Quarterbacks in Eye of the Storm

Chris Rix and Brock Berlin are so intent on making the most of their senior seasons as high-profile quarterbacks for major programs it might take a hurricane to knock them off course.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Frances is barreling toward Florida with an eye toward postponing Monday night’s epic Florida State-Miami game in the Orange Bowl. Officials may decide today whether to reschedule the game to Sept. 11.

In a way, Frances provides an appropriate backdrop for the whirlwind careers of Rix and Berlin, two of the most highly touted and picked-over quarterbacks from the sterling 2000 high school crop.

Rix starts his fourth year as starting quarterback for Bobby Bowden at Florida State, a miracle itself given some of the passes he has thrown and the fits he has caused.

“Coaching him has been a little different,” Bowden said this week. “Not from bad standpoint, unhealthy standpoint, but from maybe a more different standpoint of communication.”

Rix is from Southern California; Bowden was raised in Alabama. That translates roughly to four years of dude versus dadgummit.

Rix’s crimes against humanity include going home in the summer, throwing into double coverage, trying to do too much with his extraordinary pass-run gifts and, lastly, never beating Miami.

Berlin starts his second year as Miami quarterback after a strange career that began at Florida with Steve Spurrier.

Berlin transferred to Miami with the idea of picking up in the national-title hunt where Ken Dorsey left off. Instead, Berlin had the audacity last season to throw more interceptions than touchdowns, 17 versus 12, which caused Miami to lose two games.

Miami and Florida State have combined to win seven national titles in the last 21 years, and the problem is Berlin and Rix have not added any trophies to the stash.

Both are seniors, fellow Christians and friends, first hooking up at a high school quarterback camp in California.

Rix and Berlin have known the joys of quarterback life and what it means to hear nasty things said about them on talk radio.

Both enter this season with a chance to erase doubts and secure their legacies while leading teams with national championship horsepower.

“They both have got a lot to prove,” Bowden said. “Both are in a position now to do it. Berlin’s got year under his belt, our guy’s got three years under his belt. There’s no doubt in my mind, your mind or their mind, if they’re going to do it, it better be this year.”

Rix and Berlin seem to sense the urgency.

Rix stayed in Tallahassee all summer to work out with his receivers and bond with his teammates.

“I admit when I first got to Florida State, it wasn’t my No. 1 priority,” Rix said.

Rix actually posted quality numbers last year -- 3,107 yards and 23 touchdowns -- but continued to confound Florida State coaches and fans with his decision-making.

Instead of leading by example in the past, Rix made news by missing exams and even parking in a handicap spot on campus (Didn’t quarterbacks learn from UCLA’s Cade McNown?).

Bowden, however, has been so impressed with Rix’s RMI (rising maturity index), he is opening up the offense and letting it all ride on his right-hander.

“We’ve just taken the road that we ain’t going to hold nothing back,” Bowden said. “Whatever we’re going to do we’re going to try and do it because we think he’s ready for it.”

Miami Coach Larry Coker feels similarly about Berlin, who spent hours in the off-season studying tape of last year’s performances.

“Film is the best way to learn,” Berlin said.

The plan was to not make Berlin the focal part of the offense last year, instead relying on superstar tailback Frank Gore. But that changed when Gore tore knee ligaments in the Hurricanes’ fifth game against West Virginia.

Consecutive losses to Virginia Tech and Tennessee knocked Miami out of the national-title hunt and stirred criticism of Berlin, even though Miami finished 11-2 and twice defeated Florida State.

Berlin and Rix have stayed in contact since high school.

“We just know what each other goes through as far as the criticism or anything else that comes along with the territory of being a QB at a high-profile program,” Rix said. “It’s kind of weird when you hear the quarterback at Florida State and Miami talking off the field and having a friendship, but we realize there is a lot more to this thing than football.”

The expectations have been enormous.

Berlin was USA Today’s high school player of the year when he came out of Louisiana’s Evangel Christian Academy.

Rix hailed from Santa Margarita High, Carson Palmer’s alma mater.

Rix learned in watching Palmer’s career unfold at USC that good things happen to those who work and wait.

Palmer struggled for three years as a Trojan before his breakthrough, Heisman Trophy-winning senior season.

“I’m just hoping and believing that just like Carson, this year it all comes together and this football team is able to do great things,” Rix said.

Hurry-Up Offense

A few first-week story lines worth tracking:

* Sylvester Croom breaks the Southeastern Conference head-coaching color barrier Saturday in Starkville, Miss., leading Mississippi State against Tulane.

“As much as I love history, one day I’ll appreciate it,” he said on a teleconference this week. “I do feel good about the fact my life will have made an impact. But right now the most important thing is our players, their welfare, and us winning ballgames here at Mississippi State.”

The Bulldogs were 2-10 last season.

* Redemption tour: Had Mike Price and George O’Leary not messed up their coaching careers, they’d be looking at two opening wins this year.

Alabama, the school at which Price coached for about five minutes before a strip-club scandal derailed him, opens with a cinch home victory against Utah State.

Instead Price, who starts his career over at Texas El Paso, opens the season tonight at Arizona State.

Had O’Leary not fudged on his resume, he’d be taking Notre Dame to Provo, Utah, this week to meet mediocre Brigham Young.

Instead, O’Leary’s Central Florida team heads to Madison to face, gulp, Wisconsin. However, O’Leary won’t be making the trip because he’ll be attending his mother’s funeral.

* Old fogies ride again: The two winningest coaches in major college history return to continue their game of Can You Top This?

Florida State’s Bowden, 74, begins the season with 342 wins, three more than Joe Paterno, Penn State’s 77-year-old legend.

Penn State opens at home against Akron; Florida State plays Miami on Labor Day night.

Bowden insisted this week he’s not staying in coaching just to keep Paterno from becoming the all-time victories leader.

“I’m staying in coaching because I’d rather do this than anything else,” Bowden said.

Bowden doesn’t know how long he can go on like this, but says his wife, Ann, wants him to continue coaching.

“She enjoys me, I guess, not being at the house,” Bowden said.

* Look, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s a forward pass!

The West Coast offense makes its debut in Lincoln on Saturday when Nebraska, led by first-year Coach Bill Callahan, plays host to Western Illinois at Memorial Stadium.

Nebraska could beat Western Illinois running the single-wing offense, but that’s not the point. This is the age of Aquarius at Nebraska, long home of the option offense and the I-back tailback.

Or perhaps we’re getting a bit carried away.

“We’re not going to abandon the running game,” tight end Matt Herian said.

“Everyone thinks we’re going to pass the ball every play. We’re not going to do that. We still have to run the ball to be a successful.

Still, it is possible David Humm’s single-game school records for passing yardage (297), completions (25) and attempts (42) will be broken in Nebraska’s opener.

How averse has Nebraska been, historically, to the forward pass?

The Omaha World Herald recently noted that Humm’s career mark of 5,035 yards passing were far fewer than the 5,883 yards Texas Tech quarterback B.J. Symons threw for ... last season.

* Push meets shove in Ann Arbor on Saturday when Miami of Ohio, which owns the nation’s longest winning streak at 14 games, meets Michigan

Michigan has never lost to a MAC team.

Nebraska has never had a quarterback throw for more than 300 yards in a game.

Here are some other things that have never happened, recently compiled by Collegefootballnews.com:

Notre Dame has never had a 3,000-yard passer in a season.

Alabama has never had a quarterback throw for more than 16 touchdowns in a season.

In eight meetings, Alabama has never defeated Texas (there was one tie).

Mack Brown has never won a conference championship.

Bear Bryant never defeated Notre Dame.