Houses of Davie, Davis Are in Disarray

It was the 1980s rivalry--Catholics versus Convicts, white hats versus black, Jimmy Johnson’s hair versus Newton’s Law.

Today, you wouldn’t plunk down $4.50 to see it.

Less than a decade after the schools swapped national titles and dominated national headlines, Notre Dame and

Miami are 1-3 and in need of mini-miracles this weekend to keep from sliding to 1-4.

The Irish play at No. 19 Stanford and the Hurricanes visit No. 4 Florida State.

They’re still talking trash in Miami, only it’s in the air now, not on the field.

During Saturday’s 28-17 defeat to West Virginia, a plane buzzed the Orange Bowl trailing the banner: “National Champs to National Chumps! Thanks Butch.”

The message was directed at Miami Coach Butch Davis and, no, the pilot was not former coach Howard Schnellenberger.

Meanwhile, at Ann Arbor, Notre Dame quarterback Ron Powlus could be found sobbing in a corner with family members after a 21-14 defeat to Michigan.

In Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Jay Mariotti took a long, reasoned look at the situation and then unloaded.

“Notre Dame becomes Notre Dumb,” he wrote.

The scribe figured four games were plenty to evaluate first-year Notre Dame Coach Bob Davie.

Mariotti: “If it’s too early to declare Davie a failure, an angry clan of Notre Dame fandom knows it isn’t too early to wonder this: Why was he hired?”

The leaves may not have turned yet in South Bend, but the screws already have.

Once, they were kings.

Miami has won four national titles since 1983 and its 143-25 record entering the season was the best among Division I schools in that span.

Notre Dame won the national title in 1988. Miami finished second. Miami won the national title in 1989. Notre Dame finished second.

The rivalry was so intense they all but had to call out the national guard when the teams met Oct. 15, 1988, in South Bend, the Big Bad Hurricanes having crushed the Irish four consecutive games by a cumulative score of 133-20.

Notre Dame stunned No. 1 Miami that day, 31-30, snapping the Hurricanes’ 20-game road winning streak when Pat Terrell batted down Steve Walsh’s two-point conversion pass with 45 seconds left.

For the sake of the children, the schools ended the series in 1990.

What now?

Don’t expect many tears shed over two programs that long have had a love-hate relationship with America.

You think Navy, 9-60-1 against Notre Dame, gives a brass bell the Irish are 1-3?

Or that Boston College, 3-15 against Miami, is contemplating a get-well card?

Reality check:

* Davie inherited an average 8-3 team from Lou Holtz, eked out an opening victory against Georgia Tech and has since dropped consecutive games to three Big Ten Conference opponents--Purdue, Michigan State, Michigan--that are a combined 9-1.

The Irish played their hearty best against No. 6 Michigan without six staters who missed the game because of injuries.

Comparing Davie, a 20-year college assistant, to Gerry Faust, who jumped straight from high school to Notre Dame, is ridiculous.

Davie has the makings of a good coach, sounding Churchillian with this week’s stiff-upper-lip proclamation: “It doesn’t matter where we’ve been in the past. It doesn’t really matter where we are right now. It’s where do we go from here?”

Yet, Notre Dame’s decision-making has at times been mind-boggling, notably Davie’s fourth-quarter decision to run the ball on fourth and two at the Michigan 20.

Two problems: One, Davie was talked out of passing by his players. Two, the play, called “automatic isolation,” was an audible. An audible on the road in front of 105,000 screaming fans?

Need a scapegoat? Try offensive coordinator Jim Colletto. Note the common thread: Colletto coached a Purdue team that finished 3-8 last season. This year, the Boilermakers are 3-1 without him and the Irish are 1-3.

* Miami’s problems are no shock, either, the result of losing 31 scholarships in 1995 for NCAA violations dating to the Johnson and Dennis Erickson regimes.

Davis was brought in to clean up the program but, in truth, Miami’s off-field woes have not subsided. The latest embarrassment came Saturday, when freshman receiver Santana Moss was charged with battery on a police officer and resisting arrest.

It also didn’t look good this week when Davis skipped out on his weekly Big East Conference coaches’ call, leaving the league office with dead air to fill.

Coaches Ron Dickerson of woeful Temple and Terry Shea of pitiful Rutgers take the tough questions head-on every week.

So, what’s the prognosis for Notre Dame and Miami?

“You’re talking about two major, major programs,” Fran Curci, a former Miami All-American quarterback and coach, said from his home in Tampa.

“One will absolutely come back, the other probably will, but no guarantee. Notre Dame is a guarantee.”

Curci, national college football radio analyst for Westwood One, thinks Notre Dame’s weekly NBC exposure and national recruiting base make the school recession-proof.

He isn’t so sure about his alma mater, a private school that relies on attendance and bowl revenue to sustain the program.

Curci, the Miami coach in 1971 and ‘72, says the school nearly dropped football during his tenure and that it took Coach Lou Saban’s arrival in 1977 to save it.

And while Davis’ attempts to clean up Miami’s on-the-field image may be commendable, they have left the team without a mystique.

“In a backhanded way, those are things kids thrive on,” Curci said. “Kids want to be a part of it, ‘Come on down here, it’s us against the world.’ It was very effective.”

THE FORCE IS WITH THEM

Air Force is 5-0 and threatening to become this year’s Alliance nuisance out of the Western Athletic Conference. Fisher DeBerry’s Falcons are No. 23 in this week’s AP poll.

Last year, Brigham Young was No. 24 in the AP poll on Sept. 22 and climbed all the way to No. 5 to cause its now celebrated stink.

The Cougars finished 13-1 and did not get an automatic Alliance bid because the WAC was not invited to join the Alliance.

The WAC took its case to Congress and essentially plea-bargained a deal that gives it access to one of two at-large berths if one of its teams finishes sixth or higher in the polls.

But the arrangement, still subject to approval from deal-breaker Notre Dame, does not take effect until next year.

Air Force is a surprise because it lost 13 starters from last year’s 6-5 team, including outstanding option quarterback Beau Morgan. Morgan has been replace by his younger brother, Blane.

The Falcons probably don’t have enough punch in their schedule to cause another Alliance brawl. Air Force has only one victory of note--a 24-0 shutout against then-No. 23 Colorado State--and does not face a ranked opponent the rest of the way.

“It doesn’t mean a hill of beans,” DeBerry says of the Falcons’ 5-0 start. “The important thing is, ‘Where are you going to be in late November and early December?’ ”

BEEP . . . BEEP . . . BEEP

Taking over programs on respirators is nothing new for first-year Pittsburgh Coach Walt Harris.

Harris was coach at University of the Pacific from 1989-91. No luck there, as Harris went 11-25 before moving on. Pacific eventually dropped football in 1996.

Harris, the offensive coordinator for Ohio State’s Rose Bowl team last year, arrived at Pitt hearing a familiar chant. A small but influential clan, led by Pitt alumnus and ESPN prognosticator Beano Cook, suggested the Panthers might have to drop football if Harris did not succeed in the wake of Johnny Majors’ ill-fated reclamation attempt.

“We heard that,” senior quarterback Pete Gonzalez said. “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.”

Well, 21 years after winning the national championship under Majors, Pitt appears to be back. The Panthers, 4-7 last season, can improve to 4-1 with a victory at Temple on Saturday. It would leave the team two victories shy of the six necessary to qualify for its first postseason appearance since beating Texas A&M; in the 1989 John Hancock Bowl.

Steve Pederson, the school’s new athletic director, has literally gone door to door seeking support, which should come much easier after Pittsburgh’s 21-17 home victory against Miami on Sept. 18.

Pitt students tore down the goal posts after the Panthers beat the Hurricanes for the first time in nine tries since 1976.

Pitt and Virginia Tech are the only Big East teams without a conference loss.

“I think it’s a league that’s in transition now,” says Gonzalez, a Miami native who took delight in beating the Hurricanes. “Different teams are pushing for the spotlight.”

COAST TO COAST

* This week’s Randy Moss report: With 14 touchdown receptions in five games, the Marshall sophomore already has set the Mid-American Conference season record, breaking the mark of 13 held by Kent’s Eugene Baker. The Division I record is 22, set by Houston’s Manny Hazard in 1989. Moss has scored 43 touchdowns in 20 games.

* With the Big Ten joining the Alliance next season, former Michigan coach and athletic director Bo Schembechler thinks his school could better its national title hopes by dropping Notre Dame from the schedule. The schools are contracted to play annually through 2011, with a two-year break in 2000 and 2001 when Notre Dame plays Nebraska. Given the state of Notre Dame football, shouldn’t Michigan want to extend the series until the year 2525?

* This week’s idiots award goes to the Mississippi students who continued to wave Confederate flags at Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt despite the public plea of Coach Tommy Tuberville to stop the offensive tradition.

“I believe in heritage, I believe in tradition,” Tuberville said. “I don’t believe you should have any other platform at a football game other than winning a football game.”

* Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti has found a way to keep quarterbacks Akili Smith and Jason Maas happy. He not only platooned the quarterbacks during last weekend’s 58-49 loss to Stanford, he used Maas and Smith on alternate plays. “We certainly have taken it to the extreme,” Bellotti said.

* New battle cry: “We’re No. 109.” With its 123-yard outburst against Cal, USC jumped three places nationally in total yards rushing, from 112th to 109th.

* It appears Atlantic Coast Conference referee James Knight, 51, is going to survive the heart attack he suffered during last week’s North Carolina-Virginia game in Chapel Hill. Tar Heel Coach Mack Brown called Knight this week in the hospital. “He’s got a great attitude,” Brown said. “He’s kind of mad they won’t let him out to officiate a game this weekend.”

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Infostat

Division I-A teams with the most losses on the final play of the game since 1971:

Stanford: 5

California: 4

Michigan: 4

Cincinnati: 3

Louisville: 3

Southwest Louisiana: 3

Virginia: 3

Wisconsin: 3

Research: HOUSTON MITCHELL / Los Angeles Times