Daily News from New York, New York • 60

ID College Football an (tar Cii LAj ir loon BY DICK WEISS DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER ESPN WAS DISPENSING apologies everywhere yesterday after former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz referenced Adolf Hitler for Hitler. Holtz's comments apparently stunned fellow studio analysts Mark May and Rece Davis. Davis attempted to bail Holtz out. "You mean a bad leader, don't Davis said. "Yes," Holtz said.

ESPN executives were on the phone yesterday apologizing to Michigan AD Bill Martin, who fans yesterday at halftime of the Clemson-Georgia Tech game. "Last night while trying to make a point about leadership, I made an unfortunate reference," Holtz said. "It was a mistake and I sincerely apologize." ESPN promised it would review its editorial checks and balances after Hill was suspended for comparing rooting for the when he was talking about Rich Rodriguez's struggles in his first year as head coach of Michigan. Holtz, a studio analyst for the network, said on a Friday night "GameDay" show stayed up on the ESPN Web site for two hours before it was eventually deleted. Hill quickly apologized.

ESPN was quick to punish Hill, saving in a statement at the time: "Both Jemele and ESPN.com apologize. The column, as originally posted, made some absolutely unacceptable comparisons. We've spoken with Jemele, and she understands that she exercised poor judgment. She's been relieved of her responsibilities for a period of time to reflect on the impact of her words. Within hours of its posting on Saturday evening, the inappropriate references were removed from the site, but our system of checks and balances failed Jemele and our readers and we are addressing that as well." jj that Rodriguez may well be a leader of men, but then added, "Ya know, Hitler was a great leader, too." ESPN said it had no plans to suspend called the network to complain Lou Holtz after being told about Holtz's comments upon his arrival at Beaver Stadium in State College for the Penn State game.

Holtz made an on-air apology to UM Celtics to the Hitler and the Cold War in an anti-Celtics rant. "Rooting for the Celtics is like saying was a victim. It's like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red before Reagan," Hill wrote. The line vf Holtz, as it did ESPN.com columnist Je- mele Hill in June, after Hill compared rooting for the Boston Celtics to rooting 1 5 i Missed field goal bails out Rutgers w'8 Iff 4 fPenn State lhammers I Michigan 1 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS I STATE COLLEGE, Pa. Thou-jj sands of white pompoms flut-gtered and 100,000 Penn State fans broke into a sing-along as jj night fell on Beaver Stadium.

jj Joe Paterno's greatest neme-p sis was about to be vanquished by the third-ranked Nittany Li- ons and the 81 -year-old coach had a bird's-eye view of party li time in Happy Valley. Yep, JoePa's getting a really fj good look at his latest national a championship contender. Behind the running of Evan Royster and a few momentum-j shifting plays by the defense and Cy' '-A' Sv BY SEAN BRENNAN DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER ALL BLAIR BINES could do was hope. "When he kicked the ball, it looked good," said Bines, a Rutgers defensive tackle. Senior linebacker Kevin Malast, who had spent yesterday afternoon helping to shut down one of the nation's top running backs, simply pleaded, "Oh, please miss it." Rutgers, a team in dire need of a change of luck, was clinging to a two-point lead late in the fourth quarter as Connecticut lined up to try the winning field goal from 42 yards away.

And when Huskies kicker Tony pull out the win. After an uneventful first half that ended in a 3-3 tie, Rutgers (2-5, 1-2) jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the third quarter on a 6-yard run by Kordell Young. The Knights then got the play of the afternoon from Bines, who stopped UConn's Donald Brown in the end zone for a safety and a nine-point lead. "The safety we had was great," Bines said. "We came pretty close to getting a safety on two other occasions.

I guess the third time was a charm, and those points really energized our team." Rutgers, which held UConn (5-2, 1-1) to its lowest rushing total (117) of the sea-son as well as its low jg special Ciaravino's attempt went airborne, it had the look of another crushing loss for the Scarlet Knights. PENN STATE 46 MICHIGAN 17 RUTGERS UCONN 12 10 teams, the Nittany Lions withstood the Wolver est scoring output since last Nov. 10, turned UConn's Brown into a non-fac Evan Royster celebrates first-quarter touchdown as No. 3 Penn State rallies to easily beat Michigan. Photo by AP there was an opportunity for the Nittany Lions (8-0, 4-0) to break the streak it was now.

The Wolverines (2-5, 1-2) have struggled mightily in their first season under coach Rich Rodriguez. "It's a fact, you take it year by year, game by game, we lost to them last year, and coach has spread, got its own high-powered version of Rodriguez's offense rolling and delivered the knockout punch with a safety, a partially blocked punt and a forced fumble on consecutive second-half Michigan possessions. Rodriguez needs four wins to avoid Michi in UJ oo CM made a great tor in the second half. The junior tailback, who came into the game leading the nation with a 177.8 yards per game average and was second nationally with 1,067 yards, gained 100 in the first half on 14 carries, but managed just seven yards on 13 attempts after halftime. "At halftime Coach talked about you've got to tackle more," Bines said.

"First person there, hold him up, then everyone else run to the ball and get him down. It worked pretty well." About the only storm clouds in Scarletland yesterday came as Schiano opted to rotate quarterbacks between incumbent starter Mike Teel and junior Domenic Natale. Teel, the second-leading passer in Rutgers history (7,327 yards) appeared irked at the platoon as well as the boos that cascaded down when he would replace Natale. "Oh yeah, every time I went out on the field," Teel said. "As a fifth-year senior it is what it gan's first losing season since 1967.

Jared "I knew it was going right," Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. "I didn't know how far right." Perhaps Rutgers' luck is beginning to change. Ciaravino's try clanged off the right upright with 1 :09 to play, and Rutgers escaped with a 12-10 Homecoming victory before 42,491 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, the Knights' first Big East win of the season. Ciaravino's miss was his second field goal attempt to hit the post yesterday and his third misfire of the game. A 25-yard attempt hit the left upright in the second quarter.

"I've made that kick a thousand times in practice," Ciaravino said. "There's no excuse. I should have made it." In a game marked by limited offense, stellar defense and the uncanny ability of Rutgers punter Ted Dellaganna to keep UConn pinned inside its own 5-yard line in the second half (he did it three times on two punts and a kick-off), Rutgers did just enough to ines' early flurry and snapped a nine-game losing streak to their Big Ten rivals, 46-17, yesterday. Paterno wasn't on the field to enjoy his record 380th victory, relegated to working from the press box for a third consecutive week because of a sore hip and leg. "My being upstairs it's funny, I'm not sure that's not the best place for a head coach," he said.

"I mean you really get a view of things, I get a better view of football games from up there than I ever do on the sideline." What he's seeing is a team that should be no worse than third in the initial BCS standings when it heads to Ohio State next week. "Am I starting to like it up there? I'll never like it, it doesn't mean that the team might be better off with me up there," Paterno said. No team had ever won as many in a row against Penn State during Paterno's. 43 sea-, sons- than Buf if ever that this MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL State Pages 62, 76 has not point week, Penn team Odrick gave Penn State its first lead at 19-17 when he dragged down backup quarterback Nick Sheridan in the end zone with 4:39 left in third quarter. The free kick set the Nittany Lions up at midfield, Roys-ters 21 -yard run put them at the 1 and Daryll Clark sneaked in at 3.04 to make it 26-17.

Royster ran for 174 yards on 18 carries, with a 44-yard TD run in the first quarter. lost to this Michigan team," center A.Q. Shipley said. Michigan came in a 23'2-point underdog. Never before had the Wolverines been so lightly regarded by odds makers.

The Wolverines looked like a good bet early, their spread offense clicking as they sped to a 17-7 lead early in the second quarter- But Penn State deciphered the.