Columnist Steve Guiremand: Things worsen for Irish as Wolverines march in

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Sept. 4, 1998 | 10:24 a.m.

Steve Guiremand is a Las Vegas Sun sportwriter. His College football column appears Fridays.

The past year has been very painful for Notre Dame football fans.

Forget the Fighting Irish ended their 1997 campaign with a mediocre 7-6 record and were thumped by LSU, 27-9, in the Independence Bowl. Or that the Irish were lucky to escape Hawaii ... Hawaii! ... with a 23-22 win. Or that a couple of mediocre Pac-10 teams, USC and Stanford, scored victories over ND.

Hey, Irish fans have been through tough seasons before. Remember Gerry "Say a Hail Mary" Faust?

But the holier-than-thou attitude that some Irish fans seem to revel in -- remember the old "Catholics vs. Criminals" T-shirts before their 1988 matchup with the Miami Hurricanes --- took several big hits in the courts and also in the court of public opinion recently.

First, the school and head coach Bob Davie lost an age discrimination lawsuit filed by former offensive line coach Joe Moore. If that wasn't bad enough --- and one wonders why the school didn't just settle the matter quietly out of court --- it came out during the trial that Moore had punched players in the mouth during games, and that Davie had back stabbed the man he replaced, Lou Holtz, wondering if Holtz had "mental problems."

Oh, yeah. It also became apparent Davie had lied when he said he didn't fire Moore because of his age. Ex-Irish graduate assistant Justin Hall even testified that Davie had told him, "Christ, let's face it, he's 64-years-old."

OK, not exactly Jerry Springer material, but not the kind of stuff you would expect to come out from the Golden Dome.

Then there was the NCAA probe of booster Kimberly Ann Dunbar, accused of embezzling $240,000 from a South Bend company and using it for "gifts" to 12 present and former Irish players. The NCAA later found the players had done nothing wrong but use some poor judgement. Hmmmm.

And then just last week, ex-Irish star Demetrius "Pathfinder" DuBose, who played in the NFL with the Jets and Tampa Bay, was arrested at a South Bend nightclub and charged with battery, criminal mischief, resisting law enforcement, disorderly conduct and possession of marijuana.

But as ugly as the past few months have been off the field, it could get even uglier on the field for Davie and company.

The Irish host defending co-national champion Michigan on Saturday.

"This football game is big to all of us for a lot of reasons," Davie said. "This is a big-time game. There's no question that this football team and this coaching staff has a lot to prove."

He might have added, "On and off the field."

Lights, camera, action!

A lot of Southern Californians will be spending this Labor Day weekend in Las Vegas for one last spell of rest and relaxation before the start of school on the West Coast.

Dick Lascola, who runs the Fallbrook, Calif.-based Scouting Evaluation Assn., will be here for another reason, however.

Lascola, now in his 23rd year of running the nation's top prep and junior college scouting service, will be in town filming four prep games for his 90-plus Division 1-A subscribers, which include UNLV, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Florida State and the entire Pac-10 Conference.

"We've been doing a Vegas list for a few years now," Lascola said. "So this year I asked some of the colleges if they would be interested in video of some of the games here and they said yes."

Lascola and his staff will film three games on Friday night --- Valley at Durango, San Diego University at Cimarron-Memorial and San Diego Madison at Cheyenne --- and stick around for Saturday night's much anticipated Honolulu St. Louis-Green Valley contest at Sam Boyd Stadium.

"I think the quality of football has picked up here as more and more people move out here," Lascola said. "The colleges are interested to see some of these kids on film."

Two players already high on a lot of college lists are Cimarron offensive lineman Kawika Sagapolu (6-4, 298) and running back Arnold Parker (6-2, 205).

Once around the WAC

* AIR FORCE: In the last major scrimmage before Saturday's opener with Wake Forest, quarterback Blane Morgan completed 8 of 10 passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns and showed no ill effects from the emergency appendectomy surgery he had less than a week before the start of fall practice.

* BYU: It will be interesting to see how the turf at Bryant-Denny Stadium holds up in Saturday night's opener in Tuscaloosa. Alabama coach Mike DuBose was angry about the quality of the turf after an Aug. 22 scrimmage and had the school order 12,000 square feet of new turf, to re-sod the field between the hash marks.

* COLORADO STATE: Last week's come-from-behind 23-16 victory at Michigan State extended the Rams' win streak to 10 games, tying UCLA for third best in the country.

* FRESNO STATE: The Bulldogs will be watching Saturday night's Colorado State-Colorado game very closely. They open their season in Boulder next week.

* HAWAII: In case you missed Thursday night's opener with Arizona on ESPN2, the Rainbows are wearing new uniforms this year. Designed by Starter, the color is more of an olive green worn by the Philadelphia Eagles. Hawaii head coach Fred vonAppen also wanted to change the famous rainbow helmet emblem, but was overruled by university president Kenneth Mortimer.

* UNLV: The last time the Rebels opened a season with a road win? Try 1981. Tony Knap's squad won at San Jose State, 17-7, that year.

* NEW MEXICO: The Lobos have sold over 13,500 season tickets, a school record.

* RICE: Coach Ken Hatfield was having trouble picking a new starting quarterback for graduated 1,000-yard rusher Chad Nelson and hinted both junior Jeremy Bates and junior Chad Richardson could play in Saturday night's key WAC opener against SMU.

* SAN DIEGO STATE: The Aztecs and Nebraska have tentatively agreed to meet in next year's Pigskin Classic in Lincoln. But ABC, which televises the contest, could balk if Ted Tollner's Aztec squad struggles this season.

* SAN JOSE STATE: Brian Vye, who lost his starting job last season, regained it during fall practice despite fierce competition from true freshman Marcus Arroyo and highly-touted transfer Bobby Sabelhaus.

* SMU: Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Gerald J. Ford Stadium have been set for Sept. 10. Can't make it to Dallas? Then click on SMU's website, www.smumustangs.com, which will have pictures of the stadium site as construction takes place.

* TCU: Junior QB/WR Patrick Batteaux, who joined the Horned Frog basketball team last season and saw little action, has decided not to continue his basketball career at TCU to better focus on football.

* UTEP: For only the second time in 35 years, the Miners will face their neighbors to the north, Texas Tech, Saturday night in Lubbock. The schools are only 350 miles apart and have discussed playing each other annually.

* TULSA: Because of one of the hottest Oklahoma summers on record, the Golden Hurricanes have had to scale back practices because of health concerns. "With heat, you can't win," Tulsa coach Dave Rader said. "The heat wins every time. You've got to be careful."

* UTAH: Strange but true stat: The Utes have won four of last five meetings with mighty BYU, but will be trying to snap a two-game losing streak to Utah State on Saturday. The Utes haven't won in Logan since 1994.

* WYOMING: Cowboy junior wide receiver Tommy Nash is the younger brother of former Tennessee star Marcus Nash, the No. 1 draft pick of the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos.

Once around the nation

* ACC: Since 1990, North Carolina, which hosts Miami of Ohio on Saturday night, is 17-1 against nonconference foes.

* BIG TEN: Illinois carries a school-record 17-game losing streak into Saturday's opener at defending Pac-10 champ Washington State. The Illini are 3-18 in their last 21 games against Pac-10 teams.

* BIG 12: Mack Brown makes his Texas coaching debut and tailback Ricky Williams begins his pursuit of the Heisman Trophy Saturday night against New Mexico State. However, Royal-Memorial Stadium still is expected to be about 10,000 fans short of a sellout.

* BIG EAST: West Virginia's Saturday game with No. 1 Ohio State has been hyped as "The Game of the Decade" in Morgantown. The bad news for Mountaineer fans? WVU has played the No. 1 team in the country six times in its history and has lost all six.

* BIG WEST: Nevada-Reno will open its season at Oregon State with a freshman quarterback. Mo Jones beat out JC transfer and projected starter Erik Stidham, but Wolf Pack coach Jeff Tisdale said both could play in Corvallis.

* CONFERENCE USA: No. 21 Southern Miss, coming off a 9-3 season that included a 41-7 thrashing of Pitt in the Liberty Bowl, could make a Colorado State-like statement for Conference USA Saturday if it can upset No. 13 Penn State in Happy Valley.

* MID-AMERICAN: Northern Illinois, just 1-21 under coach Joe Novak heading into Thursday night's MAC game with Western Michigan, suffered a severe blow when starting QB Chris Finlen broke his collarbone in the Huskies' final scrimmage and is lost for the season.

* PAC-10: Arizona State and Washington, which meet in a key Pac-10 opener Saturday night in Tempe, have kicked off the season four times before and each time the winner has gone on to win a conference title. ASU defeated Washington in 1975 and 1996 en route to WAC and Pac-10 titles. Washington won in 1992 and 1995.

* SEC: Kentucky, which opens the University of Louisville's new PapaJohn's Cardinal Stadium on Saturday, has shut out the Cards in each of its two previous games in Louisville.

* WAC: Wyoming coach Dana Dimel said ticket sales for the Cowboys' Sept. 26 game with Louisiana Tech "have been sizzling" since Tech's 56-27 loss to Nebraska last week. Tech QB Tim Rattay threw for 590 yards and four touchdowns against the Huskers while wide receiver Troy Edwards set an NCAA record with 405 yards on his 21 receptions. "I kept telling people how good Louisiana Tech was," Dimel said. "Now they know."

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