WARS OF THE ROSES

Purdue trounced Indiana on Saturday, 41-13, delighting solid Midwestern engineering and managerial types with a long-awaited trip to the Rose Bowl but confounding anyone aghast that the best the Big Ten could do is send a team with three losses to Pasadena.

Montrell Lowe rushed for 208 yards, Drew Brees passed for 216 more and the Boilermakers enjoyed a romp Saturday that earned a share of the Big Ten championship--with Northwestern and Michigan--and the school’s first trip to the Rose Bowl in 34 years. Purdue goes (8-3) because it defeated both of the other schools.

“This is sweeter, sweeter and much sweeter!” Leroy Keyes, one of the stars of the Purdue team that played in the 1967 Rose Bowl, shouted out to thousands of giddy but exceedingly civil Purdue fans pressed together in the south end zone of Ross-Ade Stadium after the Boilermaker victory. The crowd never seriously threatened either goal post.

Purdue’s victory capped a day in the Big Ten that mirrored the season itself. It was as entertaining as any in recent memory but failed to produce a dominating team.

Heading into the day, four teams were still eligible for the Rose Bowl: Purdue, Northwestern, Michigan and Ohio State. Each had captivating wins--Northwestern, for instance, beat Michigan, 54-51, two weeks ago--but dumb losses. Last week, Michigan State hammered Purdue, 30-10.

Earlier in the season, Purdue lost to Notre Dame and to Penn State. But the Boilermakers had the inside track to the Rose Bowl because of the wins over Northwestern and Michigan and an Oct. 28 come-from-behind 31-27 victory over Ohio State.

Because the Purdue-Indiana game was televised regionally on ABC, it started late in the afternoon--meaning that by kickoff, the Rose Bowl race was considerably simplified.

In Columbus, Michigan beat Ohio State, 38-26. In Evanston, Ill., Northwestern scored as many points in one game as it had in some months in previous seasons, whomping Illinois, 61-23.

Thus: If Purdue won, it was bound for Pasadena.

If Indiana prevailed, Northwestern--because of the victory over Michigan two weeks ago--would go to the Rose Bowl.

Not to worry, declared many of the Purdue faithful, assessing an Indiana team that was 3-7 overall and tied for last in the Big Ten at 2-5.

Said Marshall Hansen, a 1990 Purdue alum, now regional sales manager for a company in Missouri, “I’ve talked to a lot of people and their plane tickets [to Los Angeles] are already booked.”

The outcome was in doubt only briefly--in the second quarter, when Indiana’s Antwaan Randle El, scrambling to his right, threw 10 yards to Versie Gaddis, standing alone in the back of the end zone. The extra point cut Purdue’s lead to 13-7.

With that throw, Randle El became only the second player in NCAA history to throw for 200 points and rush for 200 points in a career. Michigan’s Rick Leach was the first.

Purdue made it 20-7 before halftime, however, with a methodical 11-play drive. In the third quarter, the Boilers made it 27-7 with a six-play, 47-yard drive. A few minutes later, after another 11-play drive--the first play a pass, the next 10 runs by Lowe--it was 34-7, and Purdue officials began scurrying around the press box with bouquets of sweet-smelling red roses.

“They ran three plays all game,” Indiana Coach Cam Cameron said. “They ran inside zone to the right, inside zone to the left and quarterback keeps.”

Defensively, the Purdue game plan was simple--contain Randle El, who against the Boilermakers last year threw for 329 yards and ran for 48. On Saturday he tossed three interceptions, threw for only 123 yards and ran for 112.

“You have to bottle him up,” Purdue Coach Joe Tiller said. “If you can do that you can win the football game.”

Tiller had maintained all week that the focus in West Lafayette was merely on winning the Old Oaken Bucket, symbol of the Indiana-Purdue rivalry, but Lowe confided after the game that Tiller told the team, “ ‘This is where you want to be, the granddaddy of them all.’ ”

And Lowe said: “That’s where we’re going.”

FULL BLOOM

Purdue gets first trip to Pasadena since 1967, while Washington keeps hopes alive for bid to BCS title game.