Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 54

Sports Lansing State Journal Sunday, Nov. 15, 1987 4E uuuutuuuumu SmcKlDLtegj DDK (3 Spartan notebook MSU bowls 1985 All-American Bowl: Georgia 17, MSU 14 Cherry Bowl: Army 10, Michigan State 6 I 1966 Rose Bowl: UCLA 14, Michigan State 12 1956 Rose Bowl: Michiqan State 17, UCLA 14 1 954 Rose Bowl: Michigan State 28, UCLA 20 1938 Orange Bowl: Au- burn 6, Michigan State Roses From 1 plllllt lllilli 'v Villi! st a 4 Lansing State JournalROD SANFORD Lorenzo White celebrates with fullback James Moore (33) and Duane Young. White plays besti gamme Dozen roses don't get wasted By ANDY FLANAGAN, JACK EBLING and STEVE KLEIN Lansing State Journal It would have been a waste of two-dozen long-stemmed red roses sitting in the Big Ten commissioner's car outside Spartan Stadium. That's where Harriman Cronk, president of the Rose Bowl, stashed the roses to present Michigan State, just in case the Spartans defeated Indiana Saturday to win the Big Ten title and a trip to Pasadena Jan. 1.

"There's new energy being pumped into the Rose Bowl," said Wayne Duke, the league commissioner, standing with Cronk outside the tunnel to the Michigan State locker room as the game was ending, with MSU winning 27-3. "Now we have new friends coming out to the Rose Bowl," Cronk said with a warm smile. "We always have a great game. I don't understand this talk about the conference being down. "Obviously, Lorenzo White is impressive, and the defense is impressive, and they stood out today.

We couldn't be happier about Michigan State representing the Big Ten." Consolation prizes: Where would the Spartans have gone if they had lost Saturday's showdown? The best guesses to an irrelevant question were the Sea World Holiday Bowl in San Diego or the Hall of Fame Bowl in Tampa, Fla. Before the game, Tom Palmtag, a representative of the Dec 30 Holiday Bowl, made his pitch for the loser of the MSU-Indlana game. "Someone's fans are going to be smarting for a while," he said, "but we're just 60 miles down the road from Pasadena. We have a great environment in which to play football and in which to play." The Holiday Bowl matches the winner of the Western Athletic Conference against a team at large. "We're looking at both teams today," Palmtag said.

"There has to be a loser, and that team would come into our picture. But we have people at seven or eight other games today, including some other Big Ten people." Eight of the nine previous Holiday Bowl games have been decided by a touchdown or less, four games by a single point Last year, Iowa defeated San Diego State, 38-37. The Hall of Fame Bowl, in just its second season, would have loved to have the Spartans and their huge alumni contingent in Florida for the Jan. 2 game. "We'd love to have Michigan State," Bob Sutton, Hall of Fame Bowl executive director and an MSU grad, said Friday evening.

"They'd be an excellent draw and a terrific representative. "But I don't think that's going to happen. I think they're going to the Rose Bowl, and that's what I'll be pulling for." National exposure: Among the media representatives in Spartan Stadium Saturday was Sports Illustrated staff writer Douglas S. Looney, who's writing a story for next week's issue. "It'll be a pretty big spread, maybe four or six pages, depending on the pictures," said Looney, who had included MSU Coach George Perles in "Where the Noose Meets the Neck," a look at coaches in trouble, prior to the season.

"I'm not sure which angle I'll take, but there are a lot of good stories here. I'll probably go pretty much with the winner." Which probably means a big spread on the Spartans. But don't look for them to be on the cover. Looney said SI doesn't like to feature two college games on its cover two weeks in a row. Future msu had a huge contingent of high school prospects as guests in Spartan Stadium Saturday.

Perles expects to have from 18 to 20 scholarships available. One of the recruits, Chuck Webb, a tailback from Toledo Ma-comber-Whitney High, is rated the No. 1 running back prospect in America. This year, he rushed 125 times for 1,390 yards, an 11.1-yard average, and 17 touchdowns. He caught six passes for 220 yards and one score.

And against Cincinnati Woodward, he rushed six times for 220 yards in just the second quarter. "I was here last year for the Indiana game, too," Webb said. "This year, things are a little different This Is really nice." New Vistas for Nick: Nick Vista, who is retiring from MSU's sports information office after 33 years, the last eight as director, was presented a huge cake decorated with a picture of his smiling face before the game. Vista is taking early retirement in June to join his wife, Connie Stewart, in Atlanta, where she is a vice president of Emory College. She is a former MSU vice president.

"Nick is the quintessential sports information director," Doug Weaver, MSU's athletic director, said. "They're not going to make them like this anymore. This institution is honored to have had had him these 33 years." Vista has not missed an MSU home game since the last game of 1949 204 straight games. A past president and member of the College Sports Information Hall of Fame, Weaver promised Vista there would always be a seat waiting for him in the press box. For the record: Saturday was a big day for MSU tailback Lorenzo White, MSU safety Todd Krumm, MSU's defense and MSU in general.

For White, his 292-yard rushing effort was a single-game high, as were his 56 attempts. White gained 286 yards against the Hoosiers two years ago, his previous best, and in 1985 he carried the ball 53 times against Purdue. White's 56 attempts sets an MSU record, and is just one shy of tying the NCAA record. Minnesota's Kent Kitzmann rushed 57 times against Illinois in 1 977 to set the record. White now has 4,421 yards in his career, placing him 15th on the NCAA's all-time rushing list White passed several players Saturday, including former Auburn great Bo Jackson, the 24th former Heisman Trophy winner White has passed.

White also notched a career milestone with his carry. He now has 1,028 attempts in his career. Krumm intercepted two passes to give him a Spartan single-season record of nine. His 18 career interceptions are good for second place on MSU's list behind Lynn Chandnois' 20. MSU's defense, which entered the game ranked No.

1 in the country in rushing defense, held the Hoosiers to 33 yards on the ground. The Spartans have allowed 57.3 yards per game rushing, ing. In the Big Ten, MSU is giving up just over 28 yards per game on the ground. The Big Ten record is 34.6 yards per game, held by MSU's 1965 team. Besides clinching the school's first Rose Bowl berth since 1965, MSU enjoyed its sixth straight sellout of the season, with a crowd of 76,411 looking on.

It's the first time in MSU football history that the entire home season has been sold out. The Big Ten title is MSU's third outright championship and fifth overall. This will be the Spartans' fourth trip to the Rose Bowl, where they have a 2-1 record. DiBiaggio statement: MSU president John a. Di-Biaggio's thoughts after the victory: "This is a wonderful moment for Spartan football, for MSU athletics, and for the entire University.

I am very proud of the fact that the Spartans have won a Big Ten championship and that we are going to the Rose Bowl. However, I am much more proud of the way the team has achieved success through dedication, hard work, unified effort, and humility. These young men are champions on the field; the Big Ten title makes that very clear. But I want everyone to know that they are winners off the field as well. When George Perles came home to become head coach of the Spartans, he said he had one goal: the Rose Bowl.

I am so happy for George, his fine staff, and those many, many supporters who have been faithful to the Spartans, in bad times as well as good. I know George Perles, and I know that his thoughts are focused on such great Spartans as Duffy Daugherty, Father Mac, and others who have meant so much to him, to his alma mater, and to his family. I realize he probably won't accept it, but as president I grant Coach Perles exemption from the 24-hour rule, and urge him to allow himself a few extra moments to reflect on what this means to those many, many people only he knows helped to make Nov. 14, 1987 possible. What a great Saturday night to be a Spartan! What a great way to start 1988!" Lorenzo vs.

Indiana si 1 984: 3 carries for 12 yards. 1985: 25 carries for 286 yards, three touch downs. 1 986: 1 9 carries for 65 yards. 1 987: 56 carries for 292 yards, two touchdowns. Lorenzo's best 292 yards in 56 carries vs.

Indiana, 1987. 286 yards in 25 carries vs. Indiana, 1985. 244 yards in 53 carries vs. Purdue.

1985. 226 yards in 39 carries vs. Iowa, 1985. 223 yards in 43 carries vs. Wisconsin, 1985.

"It's been a great day," said George Perles, who delivered on a championship pledge with his five-year plan. "We had some tough times, but the kids bailed me out "It's what we always hoped for, wished for and worked for. We built it, and it wasn't easy. Now, we've got to try to stay there." The first step is trying to become just the second Big Ten team in 14 years to win the Rose Bowl, something that wouldn't shock Indiana Coach Bill Mallory. "I want to congratulate Michigan State, George Perles and his staff," said Mallory, whose 16th ranked club dropped to 5-2, 7-3 and a probable berth in the Holiday Bowl.

"They deserved to win. I take my hat off to them. They'll certainly represent us well and in a class fashion. I'm behind them 100 percent" Mallory had just come from the MSU locker room, where he congratulated the winners and told them to punt some fannies on the West Coast "We'd just finished our school song, and who walks in but Mallory," Perles said. "Our guys got on one knee, and he gave us a pep talk that I'll never equal.

He said some things from the heart, things that took a lot of guts. I know I couldn't have done it." He didn't have to. After spotting Indiana a 3-0 lead on the opening drive that concluded with a 49-yard field goal by Pete Stoyano-vich, the Spartans stiffened on defense and steamrolled on offense. MSU's defense, led by tackles Mark Nichols and Travis Davis, linebacker Percy Snow and safeties Todd Krumm and John Miller, has now gone 179 minutes, 45 seconds without giving up a touchdown. And its offense, with White running behind a much-improved offensive line and quarterback Bobby McAllister hitting split end Andre Rison, has turned into a clock-eating monster.

It was just that kind of drive that put the Spartans ahead to stay Saturday. White carried eight straight times for 61 yards, scoring three seconds into the second quarter on a 5-yard, third-and-goal smash. "We knocked them off the ball," said offensive tackle Tony Mandarich, who had promised MSU "would abuse Indiana" early last week. "They were ninth in the Big Ten in rushing defense. We knew what we had to do." After three plays and an Indiana punt, the Spartans scored again.

Six rushes set up McAllister's first pass of a five-for-five day, a 22-yard TD strike to Rison on third-and-11. "Rison was able to get himself free," Mallory said. "We had a stunt on, and he got one-on-one on the defensive back (severely burned cornerback Joe Ziegler). He made a fine play. He's a heckuva receiver." Some would say he's as good as any receiver in the conference, including Indiana's Ernie Jones, held to just two catches for 48 yards after snagging 54 balls in his first eight games.

"Inside myself, I know who the best receiver in the country is," said Rison, with just 26 catches this season. "I didn't say anything to anyone. I want to let my play speak for itself." MSU's defense has done that all season, holding Big Ten opponents to an average of 28.3 yards per game on the ground a conference-record pace and less than several of White's scampers. Hoosier tailback Anthony Thompson, who rushed 126 yards in his team's 17-14 victory over MSU last season, was held to 23 yards on 10 carries. And quarterback Dave Kramme, an able fill-in for sidelined starter Dave Schnell, completed just 11 of 28 passes for 147 yards, with three interceptions.

But it was Kramme's fumble, a sack by Nichols, that set 'up the Spartans' third score. After Kurt Larson's recovery gave MSU the ball at the Indiana 40, place-kicker John Langeloh hit a 47-yard field goal that bounced off the crossbar through the goalposts. With a 17-3 halftime scoreboard, the Hoosiers were still lurking. But Blake Ezor raced 90 yards down the left sideline with the second-half kickoff, setting up Langeloh's second field goal from 21 yards. A 12-play, 80-yard drive on the next possession finished the job and the scoring.

White crashed over right guard from the 1 for his 39th career touchdown and 12th of the season. By JACK EBLING Lansing State Journal A Heisman Trophy winner? Probably not. But the best college football player in America? It'd be tough to imagine anyone better. Michigan State rushing machine Lorenzo White carried the ball 56 times for 292 yards, both career-highs, and scored two touchdowns Saturday. He made a spectacular one-handed catch for an 11-yard pickup and threw the key block on quarterback Bobby McAllister's 41-yard keeper.

Other than that, he basically took it easy in Saturday's Rose Bowl-clinching 27-3 win over Indiana. "I'm a little tired now, but I think it was the best game I ever played," said the senior tailback from Fort Lauderdale, after his last appearance in Spartan Stadium. "It couldn't have happened at a better time." Or to a better player, according to MSU Coach George Perles, who left White in the game until a final gun that few people heard. "I did something today that I haven't done very often," Perles said. "I knew he'd carried a lot, but I called him over and said, 'Lorenzo, I'm going to go against the grain.

I'm going to let you get everything you can get I owe you. You've done that much for the He did more than his share against the Hoosiers, coming within one carry of Minnesota tailback Kent Kitzmann's NCAA mark. "Lorenzo ran possessed," Indiana Coach Bill Mal-lory said. "He ran with his heart We knew we'd see him at his best, and we did." "Coach Perles told me he wanted me to break every record there was today," said White, who carried 12 straight times, usually behind a dominant left side. "He asked me if I was tired, and I kept saying no." If the 5-fott-ll, 208-pounder was tired of anything, it was hearing every other week that he's out of the Heisman race.

"I never felt I was out of the race," White said. "People are adding up all of Tim Brown's yardage. What if I ran back kickoffs? Would they add those to my total, too? "The thing about the Heisman is that they keep changing it every year. In my sophomore year, they said I had the yards but not the hype. Now, they say I have the hype but not the yards.

I don't know what they want." As a sophomore, White rushed for an NCAA sophomore-record 1,908 yards, including 286 against Indiana. This year, he has 1,367 yards and 12 touchdowns with one game remaining. "He's probably not good enough to win the Heisman," Perles said with a healthy dose of sarcasm. "Gaining close to 300 yards isn't enough. Carrying as many times as he did isn't enough.

But I think it is!" It was enough to carry the Spartans to Pasadena, a trip no trophy can match. Lansing State JoumalROD SANFORD Spartan quarterback Bobby McAllister leaps over Indiana's Van Waiters. i.