Boomer to Sooners

Lee Corso’s car struck by lightning. Capping a wild night in Blacksburg, Va., in which the Aug. 27 game between Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech was canceled just seconds before kickoff by a violent lightning storm, a bolt from above struck a car in the parking lot that turned out to be rented by ESPN’s controversial football analyst. The strike came moments after Corso predicted on the air that Kansas State, not Virginia Tech, would meet Florida State for the national championship.

The Pac is back. After a disastrous 1999 season, the worst for the league since 1983, the Pacific 10 Conference rebounded with one of its finest seasons. The conference posted a 22-8 record in nonconference games against Division I-A opponents, the .737 winning percentage the best among the six major conferences. Three teams, Washington, Oregon State and Oregon, finished in the top 10 after posting wins in the Rose, Fiesta and Holiday bowls.

Paint it red. Sept. 9 in South Bend provided one of the most incredible visuals college football historians had ever witnessed when more than 30,000 Nebraska fans scalped their way into venerable Notre Dame Stadium to see their Cornhuskers win, 27-24, in overtime. Half an hour before kickoff, the house that Knute Rockne built was awash in Cornhusker red. A disgusted Paul Hornung, sitting in the press box, said, “In 40 years, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Wide Right III. On Oct. 7 in Miami, Florida State kicker Matt Munyon missed a 49-yard field goal, wide right, to give No. 7 Miami a 27-24 victory over No. 1 Florida State. It marked the third time that a wide-right field goal had cost Florida State against Miami in the last 10 years, while the game sparked a major controversy when, on Nov. 20, Florida State passed Miami and secured the coveted No. 2 spot in the bowl championship series rankings despite having lost to the Hurricanes.

Old Man Winner. At 28, Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke became the oldest player to win the Heisman Trophy when he won the award in December at New York’s Downtown Athletic Club. Some had ridiculously claimed that Weinke was too old to win the award, having returned to Florida State after a six-year absence to pursue a major league baseball career, but Weinke managed to beat Oklahoma quarterback Josh Heupel by 76 points, the seventh-closest Heisman race in history.

Old Men Winners: Lou Holtz and John Robinson, two Social Security qualifiers and former heads of major powers, returned to coaching and revived floundering programs in spectacular fashion. Holtz, who won a national title at Notre Dame, led chicken-cursed South Carolina to an 8-4 record and a win over Ohio State in the Outback Bowl. Robinson, who won a national title at USC, led Nevada Las Vegas to an 8-5 record and a win over Arkansas in the Las Vegas Bowl two years after inheriting an 0-11 team.

Joe Paterno posts losing season. This is headline news, folks. The longtime Penn State coach suffered his first seven-loss season since taking over the program in 1966. The good news is that this season’s 5-7 squad will not be presiding over Paterno’s chase to pass Bear Bryant on the major college victories list. With 322, Paterno is one short of tying Bryant’s mark. Penn State opens the 2001 season at home against . . . Miami.

Northwestern 54, Michigan 51. In one of the wildest, zaniest and most exciting college football games ever played, Northwestern outlasted Michigan on Nov. 4 in Evanston on Sam Simmons’ 11-yard touchdown catch with 20 seconds left. The teams combined for 1,189 yards in 171 plays. And it didn’t even require an overtime! Former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, who preached defense in his time, was livid in the press box. For good reason. In 1972, Schembechler’s 10-1 team gave up only 57 points in 11 games. Michigan’s 1948 national title squad gave up 44.

Man Bites Dog. In this case, it was Oregon State trouncing Notre Dame, 41-9, in the Fiesta Bowl. The thing is, the game wasn’t even close. So much for history. Notre Dame has had only eight losing seasons in the 20th century, while Oregon State had posted 28 consecutive losing seasons until breaking the streak in 1999. Oregon State finished this season 11-1 and playing as well as any team in the country.

Oklahoma is OK. Better than OK, actually. Wednesday night’s victory over Florida State clinched a unanimous national title for the Sooners, the school’s seventh but first since 1985. You want quick turnarounds? Oklahoma wins the title two seasons removed from the worst four-year record in school history.

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BOWL LEADERS

RUSHING

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Player, Team Bowl No. Yds. TD REDMON, Minn. Insight.com 42 246 2 ALEXANDER, Nebraska Alamo 20 240 2 TOOMBS, Texas A&M; Independ. 35 193 3 THOMAS, Michigan Citrus 32 182 2 HENRY, Tennessee Cotton 17 180 1 SAPP, Colorado St. Liberty 36 160 1 ANDERSON, Northwest. Alamo 18 149 1 WALKER, Miss. St. Independ. 16 143 3 PACE, Arizona St. Aloha 25 139 1 GRAHAM, Florida Sugar 15 136 1 PORTER, UTEP Human. 26 134 1

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PASSING

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Player, Team Bowl Att. Comp. Yds. LEARD, Auburn Citrus 37 28 394 CARR, Fresno St. Silicon 33 22 391 TURMAN, Pittsburgh Insight.com 36 20 347 RAGONE, Louisville Liberty 37 24 321 B. LEWIS, W.Va. Music City 21 15 318 RIVERS, N.C. St. Micronpc.com 39 24 310 ROSENFELS, Iowa St. Insight.com 34 23 308 KINGSBURY, Texas Tech Galleryfurn. 49 31 307 SMITH, Oregon St. Fiesta 24 16 305 HENSON, Michigan Citrus 20 15 294 BREES, Purdue Rose 39 23 275 WEINKE, Florida State Orange 52 25 274 HARRINGTON, Oregon Holiday 30 19 273 DORSEY, Miami Sugar 40 22 270

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RECEIVING

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Player, Team Bowl No. Yds. TD MITCHELL, UCLA Sun 9 180 1 BRANCH, Louisville Liberty 10 170 1 BERRIAN, Fresno St. Silicon 7 162 2 K. ROBINSON, N.C. St. Micronpc.com 7 157 1 A. BROWN, W.Va. Music City 6 156 2 BRYANT, Pittsburgh Insight.com 5 155 2 MORGAN, Kansas St. Cotton 7 145 2 BELL, Florida State Orange 7 137 0 TURNER, UNLV Las Vegas 8 126 2

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By Conference

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CONFERENCE W L Mountain West 3 0 Big West 1 0 Mid-American 1 0 Big East 4 1 Pacific 10 3 2 Big 12 4 3 Conference USA 2 2 Southeastern 4 5 Big Ten 2 4 Atlantic Coast 1 4 Independents 0 1 Western Athletic 0 3

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