Columnist Steve Guiremand: Excitement abounds from coast to coast

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | 10:23 a.m.

Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. He can be reached at steveg@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-2324.

Anybody who thought the world of college football world be a lot duller without Steve Spurrier around should just take a look at some of this week's headlines:

Item: Utah coach Ron McBride, incensed over a blown touchdown call by Pac-10 officials that cost his team a likely 24-23 comeback victory at Arizona, goes out of his way to point out that referee Jim Fogltance is "a big-time UA guy. ... He's a big booster. I don't know what in the hell he is doing, doing the game."

Item: Oklahoma, already leading 62-0 at the time, passes for one last touchdown with 27 seconds left to defeat hapless UTEP 68-0.

"I felt like I was road kill when they did that --- and they just ran over us," Miners wide receiver Terrance Minor said.

Item: Kansas State linebacker Josh Buhl tells the Kansas City Star "there might be a bounty" on USC All-American safety Troy Polamalu Saturday for his 15-yard helmet-to-facemask shot on former Wildcat punt returner Aaron Lockett during last year's 10-6 victory over the Trojans at the Coliseum.

Item: Nevada-Reno jumps out to a 31-14 halftime lead and then holds on to upset 24th-ranked BYU, 31-28.

"The biggest (win) in Mackay Stadium history," Wolf Pack athletic director Chris Ault proclaims. "It's been a long wait. We've waited for that one victory that would help us turn the corner. That day is now reality."

Let's take these items one-by-one:

Why would the Pac-10 even allow for a possible conflict of interest by allowing a crew headed by a referee who lives in Tucson and has two degrees from the University of Arizona to work Wildcat games? Why not fly them to other Pac-10 games? Better yet, why not work out a deal to bring in crews from other conferences, like the Big 12 or Big Ten, to do Pac-10 vs. Mountain West matchups?

"You're making a fundamental accusation that you can't trust the officials to be impartial," Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen told the Seattle Times this week. "Which I personally reject and I think most of the other commissioners would reject."

Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, is also a head linesman on a Mountain West Conference crew and said he tries to avoid officiating UNLV games.

"I've done a few (UNLV games) over the years, but I certainly try not to," Ratner said. "I can see where (McBride) is coming from."

With all the BCS money that could be riding on the outcomes of some of these inter-conference matchups, doesn't the NCAA owe it to the fans to take away any doubt of possible malfeasance? ...

Methinks that Thompson, who had played most of the second half anyway, probably would gain a whole lot more experience just from going head-to-head against Oklahoma's first-team defense in practice.

Stoops pointed to the fact that he had holder Matt McCoy down the ball rather than kick the conversion on the final TD as evidence he wasn't trying to run up the score.

"That was just a small gesture to show that we didn't want to get any more points," Stoops said.

Nice . ...

"Oh, yeah, there might be a bounty on (Polamalu)," Buhl said. "There's a lot of revenge going on."

Polamalu, who had a team-high 11 tackles in USC's 40-3 victory at Colorado last week, didn't seem too concerned by the threat.

"If they try and block me differently, somebody else will make the play," he told the Los Angeles Times. ...

Tormey, who may have saved his job with the victory, has done a nice job of slowly rebuilding a program that had reached Big Sky-like standards when he took over.

It's too bad for Wolf Pack fans that sophomore running back Chance Kretschmer, one of the great stories of college football in recent years after walking on from tiny Tonopah High to lead the nation in rushing as a freshman, suffered a season-ending knee injury on a late hit early in the win.

Still, if I'm UNLV coach John Robinson, I'm not sleeping too well knowing that unheralded Wolf Pack wide receiver Nate Burleson will be around to test my secondary in two weeks. Burleson had 12 receptions for 215 yards, including a 95-yard touchdown, in the upset of the Cougars.

Once around the MWC

AIR FORCE: Falcons (2-0), who travel to red-hot Cal (3-0) on Saturday, are 13-10-1 coming off a bye week under Fisher DeBerry. Air Force leads the nation in rushing with an average of 368.5 yards per game.

BYU: Cougar coach Gary Crowton reaffirmed that senior Bret Engemann is still his starting quarterback for Saturday's game at Georgia Tech despite Engemann being yanked at halftime of last week's 31-28 loss at Nevada-Reno in favor of redshirt freshman Lance Pendleton. Engemann, who completed 35 of 54 passes for 386 yards and three touchdowns in a season-opening win over Syracuse, was only 6 of 16 for 80 yards and one TD at the time of the switch. Crowton said that barring a rash of injuries he still plans to redshirt highly touted true freshman QB Ben Olson.

COLORADO STATE: Rams coach Sonny Lubick said he may use quarterbacks Bradlee Van Pelt and Justin Holland in the same backfield in shotgun formation a la BYU. Holland, a redshirt freshman regarded as one of the nation's top quarterback prospects in 2000, took over CSU's offense for two series in last week's 36-33 victory over Louisville and engineered scoring drives of 74 yards and 83 yards, completing five of six passes for 94 yards.

NEW MEXICO: Albuquerque Tribune columnist Richard Stevens this week wrote a column lobbying Lobos coach Rocky Long to use backup placekicker Katie Hnida in this week's game against New Mexico State. Hnida is a walk-on who converted 27 of 28 PATs at Chatfield High School in Littleton, Colo., her senior year. No woman has ever played a snap at the Division I-A level. "I won't play her just to play her," Long said. "I don't think that would be fair to her or anyone else on the team." Stevens wrote that using Hnida this week would be "the ultimate way the Lobos could humiliate the New Mexico State Aggies. ... by using a woman." Oh, my.

SAN DIEGO STATE: Senior wide receiver J.R. Tolver set a Mountain West record with 296 receiving yards on 12 catches in the Aztecs' 39-28 loss to Arizona State. The Sun Devils overcame a 22-0 deficit to pull out the win, the biggest comeback in ASU football history.

UNLV: The ultimate insult? Oregon State coach Dennis Erickson, whose Beavers jumped out to a 37-0 lead en route to a 47-17 win over the Rebels last week, was asked about his team's 3-0 start heading in this weekend's much anticipated rematch with Fresno State. "We haven't played anybody yet." Ouch!

UTAH: The Utes rank third in the nation in rushing defense (37.7 yards per game) heading into Saturday's game against a power running Michigan squad in Ann Arbor. Freshman placekicker Bryan Borreson has been a pleasant surprise, connecting on a 53-yard field goal at Arizona last week after hitting a 50-yarder a week earlier against Indiana.

WYOMING: The bad news? The Cowboys (0-3), who have lost 11 straight games, travel to 13th-ranked Washington (1-1) on Saturday night where coach Rick Neuheisel has been preaching his team get off to a fast start. The good news? The Cowboys have a bye next week to help them prepare for their Oct. 5 "showdown" with The Citadel in Laramie. That figures to be Vic Koenning's last win as head coach for the Pokes.