As Miami running back James Jackson writhed on the Orange Bowl turf, Jarrett Payton’s mind raced.
The son of Bears legend Walter Payton, Jarrett Payton is a true freshman who made his college debut Sept. 4. But that was in a rout of Florida A & M. If Jackson was injured, he would be sent to face the heavy-hitting Penn State defense in front of a packed stadium and a national television audience.
As it turned out, Jackson wasn’t hurt. Jarrett never left the sideline.
“You get kind of scared,” Payton said. “But you can’t be scared.”
Payton has learned a lot about courage since his father was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis. Walter Payton is on a waiting list for a liver transplant.
Payton said it has been difficult being apart from his father, but he said the transition to campus life has become easier with time.
“It was (difficult) at first; I’m not going to lie,” said Payton, whose bubbly personality has made him popular among teammates and reporters. “You have to adjust. I have a lot of good people at home watching over him. They tell me not to worry, but it’s hard.
“You have to grow up. I knew that going away from home, I had to stop being a mama’s boy.”
His father was supposed to come down for the Penn State game, but he stayed home in the Chicago area while his mom and sister attended.
“Right now, he’s doing better than he was three months ago,” Payton said. “He’s getting stronger. I don’t want him to feel like he has to come. I want him to get better.”
Payton, who threw for 1,088 yards for St. Viator last season, still is learning to be a running back. Hurricanes coaches had considered redshirting him this year, but that plan changed when backup Najeh Davenport suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Kickoff Classic. Payton is listed as a joint No. 2 on the depth chart with fellow freshman Clinton Portis.
In his first college game, Payton carried nine times for 33 yards. He said he doesn’t mind when people make the inevitable comparisons between him and his father, the leading rusher in NFL history.
“You get it all the time,” Payton said. “It’ll never go away. People say, `Do you get sick of that?’ I say, `People are saying good things about my father. How can I get tired of that?’ “
Fruition: The seeds of Maryland’s 3-0 start–its best since 1995–were planted in February, 1998.
The Terrapins had gone 2-9 in coach Ron Vanderlinden’s 1997 rookie season. Vanderlinden detected undercurrents of unrest among his players so he called a meeting with the team. No other coaches were invited.
Pizzas and sodas were delivered. Complaints were voiced. Then a veteran player stood up.
“He said, `We’ve been trying to do it our way and it’s not working. I’m ready to try a new way,’ ” Vanderlinden recalled Tuesday from his office in College Park. “I saw them come together to do the things it takes to win–and they were `want-tos’ instead of `have-tos.’ “
Vanderlinden’s way was patterned after the success he had as Gary Barnett’s defensive coordinator at Northwestern. First, Vanderlinden asked his players to volunteer for a rigorous summer training program. The summer before his first season, three players made it to every workout. That number grew to 12 in 1998 and 34 this year.
The defense, Vanderlinden’s specialty, has improved every season and already has produced two shutouts (Temple 6-0 and West Virginia 33-0).
But Vanderlinden said the biggest change is in attitude. In that way, the Maryland rebirth resembles rebuilding efforts he participated in at Colorado and Northwestern.
“Having been through this for the third time, I saw a lot of the same signs,” Vanderlinden said. “I saw guys accepting the structure we imposed. Our guys hadn’t won and they didn’t know how to win. But they bought into doing it our way.”
The next step for Vanderlinden: Taking Maryland to a bowl for the first time since 1990. The Terrapins have a big test Saturday at 10th-ranked Georgia Tech, which has won eight of the last 10 meetings between the schools.
Meanwhile, in Boulder: Vanderlinden’s former boss at NU, Barnett, finds himself in an unseemly war of words with Washington coach Rick Neuheisel as Colorado prepares to meet the Huskies on Saturday in Seattle.
The two coaches have been sniping since Barnett succeeded Neuheisel at Colorado last January. Neuheisel said this week that remarks Barnett made about Neuheisel’s recruiting practices to CNN/SI last spring had upset him.
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“Whether indirectly or directly, he questioned my veracity,” Neuheisel told Washington beat writers. “I don’t know where he comes off questioning that. He doesn’t have any idea who I am. He never directly called me a liar, but anybody looking at the footage would come to (that) conclusion. That bothered me. The truth of the matter is, all I did was create an opportunity for him to get the job he always has wanted.”
Barnett declined to respond, other than saying his comments about Neuheisel constituted only a small portion of the interview. Barnett seemed to blame the media for the controversy, barring reporters from practice and cutting off access to players a day earlier than usual.
“As we prepare for this game, obviously what we have to guard against is the opportunities for distraction,” Barnett said.
It’s a huge game for both sides, but the pressure seems heaviest on Washington, which has lost to Brigham Young and Air Force and is trying to avoid its first 0-3 start since 1969.
Troubled waters: East Carolina’s home game against No. 9 Miami has been moved to Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C., because floods from Hurricane Floyd closed the Pirates’ campus in Greenville, N.C.
With much of eastern North Carolina under water, the Pirates have been stranded in Columbia, S.C., since whipping South Carolina 21-3 Saturday.
“It’s difficult to keep everyone’s minds on football,” coach Steve Logan said.
The Pirates worked out in their game jerseys Monday. They have been granted use of South Carolina’s visitors’ dressing room, weight-training facilities and video equipment.
“It’s no different than what they would do for us,” South Carolina coach Lou Holtz said. “We have great compassion for them and what’s happening up in their area.”
Error-zona: With its warm winters and stunning scenery, the state of Arizona long has been a prime destination among tourists. It also is becoming a favorite spot for visiting college football teams.
There were two Division I-A games played within Arizona’s borders last weekend. The point totals: Underdog visitors 85, overrated home squads 29.
In Tempe, New Mexico State clubbed No. 22 Arizona State 35-7. Ninety miles south in Tucson, Stanford annihilated No. 19 Arizona 50-22.
Neither the Sun Devils nor the Wildcats were ranked this week.
“Obviously, I’m embarrassed,” Sun Devils coach Bruce Snyder said. “The team is embarrassed.”
Said Wildcats coach Dick Tomey: “This was an awful performance. It’s a poorly coached football team. It’s not a good football team.”
Take heart, fellows. You get to play each other Nov. 27 in Tempe.
Sidelines: After losing its opener to Texas 69-17, Stanford has won its last two games by a combined 104-39. . . . Having been savaged 41-7 by Auburn last weekend–at home–Louisiana State can look forward to a comforting stretch of games against Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Mississippi and Alabama, which are a combined 14-3. . . . Who would have guessed that on Sept. 18 Purdue would have more victories than the rest of Indiana’s Division I programs combined? The Boilermakers are 3-0. The rest of the state (Indiana, Notre Dame and Ball State) is 2-8.
Wisconsin plummeted to 20th from ninth in the AP media poll after Saturday’s loss at Cincinnati. But the Badgers fell all the way to No. 43 in the Sagarin Football Ratings, a computer ranking devised by MIT mathematics graduate Jeff Sagarin and used in the formula to determine the Bowl Championship Series standings. According to Sagarin’s calculations, the Badgers are slightly stronger than No. 44 Miami (Ohio) and slightly weaker than No. 42 West Virginia. Sagarin isn’t sold on Penn State, either: his computer ranks the Nittany Lions eighth nationally. Sagarin’s No. 1: Florida State.