No matter if Dayne breaks his record or not, people will remember Ricky for those reasons.”

Up in Wisconsin, they’ll remember the quiet Dayne for being the anti-Williams.

“Ron’s not going to be out there wearing dreadlocks and getting tattoos and holding press conferences,” offensive coordinator Brian White said. “He’s not going to change who he is.”

Badger Coach Barry Alvarez, saying Dayne’s record needs no defending, took a swipe at the former record holder.

“I don’t have anything to do with Ricky Williams,” he said. “He’s a pro football player, he had a great collegiate career. . . . I don’t know much about him, don’t care much about him.”

PITT STADIUM CLOSES DOORS

Some teams play carelessly and lose the home-field advantage.

Pittsburgh is going one step beyond that--the Panthers are losing their home field.

Pitt Stadium, built in the early 1920s and once considered the finest college football stadium in the East, will be torn down beginning next month, the victim of a stagnating football program and an urgent need to find space on a crowded campus for a basketball arena.

The Panthers closed it out in style Saturday, upsetting Notre Dame, 37-27, before an overflow crowd of 60,190 in the 56,500-seat stadium.

Pitt, which has had one winning record since 1989 while often playing before 20,000 empty seats or more in its on-campus facility, will temporarily move into Three Rivers Stadium next season. The Panthers will play permanently in the Steelers’ new stadium beginning in 2001.

Though some students and alumni oppose the move--thousands signed petitions in opposition and several carried signs to games reading, “Save Our Stadium”--Pitt Coach Walt Harris doesn’t share their sentiments.

“Honestly, and this is probably a selfish attitude, but I’m excited about the move,” said Harris, who is 13-20 at Pitt. “We’re closing the chapter to a great book, with a lot of great teams.

“But we’ve had one winning team in the last 10 years. So let’s tell it like it is: It hasn’t worked. . . . We have not sold this place out like the teams we’re competing against for the same athletes, and that’s the bottom line. If we could sell this place out, there would be no reason to move, in my opinion. But we haven’t.”

FLORIDA STATE’S DECADE OF DOMINANCE

Top-ranked Florida State closed out a near perfect decade on its home field with a 49-10 rout of Maryland at Tallahassee, Fla.

Coach Bobby Bowden’s teams are 107-13-1 in the ‘90s and 57-1-1 at home, where they haven’t lost since a 17-16 defeat to Miami eight years ago. The home-field unbeaten string stands at 46 games, and the Seminoles have won 29 in a row since a 31-31 tie with Florida in 1994.

No ACC team has won a league game at Florida State, which reached the 10-victory plateau for an unprecedented 13th consecutive year.

Closing out the season with a victory over fourth-ranked Florida on Saturday at Gainesville would catapult the Seminoles into the national title game for the third time in four years.

SHOE ON OTHER FOOT FOR HOLTZ

South Carolina Coach Lou Holtz tried to wring some emotion from his winless team before its surprisingly close 20-3 loss to Florida at Columbia, S.C. He said his players have remained steadfast and together throughout the ordeal.

“I didn’t want to use this talk, but I had to because I’ve used it most of my career from the other end,” the former Notre Dame coach said. “In November, there’s only two types of teams: those going somewhere and those whose whole salvation lies in keeping you from going there.”

South Carolina, which has lost 20 consecutive games, hosts Clemson on Saturday in hopes of avoiding its first winless season since 1894, when the Gamecocks lost both games they played before they had a coach.

BEAR FANS RALLY AROUND OSKI

The fur is flying over calls to change Oski, the stout, slightly daffy California mascot.

Some on the Berkeley campus want Oski, a human inside a burly bear costume, to shed some poundage, stop slouching and get better duds. A bill before the campus student government recommended a makeover of the “poorly constructed and pathetic version of a bear.”

But others find the thought of changing Oski simply unbearable.

“Do we really want cutesy cartoon animals like UCLA’s bruins, Oregon’s duck or Oregon State’s beaver? We absolutely do not!” wrote one “appalled” alumna to the campus newspaper, The Daily Californian. “Oski is odd, mysterious, funny, endearing, undoubtedly extremely intelligent and, if necessary, he can kick another mascot’s wimpy butt.”

So far, Oski remains his ample self. Although the mascot makeover recommendation passed, it was vetoed by student body President Patrick Campbell; proponents would have to muster a two-thirds vote to overturn the veto.

NO CAKE TO GO WITH TEE

Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin doesn’t worry about individual awards.

“I don’t care much about them,” he said this week. “They’re like icing on the cake, and I don’t like icing. I like the cake.”

He’ll have to settle for crumbs after the Volunteers’ 28-24 loss to Arkansas at Fayetteville, Ark., took them out of the running for their second consecutive national title.

BACKUP QUITS, REDSHIRT YEAR LOST

Freshman Bobby Garner of Southern Mississippi was expected to redshirt this season, but the Eagles had no other quarterback to play after they opened a big lead en route to a 48-0 rout of Louisiana Lafayette at Hattiesburg, Miss.

The left-handed Garner, whose father played quarterback at Mississippi in the 1970s, came on in relief of starter Jeff Kelly early in the second half after Kelly led the Eagles to touchdowns in their first six series. Kelly’s backup, Cable Davis, wasn’t in uniform after apparently quitting the team during the week.

“We planned on playing him if he could get substantial playing time,” Coach Jeff Bower said of Garner. “We felt like we had to get him in because if something were to happen to Jeff Kelly, you don’t want it to be his first game.”

The 21st-ranked Eagles can claim the outright Conference USA championship with a victory Saturday against Louisville.

END OF AN ERA IN HAPPY VALLEY

Michigan’s 31-27 victory over Penn State at State College, Pa., not only knocked the Nittany Lions out of the Rose Bowl, it also spoiled the final home game for Jerry Sandusky.

Sandusky is retiring at year’s end after 32 years as a Nittany Lion assistant, including 23 as Coach Joe Paterno’s defensive coordinator.

Running to Daylight

The short list of major college football’s all-time leading rushers:

Name: x-RON DAYNE

School, years: (Wisconsin 1996-99)

Att.: 1,115

Yards: 6,397

Avg.: 5.74

Name: RICKY WILLIAMS

School, years: Texas, 1995-1998

Att.: 1,011

Yards: 6,279