Alvarez denies Chambers injury

Cameron ned for critical remarks

By Chris Duprey

Daily Sports Editor

One Big Ten coach is fined for critical remarks about the officials after his team's loss on Saturday. Another reacts to a sticky issue concerning his star wide receiver. It's time to take a look Around the Horn.

No. 5 Wisconsin: Wide receiver Chris Chambers began his three-game suspension this past week against Oregon. He will sit this Saturday's home game against Cincinnati, as well as the Big Ten opener against Northwestern on Sept. 23 in Madison.

NCAA rules state that missed games due to injury cannot be counted toward a suspension. Therefore, Chambers must be healthy since he has begun serving his three-game penalty.

Coach Barry Alvarez bristled at a published report that Chambers' injury would keep him out until later in September, implying that Chambers began serving his suspension, despite still being hurt.

"I think our medical personnel are more on top of that issue" than the press, Alvarez said.

No. 13 Purdue: The Boilermakers travel to Notre Dame this weekend facing an unexpected starter at quarterback - and an unexpected style of offense.

Starter Arnaz Battle, an option specialist, is out indefinitely after fracturing his left wrist against Nebraska. The replacement, announced yesterday by Notre Dame coach Bob Davie, is 6-foot-7 Gary Godsey,

If only because of his size, Godsey is slower than Battle. To account for this, the Fighting Irish must adjust their offensive game plan.

Purdue coach Joe Tiller knows about the new guy on the block.

"Gary Godsey's a guy we tried to recruit at Purdue," Tiller. "He's a guy I suspect will be difficult to get down."

No. 17 Ohio State: Coach John Cooper is pleased with the Buckeyes' 2-0 start. He's also pleased with the 70 points his team has scored, after struggling offensively throughout 1999.

Cooper won't, however, have to delve deep to find an area for improvement.

The emphasis at practice this week will be discipline - Ohio State incurred 13 penalties in each of its first two games, against Fresno State and at Arizona this past weekend.

"We had 13 (penalties) and that's 13 too many," Cooper said.

Even though the Arizona game was played at 7:30 p.m. Pacific time, the heat was still a factor.

"It was pretty hot out there - 95 degrees when we started the ballgame. I felt our football team held up pretty well conditioning-wise," Cooper said, adding that he thought his team handled the temperature increasingly better as the game went on.

No. 19 Illinois: After traveling to the Golden State to play San Diego State last weekend, California comes to Champaign to complete the 'exchange program.'

Coach Ron Turner made quite a bold statement about the Golden Bears.

"I see a team that reminds me a lot of us a year ago. Expectations are not very high, except for within the team," Turner said. "They're expecting to go to a bowl game. They're expecting to have a winning season."

Turner added he thinks California will be ranked by the end of the season. Certainly a win over his Fighting Illini would help the cause for Cal.

No. 22 Michigan State: Despite injuring his right thumb, starting quarterback Ryan Van Dyke might start this Saturday at Missouri.

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Coach Bobby Williams said Van Dyke would have to be available for practice today. Otherwise, the Spartans will go with true freshman Jeff Smoker, who came off the bench to lead Michigan State past Marshall last week.

"Ryan is a lot better. He's able to grip a football," Williams said. "Jeff pretty much ran the first unit (Monday). We're just going to get Jeff ready to go.

"If Ryan can be effective in practice ... he'll play Saturday."

Cameron was enraged with "six or eight" controversial calls that went against Indiana. The Wolfpack took the lead for good on a 47-yard touchdown pass with 54 seconds to play.

At the postgame press conference, Cameron said, "You can slice it anyway you want. That football game was flat taken from Indiana University."

In a more settled mood, Cameron issued the following apology yesterday morning: "How I handled that was really inappropriate. That's just not the way we handle it in the Big Ten Conference. I just want to apologize for that."

Cameron has been assessed a $10,000 fine for his comments.

Some in Iowa City have even begun to wonder about the prospect of going 0-12.

"What we need right now is to win a football game," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "That would make everybody feel a lot better. Nobody's got their heads down. Nobody's hitting the panic button."

The lore is that pickle juice reduces cramping.

"This year at Florida, (Brigham Young) said they used to drink pickle juice to cope with the severe heat," Mason said.

Add that to receiving a personal endorsement of pickle juice from one of his Texas players, and Mason was sold.

Coach Randy Walker compared Tomlinson to Travis Prentice, who he coached at Miami (Ohio) before leaving the school to take the Northwestern job. Prentice graduated after the 1999 season and holds team records in career carries as well as rushing yards in a game.

Tomlinson "has better speed than you think," said Walker.

"Louisiana Tech just didn't play very well, giving us the ball five or six times," Paterno said bluntly. "I don't know if we got any confidence in this game - I hope we did."

Now 1-2, Paterno takes his team to Pittsburgh to resume the annual in-state rivalry. Penn State has played Pitt with top-10 teams and had trouble. So this Saturday will surely be a dogfight.

"It will be an emotional game, the last game they play in Three Rivers Stadium (against Penn State) before they move into a new stadium next year," Paterno said.

AP PHOTO

Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez contends Chris Chambers was not injured for last weekend's Oregon game, legitimizing his choice to sit Chambers out.