NEUMEIER'S LEGEND LOOMS AT WSU.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

In the early 1970s, Jack Neumeier took an offense from an Ohio high-school football coach's book and tinkered with the recipe. Over the ensuing years, Neumeier's pass-rich attack has gotten around more than the proverbial Christmas fruitcake, with football coaches far and wide adding their own flavorings to the mix.

The Camarillo resident's creation is the gift that keeps on giving. His

four-receiver, one-back offense will be on display on New Year's Day at the Rose Bowl, standing as tall as any of the floats in the parade that will precede the game between undefeated and No. 1-ranked Michigan and No. 8 Washington State.

The Cougars have used ``Happy Jack's Flying Circus,'' as Neumeier's high-wire, high-voltage attack was known in his heyday, to put up the kind of numbers that were the norm at Granada Hills when the likes of Dana Potter and John Elway were at the controls, calling the signals.

Behind the strong arm of quarterback Ryan Leaf, WSU averaged 344.5 yards through the air during the regular season and 502.2 yards of total offense on the way to a 10-1 record.

Potter passed for 3,214 yards in 1970, the first season after Neumeier installed a sophisticated passing scheme predicated on spreading the defense thinner than a few strands of hair on a balding man.

Elway, the Denver Broncos' veteran superstar, had opposing coaches pulling their hair out during his three-year varsity career with the Highlanders, passing for 5,701 yards and 49 touchdowns before his senior season was cut short by a knee injury in the sixth game.

Early in Elway's high-school career, Cougars coach Mike Price, who was then an assistant at WSU, took a phone call from Elway's father Jack. Elway, who had left Pullman months earlier to take the head-coaching job at Cal State Northridge, described in the reverent tones reserved for converts the virtually unstoppable offense his son was running at Granada Hills.

When Elway got the head-coaching job at San Jose State a couple of years later, he took Neumeier's offense with him. Shortly thereafter, Price got his first head-coaching job, at Weber State, and went 800 miles out of his way, from Ogden, Utah, to San Jose, to learn the Granada Hills offense.

Neumeier's brainchild is the pride of the Palouse now. The Cougars averaged 42.5 points a game during the regular season, with Leaf and his five primary receivers - Chris Jackson, Kevin McKenzie, Shawn McWashington, Nian Taylor and Shawn Tims - accounting for 186 of the team's 223 receptions and all but four of its 34 receiving scores.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr was the first to admit the Wolverines (11-0) haven't faced anything quite like the system the Highlanders' opponents once learned to loathe.

``We have not played a team with the great quarterback and the potential to put that many points on the board,'' Carr said last week.

Neumeier is eager to see how his offense fares against an aggressive Wolverines defense that is ranked No. 1 in the country against the pass. Under first-year defensive coordinator Jim Herrmann, the Wolverines have veered from the passive zone they employed during Bo Schembechler's long reign.

Taking advantage of their quickness and athleticism, the new-look Wolverines blitz on nearly every play and routinely change coverages right before the snap.

It should make for an entertaining game of chess Thursday between the Washington State offense and the Michigan defense. Not surprisingly, Neumeier likes the Cougars' chances for checkmate against cornerback Charles Woodson and Co.

``I want to tell you,'' Neumeier said, ``if Washington State is doing (my offense) properly, it'll kill Michigan with it.''

Neumeier talks football with an evangelist's fervor, his vivacity belying the fact he'll turn 79 next month. While his offense has spread far and wide, people remain cognizant of its roots.

Before Iowa's game against visiting Purdue on Nov. 1, Neumeier fielded a telephone call from a member of the Hawkeyes' coaching staff. The Boilermakers' first-year coach Joe Tiller had installed Neumeier's offense and the Hawkeyes assistant decided to go straight to the source for suggestions on how to stop it (We presume Neumeier was helpful; Iowa won 35-17).

Neumeier hasn't heard from anyone on the Wolverines' staff. Nor has he ever spoken to Price. He said he'd like to meet the Cougars' coach, though not in a setting with the pressure-packed Rose Bowl game as the backdrop.

``People don't like interference before a big game,'' explained Neumeier, who sat down and wrote Price a letter toward the end of the 1996 season, after watching the telecast of WSU's 38-14 loss to UCLA at the Rose Bowl.

In that game, Bruins safety Shaun Williams sacked Leaf for a 10-yard loss and practically pitched a tent in the Cougars' backfield. Neumeier had just the blocking scheme to prevent unwanted guests from hugging the quarterback - one he said he doesn't see used too often. He described it in detail for Price but never sent the letter, worried his words would be dismissed as the musings of a Monday morning coach.

Neumeier, who coached at Granada Hills from 1960-1978, continues to devour heaping helpings of football every weekend in the fall. A lot of what he sees looks as familiar as the palm of his hand.

It amuses Neumeier's first guinea pig, Potter, to see a college or pro team throw the ball out of the shotgun on first down or attempt 40 passes a game. The same things stirred critics when Neumeier introduced them to the City football scene.

``I had a lot of coaches tell me Coach Neumeier's offense would never work in college or the pros,'' Potter said. ``So it's hilarious for me to see how many teams are using it now. It's neat to see how his offense has evolved.''

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Photo

PHOTO JACK NEUMEIER

He revolutionized the passing game at Granada Hills with Dana Potter and John Elway.