ROSE BOWL : No Matter How They Try, Buckeyes Can’t Rewrite the Ending

They played another Rose Bowl, and guess who lost.

You got it, the designated hittees from the Big Ten, the Buckeyes of Ohio State, who had the honor this year of making the now traditional tour: Come out a week later, change hotels to avoid distractions, meet Mickey Mouse, throw on first down and lose anyway.

Tuesday, they fell, 20-17, to USC. In the old days, before all these tendencies had hardened into a life style, the Buckeyes’ coach customarily took it harder, stripping a yard marker, pushing a photographer and toppling over a microphone in the press room, but that’s all over.

Woody Hayes’ successor, Earle Bruce, and his players made no excuses. They uniformly complimented USC and went home with their fourth straight loss and the conference’s 14th in 16 years. The Big Ten is gaining in sportsmanship, if not in effectiveness.

Said linebacker Chris Spielman: “I guess today they were the better football team. They beat us. They’re a tough, tough team. We’ve never played anybody like that before.”

Buckeye quarterback Mike Tomczak threw eight interceptions all season. Tuesday, he piled up three.

The first, which he floated directly into the hands of Trojan linebacker Neil Hope, turned around a 3-3 game in the first quarter.

Tomczak launched the second, from his 11 with 58 seconds left in the half, enabling the Trojans to embark on a short drive for a 17-3 lead, rather than the 10-3 lead they would have had if Bruce had run out the clock.

“Oh, I guess we did (think about it),” said Bruce, entertaining the query amiably. “But why play that kind of football in the Rose Bowl when you’re behind? We’re going to go for it. It’s just that something happened.”

Said Tomczak, managing a little grin: “On the first one, I was flushed out of the pocket. He (Hope) looked kind of like my own player, the way I threw it to him. There was a receiver behind him. I tried to loft it over him. I second-guessed myself and started to run. It kind of ended up like a volleyball. . . .

“At the end of the half, you always talk about not throwing an interception. I was just trying to make something happen and the kid (Tommy Haynes of USC) made a great play. He started up to cover Keith (Byars) in the flat. Then he read my eyes and made the play.”

The rest of the ship was scuttled with its quarterback. Keith Byars, the star Buckeye tailback, gained 50 yards on his first carry and 59 more in the last 22.

“They showed us some stuff we hadn’t seen all season,” Byars said of the Trojans’ strategy of bunching their linebackers and safeties. “We came out the second half a different ballclub. It takes 60 minutes to win a ballgame and we only played 30.”

Nice difference. In the first half, the Buckeyes amassed 225 of their 403 yards and Byars had 76 of his 115.

If Byars took it stoically, his best friend on the team, linebacker Pepper Johnson, didn’t. On most teams, someone can be counted on to admit the disappointment that everyone else is denying. For Ohio State, it was Pepper.

“They didn’t really stop Keith,” Johnson said. “I think our offensive line stopped Keith. They didn’t bite down when they really had to. A lot of times he was tackled behind the line.

“Keith’s a competitor. Not that the guys on our offensive line aren’t competitors. It’s just the law of football. Every day it goes up for grabs. Not to say that the same guys couldn’t come back in the same stadium and beat USC tomorrow. . . .

“Something was missing, like the guys not being here. (Two players, including starting safety Terry White, were suspended. When White’s backup, Steve Hill, was hurt, James Palmer, a reserve cornerback, had to fill in.) We adjusted to it very well. But when Steve Hill went out very early with an injury, that was a big adjustment for us. The guys pretty much blanked it out of their minds. You can’t let yourself think about that every time you line up. . . .

“We just didn’t represent Ohio State. Iowa was the only Big Ten team that won a bowl game. We were the Big Ten champions this year. We really wanted to win our game. I feel like we didn’t represent the Big Ten too well.

“I thought our passing and running attack made us the best team, but you can’t take anything away from the Pac-10. They have some good defensive coordinators at Washington, Washington State, USC. (Huh? The Buckeyes beat Washington State, 44-0.) They play a little more physical defense out in the Pac-10. That was the matchup today, their defense and our offense. They say defense wins ballgames and offense sells tickets. . . .

“Embarrassed? Yes. I’m not the type person who makes excuses or who likes to explain to people what happened. I know all the fans and the critics will be asking us. I have to be a man about it and give them what they want. I’m not going to be a snob. I’ll stay Pepper Johnson, ‘cause I have another year here. We just got outplayed.”

Anyway, the Buckeyes were still in there firing at the end. Trailing 20-9, Tomczak drove them 88 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, finishing it with an 18-yard pass to Cris Carter, gunning the ball between two closing Trojan backs, Jerome Tyler and Matt Johnson. Then Tomczak took on the Trojan defense again on a rollout and slammed into the end zone for the two-point conversion that cut it to 20-17.

Finally, he drove Ohio State back to the USC 38 with 1:13 left. Then he got sacked on third down, and misread a receiver’s cut on fourth. While the Trojans celebrated, Tomczak lay flat on his back.

“I got knocked down, too,” he said. “It took a little longer to get up because my career was over.”

So that was it for another year. The Big Ten retreats to the great heartland to re-consult its hotel guides. Gentlemen, start your presentations.