Real Lowe Down on Purdue

Adding injury to insult, Purdue running back Montrell Lowe injured his shoulder when a ferocious hit by Washington free safety Greg Carothers caused Lowe to fumble the ball at the Huskies’ 37-yard line. After that, Coach Joe Tiller said, “We didn’t have a lot of options.”

Lowe, however, wouldn’t blame the shoulder for the Boilermakers’ 34-24 loss. He led both teams with 79 yards in 20 carries. Purdue totaled 76 yards but had losses of 25 and 30 yards on separate plays.

“My shoulder is OK,” Lowe said. “I can’t make excuses for the hits today. You play the game of football and that happens.

“I’ve got get to go back and do better on my fundamentals.”

Said teammate Vinny Sutherland: “He’s as tough as nails. My heart goes out to him.”

Lowe said he hopes when his teammates look back on the game, they can learn from their mistakes.

“Will we look back and say this was great because we haven’t been here for 34 years?” Lowe said. “Does that condone putting ourselves in bad situations? We didn’t finish. That’s what it comes down to.”

One of the lessons they should take is the legacy of success that quarterback Drew Brees has created.

“If any of our underclassmen didn’t take a piece of him when he leaves, that’s their loss,” Lowe said. “We’re going to miss him dearly.”

STICKING TOGETHER

If only USC’s Pete Carroll is so lucky . . .

Marques Tuiasosopo talked Monday about a players-only meeting that the Huskies held when Rick Neuheisel was hired two years ago as a coach with no Husky ties.

“We told each other, we were going to hang together, and not start anything, and follow him together,” the quarterback said.

Neuheisel talked about the results.

“It rained for 90 days straight when we first got to Seattle, and (the assistant coaches) never complained, they just got to work,” he said. “The players did the same. They just jumped in the middle of this pool and we all swam together.”

Here’s hoping Carroll will not require the use of floaties.

SO HE’S NOT GLENN MILLER

Neuheisel made at least one bonehead call at the Rose Bowl, but at least he waited until after the game.

Amid the celebration on the field, Neuheisel climbed a ladder to lead the Washington band in a victory song. Holding a long-stemmed rose as a baton, he commanded the musicians to play the song “Tequila.”

“On three,” he yelled.

The band members weren’t shy about correcting him.

“Oh, it’s on four,” he said. “Sorry.”

STARTING FAST

For the third consecutive game, the Huskies scored on their first possession.

Not bad, considering they failed to score on their opening possession in their first nine games.

“Washington turned up the dial and we weren’t expecting it,” Purdue linebacker Akin Ayodele said. “By the time we figured it out, they had two touchdowns.”

FINISHING STRONG

Washington collected 240 of its 268 yards rushing in the second half.

“I think maybe they went back at halftime and talked things over, maybe cleaned some things up, and they found out where our weaknesses were,” Purdue linebacker Joe Odom said. “We didn’t react quick enough to them and the changes they made. They really got after it in the second half, maybe more than we did.”

RETIREMENT BECKONING AGAIN?

Is ABC’s Keith Jackson headed for a second retirement?

Nothing official, but Jackson said before the game that next year’s Rose Bowl, the national championship game, will be his last.

“I’m planning to retire after that,” he said. “My contract will be up.”

Jackson, 72, retired amid much hoopla three years ago, then a few months later signed a new contract with ABC to work West Coast games through the 2002 Rose Bowl.

WATCHING FROM AFAR

Jackson’s former broadcast partner, Bob Griese, who was Purdue’s quarterback in the 1967 Rose Bowl, watched this one at his home in Miami.

“It would have been nice to have played for Purdue in a Rose Bowl and then worked this game as a broadcaster,” Griese said by phone after the game. “But Tim Brant worked with Keith all year and this was his assignment. It wouldn’t have been right for me to knock him out of it.”

But if that wasn’t a factor, which game would Griese prefer working--Wednesday’s Orange Bowl, which he will work with Brad Nessler, or the Rose Bowl?

“Both,” he said.

PAC-10 PACKING PUNCH

While Pacific 10 Conference football teams traipsed into 2000 with a meow rather than a roar, 2001 has begun with an entirely different mentality.

By winning its last three bowl games, including two in the bowl championship series, the conference has turned around its reputation that at this time last season was being vilified everywhere from Omaha to Tallahassee, Fla.

Oregon State’s rousing 41-9 stunner over Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl completed a huge day for the conference, hours after Washington dominated Purdue for much of its 34-24 Rose Bowl victory. Last Friday, Oregon took out Texas, 35-30, in the Holiday Bowl.

And depending on what happens in the Sugar Bowl today and the Orange Bowl on Wednesday, the Pac-10 conceivably could wind up with three teams in the top seven of the final Associated Press poll.

No. 4 Washington (11-1) could move up a spot or two, No. 5 Oregon State (11-1) is sure to have gained some fans among the voters and No. 8 Oregon (10-2) doesn’t figure to lose any ground. Only UCLA (Sun) and Arizona State (Aloha) lost bowl games.

Last season in five bowl games, all the conference could muster was a 24-20 victory by Oregon over Minnesota in the Sun Bowl, losing in bowl games to, among others, perennial doormats Wake Forest (Arizona State in the Aloha) and Hawaii (Oregon State in the Oahu). The Ducks, ranked No. 19 in the final AP poll, were the only Pac-10 team to finish in the top 25.