FOOTBALL'S WEEK
THE WEST
THE TOP THREE: 1. WASHINGTON (2-0-1) 2. USC (3-0) 3. UCLA (1-0)
Three unforgettable goal-line stands, each repulsing first-ranked Ohio State at the one-yard line, earned UCLA a 9—7 victory and one of the biggest upsets in West Coast football history. The Bruin offense operated only in the first 30 seconds, when Halfback Kermit Alexander broke 45 yards to a touchdown, and in the last seven minutes, when sophomore Quarterback Larry Zeno came off the bench to lead UCLA's only other venture into Buckeye territory. Zeno kicked the winning field goal from the 14 and the UCLA defense was magnificent beyond the telling of it. A fumble set up Alexander's run. A second fumble, recovered by Tackles Dave Gibbs and Phil Oram, stopped OSU on the one-yard line. "We thought our team was pretty good until this afternoon," said Woody Hayes. Then, slowly, he added, "A team of mine has never been stopped that many times before."
Pitt Quarterback Jim Traficant passed for three touchdowns and scored a fourth against California, and the Panthers needed all the points to beat Cal 26-24. Behind 19-7 in the third period of a seemingly hopeless game, California produced a new face, Quarterback Larry Balliett, who completed 13 of 25 passes. Stanford, perhaps a bit self-satisfied over last week's upset of Michigan State, was given a bad case of indigestion by Oregon State, 27-0. Beaver Quarterback Terry Baker kept for two touchdowns and completed 11 passes.
While San Jose was playing Oregon, Oregon may have been playing its next seven opponents mentally. Oregon won by only 14—0 and fumbled seven times. By dint of considerable effort, Washington kept its score down to 41-0 over embarrassed Kansas State.
Between Wyoming's "jitterbug" line and its own jittery backfield, Utah was lucky to lose by only 16-7. The final score of the BYU-Colorado State game was Eldon Fortie 28, CSU 7 as BYU's national rushing leader romped to three fourth-quarter touchdowns. Utah State mistreated Montana State College 41-13.
THE MIDWEST
THE TOP THREE: 1. PURDUE (1-0-1) 2. OHIO STATE (1-1) 3. NEBRASKA (3-0)
The Big Ten came away from its two games with Pacific Coast teams empty-handed and badly bruised. UCLA's victory over Ohio State was the upset of the week and Southern California's 7—0 defeat of Iowa marked the first time the Hawkeyes had been shut out at home in 10 years. Iowa outrushed and outpassed the Trojans, but improvidently handed the ball away seven times. USC, following an Iowa fumble, produced the only score of the game as swift sophomore Halfback Ron Heller skipped 19 yards for a first-quarter touchdown.
Elsewhere the Western Conference was its good old formidable self. Purdue whacked Notre Dame 24—6, Minnesota shut out weak Navy 21-Oat Minneapolis, Michigan, at home, beat favored Army 17—7, and Michigan State routed North Carolina 38-6 at East Lansing.
A record South Bend crowd of 61,296 saw Purdue's power game and the passing of Ron DiGravio maintain the Boilermakers' mastery over the Irish. Notre Dame has not beaten Purdue in South Bend since 1951. While Quarterback Duane Blaska kept the Gophers' attack rolling with sharp passes over Navy's tightly packed defenses, Minnesota blanked the frustrated Middies with vicious defensive line play that held them to minus 31 yards on the ground.
Wolverine Coach Bump Elliott matched Paul Dietzel's Cadets platoon for platoon and beat Army at its own three-team game. Michigan's defensive unit, the Raiders, held Army to 128 yards offensively. North Carolina stumbled into the Big Ten's lair again and was chewed up for the second week in a row as the Spartans' tiny sophomore Halfback Ron Rubick ripped off 207 yards and three touchdowns. In two intraleague routs offensive-minded Northwestern defeated Illinois 45-0, and Wisconsin unleashed another speedy backfield, a tight defense and giant (6-foot-6) End Pat Richter (five catches, one score) in a 30-6 defeat of Indiana.
At Lincoln, Nebraska's 6-foot-3 junior Quarterback Denny Claridge kept the Cornhuskers' record clean, accounting for four touchdowns (three sneaks, one pass) in a 36-22 rout of Iowa State. At Lawrence, Kansas Coach Jack Mitchell checked Colorado's passing attack with 7-4, 4-7 defenses and smothered Colorado with a second-half surge, 35-8. Arizona tried to stifle Missouri's powerful running attack with an eight-man line, but could generate no attack of its own and lost at Columbia 17-7.
THE SOUTHWEST
THE TOP THREE: 1. TEXAS (3-0) 2. ARKANSAS (3-0) 3. NEW MEXICO (3-1)
Despite an unfamiliar adherence to form, there was still some queasiness in the easily disturbed Southwest Conference. Although Texas ran over Tulane 35-8, the Longhorns were understandably worried about Arkansas after the lively Porkers whomped TCU 42-14. But for sheer thrills, the big game was at College Station, where Texas A&M and Texas Tech played fitfully without a score for 59 minutes and 40 seconds. Then Tech's H.L. Daniels kicked a 16-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead. However, A&M's Dan McIlhany ran back the kickoff 102 yards for a touchdown (with two seconds to go) and the Aggies won 7-3.
For a half, visiting Penn State was up to its ears in trouble against Rice. Sophomore Walt McReynolds pitched the Owls into a 7-6 lead and the Nittany Lions were huffing and puffing in the 97% humidity at Houston before they became acclimated. Then their big, fierce line began to harry McReynolds into misses and Fullback Dave Hayes scored twice as State won 18-7.
New Mexico's bubble burst against Texas Western and the jittery Lobos went down 16-14. Arizona State got a look—but only a fleeting look—at Washington State's Hugh Campbell, who snared five passes for an NCAA career record (136) as the Cougars came from behind to get a 24-24 tie.
THE SOUTH
THE TOP THREE: 1. ALABAMA (3-0) 2. LSU (2-0-1) 3. GEORGIA TECH (2-1)
When rookie Coach Charlie McClendon took over from Paul Dietzel at LSU, he was reminded that his predecessor had left behind enough talent to win the Southeastern Conference title. For a while McClendon wasn't sure, but last Saturday he found out. With typical LSU persistence, his Bengals squeezed Georgia Tech dry with a tight 5-4-2 defense, unloaded just enough careful offense to bother the Jackets and beat them 10-7. Halfback Jerry Stovall, executing a beautiful hand-off fake perfectly, returned the second-half kickoff 98 yards to put LSU ahead 7-0, but Tech, with Quarterback Billy Lothridge passing, moved 73 yards in nine plays, the last one a 10-yard pitch to Billy Martin for the tying touchdown. Then, with 4:22 to play, Lynn Amadee kicked a 24-yard field goal for the victory.
The race, however, isn't over yet. Unbeaten Alabama and Mississippi are still very much in the running, although Vanderbilt gave 'Bama some anxious moments until brilliant sophomore Joe Namath pitched two touchdown passes for a 17-7 victory. Ole Miss was more proficient, walloping Houston 40-7. In other SEC games, Mississippi State astonished Tennessee 7-6 on Sammy Dantone's placement kick and Auburn plodded past Kentucky 16-6.
Florida, surprisingly, found some passers to go with its fine runners and had Duke down 21-0 at half time. But Duke Quarterbacks Walt Rappold and Gil Garner, doing some fancy chucking of their own in the second half, led the team to 28 points in less than 15 minutes, pulled the game out, 28-21. Miami had a closer call. Ambitious Florida State gave the Hurricanes fits with a new double-wing attack. Miami, fortunately, had George Mira to throw a touchdown pass while the Seminoles, who fumbled away several opportunities, had only Doug Messer to kick field goals. Final score: 7-6.
Meanwhile, there was plenty of competition building up for Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Maryland ambled past North Carolina State 14-7 for its third straight and Clemson had an easy time beating Wake Forest 24-7. Only South Carolina had trouble. The Gamecocks were tied by Georgia 7-7.
THE EAST
THE TOP THREE: 1. PENN STATE (3-0) 2. PITT (2-1) 3. BOSTON COLLEGE (3-0) and ARMY (2-1)
While Penn State and Pitt were showing off their muscles (and Army and Navy were getting theirs trimmed) on foreign turf, other Eastern independents looked good. Boston College, after some frustrating early moments against VMI, shook loose Halfback Pete Shaughnessy for 62 yards on the old Statue of Liberty play, then added two more touchdowns on Quarterback Jack Concannon's flicking short passes to beat the Keydets 18-0. Holy Cross was far from uneasy when its usually potent passing attack failed against Colgate. The Crusaders simply gave the ball to fourth-string Fullback Carl Pellegrini and he led them to a 22-0 victory. Villanova made Buffalo pay dearly for some early stubbornness, shaking loose for three scores in the final 16 minutes to win 36-6. However, Rutgers, unbeaten last year, was still without a victory. Connecticut crunched to a fourth-quarter touchdown to upset the Scarlet 15-9.
It didn't take long for last year's Ivy League co-champions to learn the hard facts of life. Despite the abundant talents of sophomore Quarterback Archie Roberts, who passed and ran superbly most of the time, Columbia was no match for Princeton. The Tigers, with the kind of depth that wins titles, sent 18 tailbacks, wing-backs and fullbacks, six in each position, charging inside and outside the weary and inadequate Lion defenders and won easily 33-0. Harvard fell behind Cornell, then tried to scramble back but a last-play field goal failed by a foot and the Crimson lost 14-12. Dartmouth smothered Penn with a withering defense and whipped the helpless Quakers 17-0 while Yale needed a pair of 33-yard field goals by Wally Grant to earn a 6-6 tie with improved Brown.
PHOTO
BACK OF THE WEEK: Nebraska Quarterback Denny Claridge (left) scored three touchdowns, passed for another against Iowa State.
PHOTO
LINEMAN OF THE WEEK: UCLA's Johnny Walker excelled as middle linebacker and guard, was key to defense that upset Ohio State.
SATURDAY'S TOUGH ONES
Penn State over Army. State is just too big and strong for the hustling Cadets.
Pitt over West Virginia. But Only after a struggle. The Mountaineers are tough.
LSU over Miami. LSU's running and careful defense will prevail over Mira's passing.
Duke over California. Chastened by USC, the Blue Devils aim to get even against Cal.
Michigan State over Michigan. The bigger Spartans will chew up the faster Wolverines.
Northwestern over Minnesota. Close, but Tom Myers' passes should carry the day.
Wisconsin over Notre Dame. The Old Badger passing game is as potent as ever.
Texas over Oklahoma. The Scattery-legged Texans will run the Sooners bowlegged.
Utah State over New Mexico A real test for the Aggies, but they are up to it.
Washington over Oregon State. Baker will trouble the Huskies—but not for long.
OTHER GAMES
BOSTON COLLEGE OVER SYRACUSE
CLEMSON OVER GEORGIA
FLORIDA OVER TEXAS A&M
GEORGIA TECH OVER TENNESSEE
HOLY CROSS OVER HARVARD
KANSAS OVER IOWA STATE
MARYLAND OVER NORTH CAROLINA
OREGON OVER RICE
STANFORD OVER WASHINGTON STATE
WAKE FOREST OVER SOUTH CAROLINA
LAST WEEK'S PREDICTIONS
13 RIGHT, 7 WRONG
SEASONS RECORD: 38-18-4