SPOTLIGHT / SATURDAY’S GAMES AT A GLANCE : HEIDI REVISITED

KMPC earned a spot in broadcasting’s hall of shame with its performance at the end of the Michigan-Illinois game. The Wolverines trailed, 22-19, and faced third and 16 well into Illini territory with less than a minute remaining. They called a running play that gained only a yard to set up fourth down on the 22. A field goal would give the Wolverines the Big Ten championship and send them to the Rose Bowl, but almost certainly take them out of any chance at a national championship. Unfortunately, listeners didn’t find out whether Michigan would gamble or go for the field goal, much less whether they would succeed. Before any fourth-down play was decided on, KMPC left Ann Arbor and went back to the studio for the taped pregame interview with UCLA Coach Terry Donahue. After that, listeners got a look around the Pac-10. Finally, about 20 minutes after Michigan had kicked a 39-yard field goal to get the tie, KMPC’s Chris Roberts announced the score. Said KMPC producer Kurt Kretzschmar: “We were contractually obligated. We waited as long as we could.”

SIGNING OFF

With the kind of programming SportsChannel L.A. offered Saturday morning, there’s little wonder it’s going off the air at the end of the year. NBC showed the Notre Dame-Penn State game, ABC had Michigan-Illinois and Prime Ticket showed South Carolina-Florida. The relatively few viewers who are able to get SportsChannel on their cable systems were stuck with this option: Columbia-Cornell. Surprisingly, that Ivy League game turned out to be a good one, Columbia winning, 35-30.

HE’S BACK

Just when it appeared that the Heisman Trophy was going to be awarded to whichever of the front-runners slipped the least, San Diego State’s Marshall Faulk got back on track. Faulk became a runaway favorite early in the season, then struggled through some so-so performances and nagging injuries. Georgia’s Garrison Hearst came on with a couple of 200-yard games, only to fade. And Gino Torretta has made a belated bid, albeit against some marginal clubs. But Saturday, Faulk regained his form with 300 yards rushing and four touchdowns in a 52-28 victory over No. 24 Hawaii.

ROLE REVERSAL

Until recently, Coach Tom Osborne’s Nebraska teams couldn’t beat ranked opponents, having lost seven in a row to top-10 teams dating to 1988. Then in successive weeks, the Cornhuskers trounced then-No. 8 Colorado, 52-7, and No. 13 Kansas, 49-7. Saturday, Nebraska lost to Iowa State, 19-10, the first time in 15 games the Cyclones had beat the Cornhuskers. Iowa State was 3-6 before the game. “You’re never any better than your last game,” Osborne said. “People were starting to say a lot of nice things about us, but we could fix that in a week’s time, and I’m afraid we have.”

STREAKS

Miami has won 27 consecutive games, 51 in a row in the Orange Bowl. . . . Duke has lost 12 ACC games in a row. . . . Missouri’s victory over Kansas State was the Tigers’ first over a Division I-A opponent in 14 games. . . . Illinois ended Michigan’s Big Ten winning streak at 19 with a 22-22 tie. . . . Florida has won six games in a row and 18 in a row at home. . . . Rutgers had lost to West Virginia seven consecutive times before Saturday’s 13-9 victory. . . . Wake Forest’s 23-10 victory over Georgia Tech was its sixth in a row, its longest streak in 48 years. . . . Virginia Tech’s losing streak of seven games is its worst since 1951. . . Iowa has beaten Northwestern 19 times in a row.

STANFORD-CAL II

In a bizarre finish reminiscent of the 1982 California-Stanford game, Towson State beat Northeastern, 33-32, on a 10-yard pass reception with no time left. Mark Orlando received a kickoff with four seconds left after Northeastern had gone ahead, and after two laterals, the Tigers’ Julian Blair had reached about the 20 when the gun sounded. Northeastern’s bench, thinking the runner had been stopped and the game over, ran onto the field to celebrate, only to be penalized for illegal participation. That gave Towson State one more play, and Orlando caught a pass from Danny Crowley for the victory.

A FITTING ENDING

This was football as it was meant to be played. No domes to keep out the weather, no artificial turf, no glitzy uniforms designed by Florence Griffith Joyner. Penn State vs. Notre Dame in the cold and snow of South Bend. Two rivals playing each other for the last time. Notre Dame won, 17-16, when Rick Mirer threw a four-yard touchdown pass on fourth down with 20 seconds left, then scrambled to complete another pass for the two-point conversion. The series ended, 8-8-1. “It has been a competitive series that’s been good for college football,” Penn State’s Joe Paterno said.

RESERVE STRENGTH

Two weeks ago, Miami’s reserves almost turned what had been a rout of West Virginia into a close game by giving up three late touchdowns in the Hurricanes’ 35-23 victory. Pollsters, apparently dismayed at the closeness of the score, dropped Miami from No. 1 to No. 2, and the Hurricane starters were none too happy. “They let us down,” starting tackle Mario Cristobal griped of the backups. Saturday against Temple, the second-stringers, who had been outscored, 40-3, the last two games, knew they had something to prove, and they were going to prove it against the Owls. Against Temple, reserves took over in the third quarter with a 41-0 lead and completed Miami’s second shutout of the season, 48-0. “Those kids played with pride,” Miami Coach Dennis Erickson said. “Our main thought in the game was to give those guys a chance to come in and redeem themselves, because they took a little heat for the way they’ve played.”

SHARED MISERY

What do Arkansas State, Brown, Cal State Fullerton, Navy, Temple and Tulane have in common? None of those teams have scored as many points all season as Florida State has in its last two games, a 69-21 victory over Maryland last week and a 70-7 victory over Tulane on Saturday.

NOTEWORTHY

Duke’s Leroy Gallman had 231 yards in five kickoff returns in a loss to North Carolina State, breaking the ACC mark of 195 set by Wake Forest’s Anthony Williams against Maryland in 1990. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, Gallman fumbled into the end zone at the end of an 82-yard return in the fourth quarter and the Wolfpack recovered. . . . John Kaleo threw for 418 yards and five touchdowns, both Maryland records, in a 53-23 victory over Clemson that eliminated the Tigers from bowl consideration. . . . Wake Forest’s Bill Dooley got his 97th ACC victory--the most in conference history. Dooley was in a three-way tie with former Clemson coaches Frank Howard and Danny Ford. . . . Kicker David Margolis became New Mexico’s all-time scoring leader with 240 points, two more than wide receiver Terance Mathis. . . . Keith Elias broke Princeton’s single-season rushing record of 1,347 yards set by Judd Garrett in 1989 and tied Walt Snickenberger’s mark of 16 rushing touchdowns in a season. Elias has 1,368 yards rushing with one game left. . . . Peter Gardere set Texas’ single-season record with 15 touchdown passes. . . . SMU’s Jason Wolf set the Southwest Conference record for all-time receptions with 221. . . . Cal State Fullerton fumbled seven times and lost five in a 44-31 defeat by New Mexico State, tying the NCAA record for fumbles lost (39) with one game remaining.

IN QUOTES

Michigan Coach Gary Moeller, after a mistake-filled tie against Illinois that put the Wolverines into the Rose Bowl: “This was a sad way to get into a big party . We just went out and self-destructed. We had 10 fumbles. That’s sickening. I can’t believe we handled the ball like that.” Coach Buddy Teevens, after a 70-7 loss to Florida State: “Now I know what Custer felt like, except he didn’t have to watch game film . “

Iowa State defensive end Dan Watkins, after a 19-10 victory over Nebraska: “You would think everybody had won the sweepstakes with Ed McMahon . It was a great feeling in there.”

South Carolina Coach Sparky Woods, stating the obvious after a 14-9 loss to Florida: “If we can hold a team like Florida to only 14 points, we need to find a way to score 15. We had a lot of missed opportunities.”

Oregon’s Tommy Thompson, who missed a 19-yard field-goal attempt with 3:13 to play in a 9-6 loss to UCLA: “There was absolutely nothing right with that kick. From 19 yards, the ball should be right down the middle. I absolutely just shanked that one. If I’d go out there right now, I’d make it 100 out of 100 times.”