Jim Nevelle

The seats are too narrow, the leg room too cramped, and the paltry meals woefully insufficient. Air travel can be brutal for senior Jim Nevelle, starting center on the Washington football team. "When I'm on a commercial flight and I'm sitting next to somebody, I have to ask for the exit aisle or the bulkhead," said Nevelle, no small cargo at 6-foot-2, 265 pounds. "They don't understand when you tell them on the phone, but when you're sitting in front of a travel agent, then they understand."

The seats are too narrow, the leg room too cramped, and the paltry meals woefully insufficient. Air travel can be brutal for senior Jim Nevelle, starting center on the Washington football team. "When I'm on a commercial flight and I'm sitting next to somebody, I have to ask for the exit aisle or the bulkhead," said Nevelle, no small cargo at 6-foot-2, 265 pounds. "They don't understand when you tell them on the phone, but when you're sitting in front of a travel agent, then they understand."

Jim Nevelle makes a good case for being both the strongest and smartest football player on the Washington Huskies, who face Michigan on New Year's Day in the Rose Bowl game. "Jim's done a great job for us," offensive line coach Steve Morton said of the junior starting center. "He is a little bit undersized (6-foot-2, 265 pounds) when you look at a lot of the rosters up and down the coast. He's worked really hard in the weight room to develop (his) strength."

The team of the future will give an old-fashioned flavor to the Shrine high school all-star football game this year. The Shrine game often features the college and professional stars of tomorrow, but the South team has a number of throwbacks to an earlier time, a group of modern-day Jim Thorpes who excel on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

David Reiner, the oldest player on the University of Washington football team, is beginning his fifth season in the Husky program. That perspective did little to prepare him for Black Sunday. Reiner, 24, was shocked Sunday by the abrupt resignation of Coach Don James in the wake of Pacific 10 Conference sanctions against Washington. Those sanctions include a two-year bowl ban, a one-year television ban and drastic scholarship reductions.

Pursuing a sixth league title in seven years, Canyon Coach Harry Welch will employ an offense with more options than just tailback Chris Peery plowing up the middle. Last season, with inexperienced skill-position players, the Cowboys' attack was like a runaway freight train and about as difficult to stop. With Peery churning straight ahead for 1,290 yards behind a strong offensive line, Canyon ran over all five league opponents. "We didn't really have many receivers last year," Welch said.

No matter what the score, it's always 9-0 to Washington this season. The Huskies are like the movie cowboys who roam the West, notching their pistols with each act of vengeance for the burning of the old homestead. Bang, there goes Stanford. Bang, there goes California. Bang . . . UCLA, today?

Forget the howling winds and numbing cold. The real problem facing teams that visit Antelope Valley is the home team. So says Harvey Kochel, coach of Ventura, and in case you've forgotten, an expert on the subject. Ventura was defeated by Antelope Valley, 34-0, in the first round of the Coastal Conference playoffs last season. Ventura (10-1) must again make the long trip to Antelope Valley (8-3) for a second-round game Friday at 7:30 p.m. But it's not the travel that worries Kochel.

Wayne Cook and Ryan Fien shared much on Sept. 12, 1992, the night of UCLA's opener at the Rose Bowl. Two former top-notch high school quarterbacks, they both played in the Marmonte League. Cook, from Newbury Park High, is 6 feet 3, 205 pounds. Fien, from Royal in Simi Valley, 6-3, 206. Both have powerful arms. Both can throw the deep ball with accuracy. But they existed in distinctly different worlds. Cook, 21, a sophomore, was Coach Terry Donahue's undisputed starter.

The most visible penalty meted out to Washington by the Pacific 10 Conference on Sunday was the requirement that the Huskies be invisible at the Rose Bowl game for two years. That they are cut out when it's time for the conference to cut up television money is something administrators noticed right away. But when coaches and athletic officials learned of Coach Don James' resignation after the sanctions, all that seemed to pale in significance.