FOOTBALL: SECOND WEEK
MICHIGAN STATE 21
STANFORD 7
The first half was as pretty a contest as you would want to see. As advertised, it was Michigan State's multiple offense against Stanford's aerial gyrations. First Michigan State crushed 65 yards in 14 plays and led 7-0 after 11 minutes of the first quarter. Then Stanford retaliated with 68 yards in 18 plays, including six completed passes and two runs when Quarterback John Brodie was unable to get the ball away. And so, after eight minutes of the second quarter it was 7-7, and thus it stayed until half time.
The second half was a different story altogether. Brodie, who had been stunned by some hard tackling late in the first half, was missing from the Stanford lineup. For that matter, Walt Kowalczyk, State's star left halfback who had broken a bone in his ankle during practice, was also out of the game. State fitted Substitute Dennis Mendyk smoothly into its multiple offense, but Stanford had no adequate replacement for Brodie. The Michigan team took the second-half kickoff, ground slowly for 68 yards against a furiously hitting Stanford defense. The deliberate march averaged only 3.7 yards per try and used up nine minutes 32 seconds. Finally, Fullback Don Gilbert dived a foot for the score. Stanford needed a Brodie here to get the touchdown back, but Reserve Quarterback Jack Douglas was no Brodie this day. Starting from the 18 after the kickoff, Douglas and Right Halfback Gordy Young crossed up a handoff and 225-pound Guard Ellison Kelly recovered for the Spartans on the Indian 18. It was easy from there. The State team punched six times at the Stanford line, with Jim Wullf going two yards over left guard for the ultimate touchdown.
TENNESSEE 35
AUBURN 7
Without Johnny Majors, Tennessee is a middling good football team. With him, the Volunteers are a very real threat to Georgia Tech and Mississippi in the race for the Southeast Conference championship. As Coach Bow-den Wyatt's men blasted bumbling Auburn 35-7 before 44,000 shirt-sleeved witnesses in Birmingham's Legion Field last Saturday, Majors was the whole show.
Playing only half the game, the talented triple-threat tailback accounted for half of Tennessee's net yardage. He ran for a total of 48 yards and one touchdown; passed for 118 and two other scores, completing eight of 11 throws.
But Johnny had some help too in this unexpectedly lopsided game. His line, though outweighed 18 pounds per man, opened up good holes in the Auburn defense by trapping the guards effectively. End Buddy Cruze was a deadly blocker and wizardly pass catcher, snagging Majors' soft floaters with defenders swarming all over him. On defense, Cruze spent most of the day in the Auburn back-field, along with Tackle John Gordy.
A Majors-Cruze pass led to the first score, with Majors hurdling the line for the final yard. With three minutes left in the half, Majors crossed Auburn beautifully. Facing a fourth-down-and-one situation on the Auburn 34, Johnny whipped a pass deep to Cruze, who outsprinted the amazed secondary to score. With 26 seconds to go before half time, Majors threw seven yards to End Ed Cantrell, after Gordy had grabbed an Auburn fumble. Speedy Fullback Tom Bronson twisted a final yard to a touchdown in the third period to make it 28-0 after Majors had set up the score.
GEORGIA TECH 9
SOUTHERN METHODIST 7
You could hear the licks out there tonight," drawled Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Dodd, affable and satisfied with his team's 9-7 win over the rambunctious Mustangs in the Cotton Bowl last Saturday. "I knew they'd be up for this one. All week long, I've been telling our boys they'd have to play 30% better than they did against Kentucky, or they'd get licked."
It was Tech's tremendous team speed, especially in getting five blockers (three backs and two guards) ahead of the ball carrier on wide sweeps, that gave the Rambling Wreck the edge. They were off to an early lead when Guard Don Miller crashed through to block an SMU punt for a safety. They put together a drive in the third quarter which ground out 72 yards in 10 plays, featuring a 32-yard burst on one of those potent wide sweeps by Thompson—who at 5 foot 5½ inches was the smallest man on the field—which set up his score a moment later from the four-yard line. Their line—led by Miller, Tackle Ormand Anderson and Guard Allen Ecker—jammed the Mustang middle. Quarterback Wade Mitchell, in addition to superlative defensive work and a cool command of the game, set up many good gains with the kind of resounding blocks that could get him drummed out of the T quarterbacks' union.
This SMU team should surprise nobody from here on. The line is big, fast and tough; they gave as good as they got against Tech's veterans. The backs are fast, skillful and elusive, although lacking in power. Arnold has developed into a resourceful leader and a devastating passer. It is hard to explain, concedes Coach Woody Woodard, how it all happened at once. He shrugs off questions with a grin: "Just a green bunch of kids, who want to play good real bad, and have come along fast."
PITTSBURGH 14
SYRACUSE 7
Ted Daily, Syracuse line coach, corrected a reporter gently Friday afternoon as the team loosened up on the thick grass of Pitt Stadium. The reporter had referred to the short side of Syracuse's unbalanced line as the "weak" side. "Call it the short side," said Dailey, who learned his football as an end on one of Jock Sutherland's old Pitt single wing powerhouses. "That's what Jock called it. It's not weak." Syracuse's short side attack off the split-T accounted in large measure for its upset of Maryland (26-12) in its opening game a fortnight ago.
John Michelosen, the Pitt coach, learned his football under Sutherland, too. It was clear last Saturday afternoon that he had not underestimated the power of Syracuse to the short side. The Pitt defense was deployed with a concentration of manpower on the flanks. The center of the line was left to the resources of a hefty trio of Middle Guard Ron Kissel (229) and Tackles Jim McCusker (245) and Herman Canil (220). Syracuse finally sent their big Jim Brown up the middle, but too late.
Pitt, blocking with the power of a single wing team and passing with sparing wisdom, won 14-7. Jim Theodore, a 179-pound junior halfback, followed some mighty precise blocking for 91 yards in 11 carries, gaining 35 of the 39-yard march for Pitt's first touchdown, scored by Corny Salvaterra on a quarterback sneak; for the clincher, Darrell Lewis, a left-handed passer, hit the celebrated end, Joe Walton, with a 19-yard scoring pass. The Syracuse touchdown came when Ed Coffin intercepted a Lewis pass with a fine one-handed stab, returned 55 yards for a touchdown behind End Dick Lasse's take-out block on Lewis. All in all, a tight well-played ball game that moved Pitt over the second barricade on its imposing schedule.
OKLAHOMA 36
NORTH CAROLINA O
Oklahoma upended North Carolina in its first 1956 outing for their 31st straight win since 1953. Sooner Quarterback Jay O'Neal (17) leaves a path of destruction in his wake as he crosses goal line for Oklahoma's first touchdown in the second period at Norman. Unneeded escort is Fullback Dennit Morris (51) who came up to block after O'Neal had taken a lateral from Dave Baker and scooted around the left end. Play carried 17 yards, was first of three Oklahoma touchdowns in the quarter.
IOWA 27
INDIANA O
In the lone Big Ten curtain raiser, Iowa's Hawkeyes displayed their brand-new offense—a balanced-line wing T. They have been studying under Coach Forest Evasheski. A bit ragged at times, Iowa still retained ball control throughout much of the game and gained 242 yards on the ground. Here Halfback Bill Happel (40) picks up four yards behind Guard Frank Bloomquist (64), while Halfback Don Dobrino takes out Indiana's Delnor Gales with a "holding" block that could be called "holding."
PHOTO
COACH DAUGHERTY
TWO PHOTOS
THE ELEVEN BEST TO DATE
Georgia Tech
Miami
Michigan State
Michigan
Mississippi
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Southern California
Pittsburgh
Tennessee
Texas Christian
BIOPERSE: DUFFY DAUGHERTY
At forty-one, Michigan State's Hugh Duffy Daugherty is a coach in the Knute Rockne mold.... Like Rockne, Daugherty has a big grin, a gift for story-telling and an impressive habit of winning.... Duffy grew up in Barnesboro, Pa. and football was drilled into him early.... He likes to tell about his father, who started out as a coal miner and played quarterback on several club teams. "We used to practice our tackling," the elder Daugherty sternly taught his son, "by diving over a coal cart after a rat. If we didn't get hold of both hind legs we weren't any good."...Duffy worked in a shirt factory, later in the mines; not until he was 21 was he able to enter Syracuse, where he starred in the line.... After time out for World War II (including 27 months in New Guinea and a Bronze Star) Daugherty hooked up with his old Syracuse line coach, Biggy Munn, succeeded Biggy at Michigan State two seasons ago.... A seemingly relaxed figure during a game, given to munching apples on the bench, Duffy is an exacting perfectionist in drills. "Growl at 'em!" he commands his linemen. After a practice that fails to satisfy him, he tells them: "Now we're going to run you, run you, run you." And up and down the field his players go, in gasping wind sprints, while Duffy cries, "Dig it! Dig it! Dig it!"...This kind of training paid off for Michigan State in their 8-1 season last year, culminated by victory in the Rose Bowl last January when Dave Kaiser, a junior end, place kicked a 41-yard field goal with seven seconds to go.... Kaiser showed up for practice this fall justifiably entitled to team admiration.
Duffy made sure his boy didn't lose perspective. "Golden Toe," Duffy saluted him. "Hey, Golden Toe, you think you can hold on to a pass?"