Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 35

liaMtfMfl1 Sunday, September 7, 1997 Section 3 Baldwin (right) gets lit up as Indians drub Sox again. Page 3. Wisconsin struggles; Florida St. edges Southern Cal. Pages 8-9.

-ll New schools mean new challenges for athletes, coaches. Back Page. WAKE FOREST 27. NORTHWESTERN 20 mm No fluke this season: Deacons are better Taking a swing at the week Steve Rosenbloom By Goodoming, DAVE WANNSTEDT ern was faking punts and trying trick plays. It was wrapping paper around an empty box.

Or smoke and mirrors. The plays a 24-yard pass from Tim Hughes to Eric Collier off a fake punt and a Hughes-to-Brian Musso-to-Jay Tant double pass for 28 yards on the next play worked. The Wildcats also recovered three fumbles in the first half. And they were leading 10-6 going alternative that they were outplayed, outsmarted, out-every-thinged might be too painful to consider. Count this one Wake Forest 27, Northwestern 20, and call it the right thing, the just thing.

Smoke or no smoke, this wasn't a choke job. This was one team dominating another. The Wildcats (1-1) came into the game ranked 21st in the nation, but let's be clear: This wasn't like last year, when the Demon Deacons shocked Northwestern on the same field 28-27. "There was one good team out there today, and it wasn't in our locker room," Wildcats coach Gary Barnett said. "This year, we expected to win the ballgame," Wake Forest coach Jim Caldwell said.

They must have known it by the second quarter, when Northwest By Rick Morrissey Tribune Staff Writer WINSTON-SALEM, N.C-Not to say that Northwestern is desperately seeking answers for its slow death Saturday, but is" secondhand smoke still a legitimate health claim? If it is, the Wildcats might want to consider it the reason for what happened in tobacco country. The 5 yKf A 9h i T. -la into the locker room. The correct word for that is "ominous." "Every one of those turnovers is an extra opportunity to put them away," Musso said. "That hurts.

It's worse than last year just because we should have come in here and proved who we were, and we didn't. We came in here and played like dogs." The Wildcats wanted a big emo-See NU, Page 9 S. MISS 24, ILLINOIS 7 Loss IS no shock for DM Nor is Holcombe's rush to top of list By Gary Reinmuth Tribune Staff Writer CHAMPAIGN The number of surprises Saturday night totaled zero. None were expected. A crowd of 44,519 the smallest for a home opener at Memorial Stadium since 1980 saw pretty much what they figured they'd see in Ron Turner's debut as Illinois' head football coach.

They saw senior tailback Robert Holcombe carry 20 times for 91 yards to become the mini's all-time leading career rusheras expected. They saw Illinois, a team in search of an offense under former coach Lou Tepper, make only wobbly strides, in that regard in its first game for Turner. They saw favored and speedy Southern Mississippi play ball-control football to defeat the Illini 24-7 after rolling to a 24-0 lead. "Obviously, we're disappointed," Turner said. "Once we come in Monday and look at the film, though, I think we'll find it wasn't as bad as it looked.

A catch here, a better throw there, who knows? We're not that far off if we make some improvements. Our execution is not anywhere near where it needs to be, though." The highlight for Illinois came with 1 minute 23 seconds left in the first half. Holcombe broke up the middle, stutter-stepped left and went down in a heap after a classic 6-yard gain. Holcombe moved past Thomas Rooks (2,887) and Jim Grabowski (2,878) to become the school's all-time career rushing leader with 2,943 yards. "It's a great accomplishment," Holcombe said, "I know that.

But it was overshadowed by our loss. It's something I'll really appreciate someday, but I'd rather have the win than the record." Junior quarterback Mark Hoek-stra came out shaky and didn't look sharp until he hit George McDonald-Ashford for the Illini's only touchdown on a 22-yard pass See Illini, Page 8 IZ, -a: L. 11 I TECH 13 Wanna beat the Vikings? Tell Dennis Green this is a playoff game. FlagQnTrsePtayj San Francisco QB Steve Young suffered his third concussion in 11 months Sunday, was still woozy on Monday, and then had his neurologist advise him to take at least a week off. But Young still had the option of putting his suspect brains into further jeopardy Now that the NFL has a penalty for players taking helmets off, how about a rule against some guys ever putting them on again? AnybodyHome? The Anaheim Angels had lost almost two-thirds of their games since left-fielder Tony Phillips was busted for felony cocaine possession.

So, naturally, the former White Sox player took it upon himself to criticize his teammates for lackadaisical play All right, lemme hear ya. A one, a two, a me out to the gall game ThsNlceltem The English Football Associationsoccer, to us colonists-wants to organize a charity match for Bosnian land mine victims as a tribute to the late Princess Diana to benefit a cause she believed in. Give those feet a hand. TakeASeat i The International Olympic Committee warned Stockholm and Cape Town about attempting to bribe IOC voters. Those two cities were among the finalists for the 2004 Games, and Stockholm reportedly offered some IOC officials free furniture.

That's rich. The IOC fingering people for handing out freebies. Must've been French Provincial, because everyone knows that Neo-Classic is in way in right now. KickBaU A strike by Spanish soccer players was headed off when the sides agreed to negotiate several points. Wow, is that ever good news.

After all, our lives would be terribly incomplete without the Athletic Bilbao-Real Zaragoza scores. OnCaniera The NHL will test a computerized aerial camera during an exhibition game in Toronto. The camera will move on a cable approximately 16 feet above the ice, maneuvered by a joystick, and will give a sense of flight to the way the game is seen. It also will feature white space in the middle to denote where Blackhawks centers used to be. Autry Denson evades Georgia Tech's Travares Tillman on a 3-yard TD TnDune pnoto Dy Pnii Greer run in the first quarter Saturday.

Denson also scored the game-winner. 1 defeat. It was now or never, and we chose now." Denson carried six times for 33 yards during the game-winning drive. None was more important than the last, when he reached across the end zone with the ball for a 1-yard touchdown run. Given the four-point cushion, the Irish defense steamrolled Georgia Tech to close out the game.

On second and 10 from the Yellow Jackets' 20, Notre Dame's Melvin See Irish, Page 7 1 3 NOTRE DAME 17, GEORGIA Dmm era regains Denson keys late drive to make, new Irish coach a winner By Teddy Greenstein Tribune Staff Writer SOUTH BEND, months, coach Bob Davie has talked about "pumping oxygen" into Notre Dame's football program Try telling that to the 80,225 fans who attended Saturday's game against Georgia Tech. It wasn't until the final minute that they could breathe easy as the 11th-ranked Irish rallied for a gut-twisting 17-13 victory. These accents really grate on men's tennis VIKINGS AT BEARS: Noon, WFLD-Ch. 32 Gaffes won't stop Bears' offense from going West turn down your nose at a win." Maybe not but it's easy to find fault with Notre Dame's anemic rushing attack and inability to stop the Yellow Jackets' option. Through 3Va quarters, Notre Dame had rushed for only 78 yards.

It wasn't until they trailed 13-10 with 7 minutes 42 seconds left, in the game that the Irish were smacked with a sense of urgency. "On the sidelines we made up our minds," said Autry Denson, who had just 38 rushing yards to that point. "It was death before 1 4 AP photo Australian Patrick Rafter's victory over Michael Chang Saturday underscores tennis' troubles. "This was a big, big, big win for us," Davie said in the aftermath of his head coaching debut "We obviously need to play better in the future, but it's better to build after you've won the game." Better for Davie, especially, now that he won't have to spend a week answering questions about how his team barely sneaked past a run-of-the-mill Atlantic Coast Conference opponent "You can never take things for granted," Irish defensive coordinator Greg Mattison said. "You can't Bernie Lincicome IN THE WAKE OF THE NEWS the same position taken by track and field and by soccer, as if America is obligated to care.

Tennis will not find the renewal it wants by coughing up two unknown players, one unseeded, the other barely, in the Open final. If tennis is looking for its own Tiger Woods, one of these two guys will have to move over to see who it is. And it may very well just be See Lincicome, Page 6 EW YORK Rule, Brit-canada. G'day, mate. Someone you've never heard of is going to take the American tennis title away with them, up or over there, wherever Greg Rusedski calls home these days, or down under where slick and shaggy Patrick Rafter dwells, as true an Australian as Rusedski is a phony Englishman.

This sort of thing happens from time to time, but not lately in the Age of Sampras, and what it means is tennis, men's tennis, will come out of the U.S. Open much less vital than when it went in. "I am much better known in Europe," Rusedski explained. "It is not abnormal for people not to know me over here." Since it is here that really matters, the point is not only beyond moot but way past relevant. It is Scoreboard COLLEGE FOOTBALL Notre Dame 17 Wake Forest 27 Ga.

Tech 13 N'western 20 S. Miss. 24 Tennessee 30 Illinois 7 UCLA 24 N.Carolina 23 Eastern III. 42 Indiana 6 6 Iowa 66 Western III. 45 Northern Iowa 0 Truman St 18 Wisconsin 28 Michigan St.

42 Boise St. 24 W.Michigan 10 Florida 82 PennSt. 34 C.Michigan 6 Pittsburgh 17 Florida St. 14 Toledo 36 USC 7 Purdue 22 By Melissa Isaacson Tribune Staff Writer The influence of new offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh was only beginning to be felt last week in Green Bay when the Bears' offense stalled in the second half. But seven Bears caught passes from Erik Kramer as the new West Coast-influenced offense called for 30 pass plays and 17 rushes in their loss to the Packers.

And despite the mistakesKramer completed just 17 of 41 passes for 192 yards and was intercepted twice leading to the Bears' loss, expect more of the same style from a team enthusiastic about its new system "We're going to get pressed and banged around every week until Writing on the wall: Mirer likely to replace Kramer soon. Melissa Isaacson, Page 14 we make some plays in the passing game," Bears coach Dave Wannstedt said. "Then they'll back off." The Bears will be under added pressure this week. Pro Bowl tackle John Randle is coming to town with an opportunistic Minnesota defense, and injuries have forced Chris Villarrial to move to guard, with Evan Pilgrim coming in at center for his first pro start. And until Curtis Conway returns from his fractured collarbone in an estimated four to five weeks, Wannstedt conceded See Bears, Page 10 Coverage, Pages 7-9.