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THE WEEK
SOUTHWEST
1. TEXAS (2-0)
2. RICE (2-0-1)
3. ARKANSAS (2-1)
"We've waited three years for this game," said Texas Tech Coach Jim Carlen at a pep rally Friday night in Lubbock. "We're going to show those Longhorns what it's all about." Standard pep-rally bombast, of course, but the Red Raiders almost made it come true the next night. Before 52,187 fans, including Lyndon Johnson, Texas got a scare before going home a 25-20 winner, thanks mostly to its powerful blocking. "The difference was their offensive line," said Carlen. The defense wasn't bad, either, holding Tech's George Smith to 44 yards in nine carries and stifling just about everything else Tech tried except field goals: Don Grimes tied a conference record by booting four, the longest from 37 yards out. The Raiders' only touchdown came on a pass with seven seconds left.
To avenge last year's one-point upset loss, Arkansas wanted to turn the Tulsa Golden Hurricane into a cool draft, but the Hogs were behind 20-14 after three quarters and had not put on a good drive in nine possessions. Then Quarterback Joe Ferguson led an 80-yard touchdown march and freshman Mike Kirkland kicked the winning extra point. Furious at the officiating, Tulsa Coach Claude Gibson shoved a referee twice after the game and had to be restrained. "As usual, I think the Razorbacks got an outstanding job from the officials," Gibson said. In a battle between Nebraska victims, Army upset Texas A&M 24-14, helped by a rash of penalties, interceptions and fumbles.
EAST
1. PENN STATE (2-1)
2. WEST VIRGINIA (3-1)
3. NAVY (2-1)
The largest home crowd in Penn State history, 58,065 potential cardiac arrests, saw the shaky Lions put on another of their scary finishes. Trailing underdog Iowa 10-7 with 3:01 remaining, Penn State put the ball in play on its own 20 after a Hawkeye kickoff. Nine plays later, with only 36 seconds left, Quarterback John Hufnagel dropped back to pass. Under a heavy rush he lost sight of Receiver Dan Natale, started to sprint outside, then found Natale all alone in a corner of the end zone and hit him with a 10-yard pass for the winning touchdown. "It was well executed," said Iowa Coach Frank Lauterbur. "We had man-to-man coverage and when Hufnagel started to run, we just lost Natale on the outside." The game marked the third straight time Penn State has been scoreless in the first half.
"We didn't even score against the scrubs during the week," joked Navy Coach Rick Forzano, but the Middies did far better than that in Annapolis Saturday, beating Boston College 27-20 before a rain-dampened homecoming crowd. Navy's kicking game was excellent. Roger Lanning had 33- and 39-yard field goals and John Stufflebeem saw three of his punts roll dead inside the BC six-yard line. While BC's Phil Bennett was being held to 64 yards in 20 carries, Navy's Dan Howard rushed for 239 yards and scored two touchdowns.
In the Ivy League, Penn played at home under lights for the first time and made a party of it, smashing Lafayette 55-12. It was the most points scored by the Quakers since 1947. Columbia played a New York City opponent for the first time in 47 years, rolling over Fordham 44-0. Dartmouth beat New Hampshire 24-14, Cornell beat Colgate 37-7 and Princeton edged Rutgers 7-6 in the last minute. Harvard and Brown lost to Yankee Conference teams Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Bates College of Maine earned itself an unwanted place in the record books by losing its 23rd consecutive game, this time to Tufts 20-7. Bates won its first three games in 1969 but dropped the next five that year and has gone winless since. The old New England record was held by the Coast Guard Academy. Maryland drove to the Syracuse three with less than a minute left, but the Terrapins had no Hufnagel and could not score. Syracuse held on to win 16-12.
MIDWEST
1. OKLAHOMA (3-0)
2. OHIO STATE (2-0)
3. NOTRE DAME (2-0)
First-string Quarterback Ken Johnson saw only limited action because of the death of his father earlier in the week, but it is doubtful if anything could have helped Colorado in Stillwater on Saturday. The Oklahoma State Cowboys, one-point losers to Arkansas the previous week and all but forgotten in their own state, took a 21-0 lead in the first half and went on to beat the Buffaloes 31-6. JC transfer Alton Gerard, who didn't start, scored three touchdowns and Quarterback Brent Blackman did a nice job of directing the Wishbone attack in the Big Eight opener for both teams. When a three-touchdown favorite loses by 25 points, excuses are meaningless and Colorado Coach Eddie Crowder didn't try to peddle any. "OSU is for real," he said. Answered OSU Coach Dave Smith, "We did a lot of things and we did them good."
One of the good things was stopping Colorado's runners, including Charlie Davis, for most of the game. Colorado fumbled 10 times to Oklahoma State's one. Davis finally got going—or his line started blocking—in the third quarter and his runs were the big factor in the Buffs' lone scoring drive.
In Lincoln a record crowd of 76,217 was entertained by the antics of Nebraska and its star Johnny Rodgers. The Cornhuskers rolled over Minnesota 49-0 and fleet Johnny got a pair of touchdowns, one on a 64-yard punt return. He enjoyed it so much that he strutted the last 10 yards backward. Later he admitted he had planned it. "I decided I'd do it on my first punt return [for a score] this year. I wanted to do something different and I couldn't think of anyone ever doing that." There are many things Rodgers has done that nobody has done before, at least nobody at Nebraska. His two scores made him the school's alltime touchdown producer (35 in three seasons), his seven catches made him the first Big Eight player to pass 2,000 yards on pass receptions and his 12 points put him just one short of the school career record set by Bobby Reynolds 20 years ago.
Sophomore Tom Clements, who was unspectacular as a passer in Notre Dame's opener, hit 17 of 24, including scoring plays of 39 and 62 yards, as the Fighting Irish beat Purdue 35-14. When Clements wasn't passing or running himself, he was handing off to another sophomore, Eric Penick, who gained 133 yards in 12 carries, despite sitting out about 20 minutes because of a minor injury. Greg Marx, Steve Niehaus and the rest of the Irish defense chased Purdue Quarterback Gary Danielson all afternoon.
The nation's sixth- and seventh-ranking passers, Florida State's Gary Huff and Kansas' David Jaynes, dueled in Lawrence, and the two of them flung a total of 75 passes. Huff's flings were more effective in a 44-22 win for the unbeaten Seminoles. He had four touchdown passes in the first half. Kansas dominated only at the start when sophomore Flanker Ken Saathoff, a fine-arts major who keeps a piano in his room, sang The Star-Spangled Banner with the band, then went out and caught a pass for a 34-yard gain.
Michigan was worried about its ailing defense, but two quick, alert plays by Wolverine defenders broke open the game against Tulane. Randy Logan intercepted a pass and ran it back 32 yards for a touchdown. Then sophomore Gil Chapman zipped 49 yards with a punt for the third TD of the first quarter and Michigan could have waltzed the rest of the way. The Wolverines won 41-7 and Ed Shuttlesworth ran for three touchdowns. Coach Bo Schembechler gave out with the kind of statistic all coaches love: "We've won three games because we've turned the ball over only once on a fumble or interception."
Oklahoma continued its stampede, overwhelming Clemson 52-3 as Greg Pruitt ran for three touchdowns. The Sooners have yet to give up a touchdown themselves in three games, and now they have two weeks to get ready for the renewal of the rivalry with Texas in Dallas. Missouri and Cal battled in a strange game featuring second-stringers. Cal Quarterback Jay Cruze took over for sophomore Steve Bartkowski late in the second quarter and almost won the game for the Bears by passing for four TDs and 354 yards. But the Tigers had a bench, too. Sophomore Ray Bybee, in there because the regular fullback was hurt, rushed for 185 yards, and sub Chuck Link scored three touchdowns as Missouri won 34-27.
Toledo lost its first Mid-American Conference game in three years, 38-22, to Ohio U. Ohio's Tim Worner ran for 252 yards. San Diego State stayed undefeated by beating Kent State 14-0, the second-straight shutout for the Aztecs. Kansas State beat previously unbeaten Tampa 31-7, and Cincinnati beat Villanova 14-7.
SOUTH
1. LSU (3-0)
2. ALABAMA (3-0)
3. AUBURN (3-0)
Auburn threw only four passes against Tennessee, completing one for 10 yards, which is not much from the school that gave us Pat Sullivan-to-Terry Beasley as a steady Saturday diet. But the Tigers knew what they were doing. They stuck to a sound running game and good kicking, forced the Volunteers to commit four turnovers and shocked Tennessee with the South's first big upset of the season 10-6. On Auburn's grinding 81-yard touchdown drive, senior Tailback Terry Henley ran the ball on 11 of the 15 plays, the last 10 in a row. Gardner Jett kicked a field goal from the 20-yard line after Defensive End Danny Sanspree recovered a fumble, and with that 10-0 lead the Tigers turned even more conservative and held on. Said Auburn Coach Shug Jordan, "After we took the ball and rammed it down their throats on our touchdown drive, we were determined that from then on Tennessee would have to beat us. We weren't going to beat ourselves."
"A lot of people didn't think we could win after losing Sullivan and Beasley, so I guess we'll just have to whip everybody and show them," said Henley, now the SEC's leading rusher. "We're one big happy family. We live together, eat together and sleep together and we're gonna win together."
LSU's swarming defense frustrated Wisconsin and made Rufus (Roadrunner) Ferguson think he was knee-deep in a bayou as the Tigers won their third straight home game 27-7. Wisconsin converted only two of its 13 third downs in the game, and Ferguson, who got two TD's against LSU last year, gained only 63 yards in 17 carries. Except for one long touchdown-pass play, Wisconsin never got past its own 36 in the second half. Quarterbacks Bert Jones and Paul Lyons each threw for LSU touchdowns, and a nonscholarship player, Juan Roca, kicked a school-record 52-yard field goal, the first one he had tried from any distance in college football.
Alabama stomped on Vanderbilt as usual 48-21, but Coach Bear Bryant was not overjoyed, also as usual. "I don't know how good we are," he said. "We don't have a good team yet. We do too many things poorly. We're not aggressive and we're terrible on kick coverage." The Tide's Wishbone, run by Quarterback Terry Davis for only two periods, rolled out 369 yards on the ground, with 11 different backs sharing in the yardage.
Undefeated Rice, perhaps miffed that it had been made a 10-point underdog to once-beaten Georgia Tech, seemed to be in fine shape when Mark Williams kicked a 47-yard field goal with 6:43 remaining. The kick gave the Owls an eight-point lead, 36-28. But they had not been able to stop Georgia Tech Quarterback Eddie McAshan all day and they couldn't at the end. The senior signal caller from Gainesville, Fla. put the Engineers on the scoreboard again with his fifth touchdown pass of the day and then, with 17 seconds left, hit Jim Owings for a two-point conversion and a tie, 36-36. Tech's final scoring drive, helped by a pass interference penalty, covered 61 yards in seven plays. McAshan ended the day with 23 completions in 38 attempts for 371 yards. He now has 24 career TD passes, breaking the record held since 1946 by Frank Broyles, now head coach at Arkansas. The finish hardly pleased Rice Coach Al Conover, who felt the interference penalty was "a rotten call." Not only that but he tried to break up an end-of-game fight and came out of the scuffle with a split lip.
Horace King became the first black ever to score a touchdown for Georgia in the Bulldogs' 28-22 win over North Carolina State in Athens. His catch during another drive was a key play leading to a TD. In Blacksburg, the Strock brothers, Don and Dave, led Virginia Tech to a 13-10 intersectional win over SMU and the Gobblers' first victory in three games. Don threw a TD pass and Dave kicked two field goals. Sophomore Nat Moore ran for two touchdowns and had a 95-yard kickoff return called back because of a penalty in Florida's 28-13 win over Mississippi State. Duke won its first game in four tries, whipping ACC rival Virginia 37-13, and South Carolina also made it to the winner's circle for the first time in 1972, beating Memphis State 34-7.
Face-mask penalties, fumbles and other such nonsense marred Indiana's 35-34 win over Kentucky in Lexington, but there were some good performances. Glenn Scolnik caught three touchdown passes for the Hoosiers, and Chris Gartner twice broke the Indiana school record for field-goal distances, first 51 yards, then 52.
WEST
1. USC (4-0)
2. WASHINGTON (4-0)
3. STANFORD (3-0)
Wyoming had given up 97 points to Air Force and Kansas, so when Woody Green and his Arizona State teammates arrived in Laramie the predictions were for a massacre, or worse. ASU was after its fourth straight Western Athletic Conference championship and it seemed the Cowboys might as well forfeit and save some hospital bills. But they chose to play instead and amazed their fans and themselves by beating the Sun Devils 45-43 in what was probably the biggest upset in the 11-year history of the wacky WAC. The chief engineer was Steve Cockreham, a 169-pound quarterback from Lusk, Wyo., whose passing and running accounted for 280 yards and four TDs. Green was all he was supposed to be for ASU, running for four touchdowns and nearly 200 yards in a game that seemed to ignore defense as well as reason. "Give Wyoming credit, they deserved the win," said irate ASU Coach Frank Kush. "As coaches, we did a lousy job preparing our guys for this game."
"You must remember when one team is hitting another team like we were hitting Michigan State—from all angles and all sides—they are going to cough up the football," said USC Coach John McKay. Cough the Spartans did—five times, plus three interceptions—and USC blitzed Michigan State 51-6. "We beat a good team," McKay insisted. "And we played a great defensive game, maybe the best defense in a long time."
UCLA pounded Oregon 65-20 and riled Duck Coach Dick Enright even more by trying two onside kicks after accumulating more than 50 points. Enright said Bruin Kicker Efren Herrera came up to him on the field afterward and apologized. "He said he was told by the coaches to kick them," said Enright, "but he didn't want to." UCLA Coach Pepper Rodgers insisted one was a flubbed kick and the other a squib that didn't squib. No apologies were needed for the fine play by Defensive End Fred McNeill (seven unassisted tackles and a blocked field-goal attempt).
Sonny Sixkiller had a good game despite three interceptions and quarterbacked Washington to a 31-11 victory over Illinois. The Huskies got ahead 17-0 and used subs regularly in the second half. Stanford set up the first Pacific Eight game of the season by holding off previously unbeaten West Virginia 41-35. This week Stanford hosts USC.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
BACK OF THE WEEK: Wyoming Quarterback Steve Cockreham, a 169-pounder from Lusk, Wyo., led the charge against favored Arizona State with 177 yards in 37 carries, five of 13 passes for 103 yards and four touchdowns.
LINEMAN OF THE WEEK: Defensive End James Sims of USC, who is a junior-college transfer, cracked Michigan State's Wishbone. He made five unaided tackles, helped on six others, recovered two fumbles and deflected a pass.
