A Big Game Followed by Bigger Decisions

By HELENE ELLIOTT

Jan. 1, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

ORLANDO, Fla. — Northwestern’s rallying cry for its Citrus Bowl matchup today against Tennessee is “unfinished business,” a reference to the unhappy ending of its Cinderella trip to the Rose Bowl last season.

For running back Darnell Autry of Northwestern (9-2) and quarterback Peyton Manning of Tennessee (9-2), the theme might be finished business--as in this game being the finale of their college careers.

Autry, an All-American who ranked seventh in the nation in rushing with 1,386 yards in 10 games, and Manning, who ranked seventh in the nation in passing efficiency and total offense with 286.9 yards per game, said they will wait until after the game to decide whether to make themselves available for the NFL draft. If they hope the Citrus Bowl will be a springboard to vault higher in scouts’ eyes, they may get their wish because circumstances are right for each to have a big game.

The key for Autry, whose powerful knees-high, shoulder-low style and speed made him the top career rusher for the 11th-ranked Wildcats with 3,727 yards, will be taking advantage of a Tennessee defense weakened by injuries. The Volunteers ranked fifth nationally in defense and sixth in scoring defense but lost defensive tackle Ron Green, defensive end/tackle Billy Ratliff and defensive end Leonard Little.

“They’re not very big, but they’re very quick,” said Autry, who missed the Wildcats’ final full practice Monday because of flu but is expected to play today. “You can’t hit the corner. You’ve got to get up in the middle and deal with it. We can’t let them as a defense control our offense.”

Manning’s task is to exploit Northwestern’s secondary, whose struggles led to the Wildcats’ fall from third in the Big 10 in pass defense last season to sixth. The Wildcats, who allowed Iowa and Purdue to pass for 499 yards in their last two conference games, won’t have cornerback Hudhaifa Ismaeli, who was suspended for a year for his second failure of a drug test. In his place will be sophomore Gerald Conoway, making his first collegiate start.

“It’s a big challenge and it’s coming at an awkward time, but I’m ready,” he said. “[Manning] has a strong arm and he has a lot of touch on his passes.”

Manning, whose 3,287 passing yards this season set a school record, compared Northwestern’s defense to Ohio State’s. The Volunteers defeated the Buckeyes, 20-14, in last year’s Citrus Bowl.

“You watch most teams’ game films and you see some mistakes, but with Northwestern, you don’t see them make any mistakes and you don’t see any busted assignments,” Manning said. “We’ve added some things [to the offense]. The main thing we want to do is do well what we did during the season. We’re going to try to be pretty much a balance of running the ball and throwing the ball. Maybe they won’t let us run. Maybe they’ll play an eight-man zone and make us run all the time.”

Not if Jerry Brown, the Wildcats’ interim defensive coordinator, told the truth. “Our idea is to stop the running game first so we do just force them into a passing game,” Brown said. “That may sound crazy, forcing one of the best quarterbacks in the country into a passing game, but if you force them into one dimension, you know what they’re going to do.”

For both teams, the Citrus Bowl is something of a consolation bowl.

The Volunteers were second in the preseason rankings and were expected to contend for the national championship, but a 35-29 loss to Florida in their third game and a Nov. 9 loss to Memphis took them out of the race.

The Wildcats’ season lacked the sparkle of last season’s march to the Rose Bowl. They were less dominant, needing fourth-quarter rallies to defeat Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Purdue, but they tied Ohio State for the Big Ten title--their first back-to-back championships since 1930-31--and they’re in back-to-back bowls for the first time.

Coach Gary Barnett insisted going to the Citrus Bowl isn’t a letdown. “Once we lost the first game to Wake Forest, we knew pretty clearly we were looking at this,” said Barnett, whose Northwestern record (27-28-1) would reach .500 with a victory today. “But hey, you win five games in the last 30 seconds, you’re happy to be playing on New Year’s Day.”

Simply playing on New Year’s Day won’t be enough this time for Autry. “Last year we went to the Rose Bowl, but we didn’t win it. It left a hole in our hearts,” he said of Northwestern’s 41-32 loss to USC. “A loss here would definitely put a bigger hole in our hearts.”

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CITRUS BOWL AT A GLANCE

* Teams: Northwestern (9-2), Tennessee (9-2)

* Site: Orlando, Fla.

* Time: 10 a.m.

* TV: Channel 7