Old, New Powers Meet Unexpectedly

Traditionally speaking, this year’s Fiesta Bowl features one of the strangest matchups of all time. Notre Dame, with a history of winning, will play Oregon State, with a history of finishing ninth or 10th in the Pacific 10 Conference.

It gets stranger.

When these teams line up for the 5:30 (PST) kickoff today, the traditional have-nots will be 3 1/2-point favorites over a Notre Dame team that comes from a program that has had only eight losing seasons since the turn of the century. Yes, that century, the 1900s.

Oregon State has had one of those dream seasons.

It began with a two-point squeaker at home against Eastern Washington that had Coach Dennis Erickson and his staff worried enough to actually chat about replacing veteran quarterback Jonathan Smith. And now it is about to end, four months later, in one of the four prestigious bowl championship series bowls, with a share of the Pac-10 title already tucked away, with a chance to finish as high as No. 2 in the rankings with an 11-1 record.

There are thousands of Beaver fans here, proudly wearing black and orange, but also, understandably, looking a bit shocked.

Erickson, who won two national championships at Miami, said Sunday that he understands how this is all new to Beaver backers.

“Win or lose here, this has been unbelievable. So much good has been handled by just getting here,” he said. “Our fans, our boosters never have had a chance for this. I’m sure there were times when our fans would rather crawl under a table [than admit to being an Oregon State fan].”

Notre Dame’s Bob Davie, Erickson’s counterpart, did his best to dispel the notion, held by many, that the game will begin, Oregon State will look across the line of scrimmage, realize where it is and who it is playing, and freeze.

“I think that point is overrated,” Davie said. “People think about that more than the players do. The players take their lead from the coaches, and we’ve been telling our players that Oregon State has won the Pac-10 title, is coached by somebody who has won national championships. It is silly to say Notre Dame would not take Oregon State seriously.

“It doesn’t matter whether you are Seminoles or Beavers. Doesn’t matter if your colors are black and orange or red, white and blue.”

One indication that Oregon State will not be awe-struck was the deportment of its players this week. Erickson, who coached some of the most brash teams in memory at Miami, has a bit of that going with the Beavers, led by star running back Ken Simonton, who is as fast and entertaining with his mouth as he is with his legs.

Simonton, who regaled the press on various topics, including his proposal for college players to be paid, finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy voting this season as a junior. He rushed for 1,163 yards, ranking sixth nationally with a 134-per-game average. Simonton is the first player in Pac-10 history to rush for more than 1,000 yards as a freshman, sophomore and junior.

His supporting cast on offense includes Smith, the 5-foot-10 junior from Glendora, who made his way to stardom without a scholarship. Smith spent time on the team’s scout squad, which exists to get banged around while running the plays of the next opponent. Smith, now the second-leading passer in Oregon State history, does not begrudge his tough road to the starting spot.

“I wouldn’t have recruited me, either,” Smith said.

His main passing targets are senior T.J. Houshmandzadeh of Norwalk, senior Chad Johnson of Los Angeles and senior Robert Prescott of Seattle.

Simonton’s workload is shared by junior Patrick McCall of Carson, who spent two seasons at Michigan before transferring. Simonton averaged 5.5 yards a carry during Pac-10 play, McCall 5.3.

Notre Dame, which started the season unranked and was 2-2 after losses to Nebraska and Michigan State, has won seven in a row is and is ranked No. 10, five spots below Oregon State.

The Irish lost starting quarterback Arnaz Battle to injury in the Nebraska game and turned over their fate to freshman Matt LoVecchio, who was a few months out of Bergen Catholic High in Franklin Lakes, N.J. They have yet to lose with LoVecchio starting. He has passed for 980 yards and rushed for 300.

Notre Dame’s offense does not center on LoVecchio, but on a line that averages 310 pounds and a trio of running backs, led by Julius Jones and also featuring Tony Fisher and Terrance Howard. The oft-injured Jones has gained 657 yards, and Davie said that the Fiesta Bowl might be the first time this season that the sophomore from Big Stone Gap, Va., is truly healthy.

“But all three tailbacks will play,” Davie said.

Notre Dame prides itself on sticking to basics and running over people to win. At least twice during the season, at key times against Boston College and at the Coliseum against USC, the Irish produced long, time-consuming touchdown drives without attempting a pass.

The strategy protects LoVecchio and the team from inevitable freshman mistakes.

“He has been so good for us,” Davie said, “that you forget that he is only a freshman. We had a talent show the other night, and one of the female managers did a skit about LoVecchio. She was holding a teddy bear and sucking her thumb. That reminded me.”

The difference in the teams, the thing that has the Las Vegas gamblers giving away 3 1/2 points on the Beavers, is speed.

“That, and the passionate kind of team they are, the way they play hard and jump around,” Davie said.

Despite history, tradition, pregame talk or betting odds, both coaches are firm in their stance that this matchup is important.

Notre Dame has lost its last four bowl games, but Davie said his program has “gotten some of the juice back” with this run to the Fiesta Bowl.

“It’s great to be here, but it does come down to winning,” he said.

Erickson, asked what he does with his players on New Year’s Eve, said, “There is no New Year’s Eve when you are playing on New Year’s Day. We’ll celebrate when we get back to Corvallis.”