McCarney, whose Iowa State team is waiting to find out if it will be playing in the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho, or the Motor City Bowl in Detroit, is among seven possible candidates listed by a Detroit newspaper for the Michigan State job.

The others—all head coaches—are Brian Kelly of Grand Valley State, an NCAA Division II school in Allendale, Mich., Tom O’Brien of Boston College, Urban Meyer of Bowling Green, Jim Grobe of Wake Forest, Jeff Tedford of California and Walt Harris of Pittsburgh.

McCarney has taken Iowa State’s program off the scrap heap. The Cyclones will be playing in their third consecutive bowl game later this month, and his Cyclones are in a three-year period in which they have won 23 games. The only better record in school history is 24 victories from 1976-78.

Iowa State finished the regular season with a 7-6 record, but lost five of its last six games.

Michigan State hopes to have a new coach sometime this month. It has been without one since Bobby Williams was fired Nov. 4. Morris Watts, a former Drake assistant, was the interim coach for the rest of the season, but it was with the understanding that he wouldn’t be retained.

"I really think (Michigan State) could interest any of those candidates," Gil Brandt, a longtime football personnel analyst, told the Detroit News while referring to McCarney and the other six coaching possibilities.

"Michigan State is a very attractive job. There’s great history there, the facilities are excellent and they have a fertile recruiting ground…."

Gene Wojciechowski, a college football analyst for ESPN, told the News that the Michigan State job is "the best job out there—barring any stunning openings—and it will attract a lot of really good candidates."

The newspaper said "a coach such as McCarney, who is signed through 2006, likely would command a heavy buyout."

The paper added that "McCarney, 49, is a disciplinarian who took a historically bad program and turned it into a winner (at Iowa State). He has an impressive Big Ten background as a defensive coordinator under Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez. Minus: He likes it at Iowa State and is under contract through 2006."

McCarney also is a former Iowa player and assistant coach.

The News said none of the seven possible Michigan State candidates it tried to contact returned phone calls.

McCarney and Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz were the featured subjects in Witosky’s well-researched story.

Witosky continues to be one of the best investigative sportswriters in the nation. His coaching salaries story followed another strong performance in the ongoing Pierre Pierce series of articles.

The Football Writers Association of America named three Hawkeye offensive standouts—tight end Dallas Clark, center Bruce Nelson and placekicker Nate Kaeding—to its All-America team.

The unusual thing about Clark, who is from Livermore, and Nelson, who is from Emmetsburg, is that neither had a football scholarship when he came to school.

Clark, continuing in a long line of outstanding tight ends at Iowa, joined Marv Cook as an All-American at the position. Clark has caught 39 passes for 645 yards.

Two of his biggest came in the Hawkeyes’ 31-28 victory over Purdue on Oct. 5. He caught a pass and ran 95 yards for a touchdown, and also grabbed the game-winning scoring pass with 2 minutes remaining.

Nelson has started 47 consecutive games for Iowa. He helped an offensive line that helped produce a 222.1-yard rushing average for the Hawkeyes.

Nelson, Clark, Kaeding and the rest of Iowa’s players will take an 11-1 overall record into the postseason--likely the Rose Bowl against probably Southern California or Washington State. The Hawkeyes tied for the Big Ten title with Ohio State with 8-0 records.

Banks, who is expected to be among those invited to New York City later this month for the Heisman Trophy ceremonies, was joined by Ken Dorsey of Miami and Carson Palmer of Southern California in the O’Brien voting.

The winner will be announced Dec. 12 on a college football awards show at 6 p.m. in Orlando, Fla. The show will be televised by ESPN.

Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace was a semifinalist for the O’Brien Award.

Cornhusker Coach Frank Solich fired three defensive coaches today and said he’d no longer call the team’s offensive plays.

The Associated Press reported that defensive coordinator Craig Bohl; secondary coach George Darlington and rush ends coach Nelson Barnes were dismissed.

The announcement came three days after the Huskers finished their worst season in 41 years. With a 7-6 record, Nebraska was barely eligible to compete in a bowl.

The Huskers are expected to play in the Independence Bowl at Shreveport, La.

Solich said he hasn’t decided who will take his responsibility as offensive coordinator. He said defensive line coach Jeff Jamrog and graduate assistant Jimmy Burrow will handle the defensive game plan for the bowl game.

Burrow is a former assistant coach at Iowa State and for the Iowa Barnstormers. He also is a former head coach at Ames High School.