Not Again!

By RICHARD CORLISS

If Rodney Dangerfield had 109 heads and weighed 11 tons, he would be the Florida State University football team. F.S.U. has won 10 games or more six years in a row; it is undefeated in its past 11 bowl games; it gobbles up most opponents like Homer Simpson at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. Yet for years the Seminole team had the reputation of a pigskin bridesmaid because it somehow managed to find a way to lose to those cross-state behemoths at the University of Miami. Even the F.S.U. press book repeats the phrase "can't win the Big One," like a mantra. It's meant ironically but still reveals an open psychic wound.

"Naturally, when you're as close as we've been and haven't won the big games, people start wondering why," says F.S.U. head coach Bobby Bowden, with the long-suffering tone of a man who prowls the sidelines on Saturdays, then mounts a pulpit on Sundays as a lay preacher. "But the only way to answer their questions is to win." In October Bowden thought he had the answer. After three heartbreaking losses to Miami (on a failed two-point conversion and two late field goals that went wide right), Florida State becalmed the Hurricanes 28-10. Bowden had won "the big game." Except he hadn't -- because, it turned out, he had a bigger date with another unbeaten team, Notre Dame. When the two teams met on Saturday, the Irish were ranked No. 2 to F.S.U.'s dominating No. 1.

It was a matchup made in hype-heaven. Burt Reynolds' team vs. the God squad. The pro-style strategy of Florida State vs. the grind-it-out ground game of Notre Dame. Seminole speed vs. Irish beef. Irresistible force meets immovable object. "This might be the biggest game ever in college football," F.S.U. defensive end Derrick Alexander declared at midweek, and few would disagree -- certainly not the fellow who claimed a ticket by piloting his '79 Ford LTD from Los Angeles to South Bend, Indiana, in 21 hours, nor the fan who traded his 1991 Honda for tickets on the 50-yard-line at Notre Dame stadium.

Before the game, Irish coach Lou Holtz, an old friend of Bowden's, might have wished he had F.S.U.'s quarterback Charlie Ward. Smooth and stoic, Ward is an idol on the Tallahassee campus; he was elected student-body president in his junior year. A starting point guard for the 'Noles basketball team as well as conductor of Bowden's fast-break offense, Ward sees his job as simply getting the ball to his teammates. He has done that brilliantly enough this fall, completing 69% of his passes in F.S.U.'s first nine games and throwing & for 16 touchdowns with only one interception, way down from 17 last year. That stat indicates Ward's newfound maturity; but he is by nature no rah-rah jock. After F.S.U.'s win over Miami he uncharacteristically pumped both fists at the ecstatic crowd -- not from emotional overdrive but because, he said, "I thought they deserved it." Good doggies, says the stern master.

Still, Holtz figured Notre Dame had a chance. "This team has tremendous character," he said. "That goes a long way." Their character was tested in the game's first minutes, as Ward smoothly quarterbacked his fleet receivers to an early touchdown. But that seemed to get the home team's Irish up. Like a space-age tank, Notre Dame rumbled to three quick, imposing scores. F.S.U., which had humiliated its first nine opponents 205-27 in the first half, found itself inexplicably down 21-7 at intermission.

It had been more than a year since the road-running front runners had had to play catch-up, and they were playing on unfamiliar turf -- both their predicament and against a ground game as rapacious as Notre Dame's. Teams are usually so far behind the Seminoles in the early going that they're forced to pass for quick yardage. The Seminoles were dispirited, logy; they trudged through most of the second half, allowing the Irish to build a 31-17 lead. Not until late in the fourth quarter did F.S.U. flash its famous spark. Ward connected for one quick touchdown and ended the game with a goal-line pass that Notre Dame knocked down. The Irish had won the Big One, 31-24 to succeed Florida State as college's top team.

Holtz, judiciously praising both teams, pronounced that "this is one game that I think lived up to all the hype." And all the anguish. After a tough year in which he had lost many starting stars and been excoriated in a tell- all book about Notre Dame, the conquering coach was vindicated. Not so Bowden. "I wish we could win the rest of our games and play 'em again," said the vanquished F.S.U. coach of Notre Dame. The Dangerfield mask was on him again.

With reporting by Greg Aunapu/Miami and Julie R. Grace/South Bend