
THE WEEK
WEST
1. USC (1-0)
2. ARIZONA STATE (1-0)
3. UCLA (0-1)
USC Coach John McKay showed up for a press conference last Tuesday looking like a human torch: he wore a pink shirt, maroon slacks and a jacket of assorted shades of red. On Saturday, despite beating Arkansas 17-0, it was McKay's words that were hot. He stood with one foot on a chair, clutched his cigar and said, "We were kicked around in every department. There were no bright spots. If you're not ready for the first game after practicing all spring and all fall, then you must be awfully stupid."
Among the things that angered McKay were 10 penalties, two of which erased long touchdown runs by Lynn Swann. It also displeased him that even though both his lines outweighed the Razorbacks by about 40 pounds per man they had difficulty wearing down Arkansas. It was not until the closing seconds of the first half that Anthony Davis slipped in for a touchdown to put the defending national champions ahead 7-0.
But McKay could find little fault with Quarterback Pat Haden, who made good on 12 of 20 passes for 143 yards and scored from 14 yards out on a broken pass play. He also could not complain about Chris Limahelu, a 5'5" Indonesian who transferred to USC from Citrus JC. Kicking soccer-style, he booted a 22-yard field goal. And the defense must have done something right; it held Arkansas scoreless for the first time in 73 games.
"It seems to be a historical thing at Arizona State that once we get ahead we have a lapse in the defensive line," said Frank Kush, coach of the Sun Devils. This time the letdown came when State led Oregon 26-14 with 3:32 to play. Second-string Quarterback Herb Singleton took the Ducks 80 yards in 10 plays, completing seven of eight passes along the way. Then, with the score 26-20 and 42 seconds remaining, Oregon recovered an onside kick at the Arizona State 43 and Kush really was squirming. Singleton got the Ducks to the 28, but time ran out.
For the first time since 1934, when Hawaii beat California 14-0, the Rainbows defeated a big-time West Coast team, dumping Washington 10-7 on a 27-yard field goal by Reinhold Stuprich and a touchdown pass by Casey Ortez.
MIDWEST
1. MICHIGAN (1-0)
2. OHIO STATE (1-0)
3. NOTRE DAME (0-0)
Late in the fourth period of Michigan's 31-7 victory over Iowa, sportswriters predicted that Wolverine Coach Bo Schembechler would find plenty wrong with his team's performance. Chuck Heater had gained 133 yards rushing and Ed Shuttlesworth had added 88 to a total of 440, but everyone was certain that Bo, as usual, would find flaws. After all, he had predicted his team would come out passing, yet it had thrown just eight times and completed only two. Surely that would be one item he could dwell on. But after leading his players through several choruses of Hail to the Victors Valiant and a few cheers Schembechler opened the clubhouse door and was all smiles. And then he compounded this surprise by saying he had an announcement to make before he would answer any questions. Said Bo: "I want you to know this is a good passing team, the best I've had at Michigan. I know you guys are saying, 'What is this guy talking about; Michigan looked terrible passing.' But I assure you—and our future opponents—we will pass." That was the most stunning development of the first week of Big Ten play.
Woody Hayes was ecstatic, too, as well he should have been after Ohio State had worked over supposedly rugged Minnesota 56-7. A majority of the 95 Buckeyes saw action as the team gained 457 yards. With Tackle John Hicks clearing the way Harold (Champ) Henson, who led the country with 20 touchdowns a year ago, scored three times. Archie Griffin augmented his 129 yards rushing with a 93-yard kickoff return for a TD. "They're no longer three yards and a cloud of dust," lamented Minnesota Coach Cal Stoll. "Now they're 12 yards and a mass of humanity."
All week Lee Corso urged Indiana rooters to arrive early for his Big Ten coaching debut against Illinois. Thirty minutes before game time most of the 51,433 spectators were seated. About the only ones not at the stadium by then were Corso and his team. It seems that while he and his Hoosiers were on their way there aboard three buses, one of them a red double-decker the alumni bought in London, Corso had everyone unload and limber up on a practice field. No harm done, except that when everyone got back aboard the buses the traffic was so badly snarled that the team did not arrive at the stadium until a couple of minutes before kickoff time. But after wending their way through swarms of musicians there for Band Day the Hoosiers went right out and took a 7-0 lead. From there on, though, they looked a little carsick, giving up four fumbles, four interceptions and losing 28-14.
Stan Key workhorsed his way for 107 yards in 31 carries and Mitch Anderson, who throws while leaning on his back foot, got off a 10-yard touchdown pass as Northwestern contributed to the further decline of Michigan State 14-10. A missed extra point by Wisconsin let Purdue win 14-13, but Olympic track man Larry Burton was also instrumental in the result, latching on to passes of 47 and 22 yards during an 89-yard drive that set up the winning touchdown.
"We've got a team good enough to beat anybody in the country," said Tommy Reamon, a running back for Missouri. Then he went out and scored twice in 3:43 on a four-yard ramble and on a 70-yard scamper as the Tigers throttled Mississippi 17-0. Reamon contributed 106 yards in 13 rushes and Leroy Moss carried the ball 86 yards in 25 attempts as he made effective use of trap plays.
Kansas and Washington State waged combat for almost three hours before the Jay-hawks wrapped up a 29-8 victory. One thing that slowed the game down was the total of 281 yards in penalties. Cornerbacks Kurt Knoff, Eddie Lewis and James Bowman, with the aid of Safety Rocky Bron, came up fast to cut off State sweeps, and the Cougars were also contained by End Dean Zook, who jarred them with 13 tackles, recovered a fumble and three times dumped Cougar runners for losses.
Oklahoma State went on its biggest scoring rampage in 27 years, downing Texas-Arlington 56-7. Another Oklahoma-based team, Tulsa, did some prolific scoring, too, putting it to West Texas State 48-3.
Louisiana Tech, a college division powerhouse that compiled a 12-0 record last season, had its 14-game winning streak ended by Eastern Michigan 21-19.
SOUTHWEST
1. TEXAS (0-0)
2. HOUSTON (1-0)
3. SMU (1-0)
Oklahoma took the field with a new coach (Barry Switzer) and a new quarterback (Steve Davis), and when the Sooners went to their locker room at halftime they did so with 285 yards in 30 offensive plays and a 35-0 lead over Baylor. By the time they finished their 42-14 rout Davis had scored twice and run for 110 yards. Joe Washington also had two touchdowns and both he and Waymon Clark totaled up 113 yards rushing.
D. C. Nobles hit on nine of 16 throws for 118 yards, ran for 96 yards in a dozen carries and directed Houston to a 24-6 win over Rice. A nine-yard sprint into the end zone by Rufus Myers with 41 seconds left gave Texas Tech a hard-won 29-22 victory against Utah, which had led 22-14 with 3:47 to go.
Kyle Rote's career rushing mark of 2,049 yards for SMU was surpassed by Alvin Max-son, who went 68 and 34 yards for scores, and Maxson's running partner in the Wishbone offense, Wayne Morris, added a 61-yard TD run as the Mustangs crushed Santa Clara 49-7.
EAST
1. PENN STATE (1-0)
2. WEST VIRGINIA (1-0)
3. DELAWARE (1-0)
A year ago Bowling Green opened its season by shocking Purdue 17-14. This time the Falcons came up with another surprise, not only upsetting Syracuse but doing it in impressive fashion 41-14. It was a horrendous way for Coach Ben Schwartzwalder to launch his 25th and final year with the Orangemen, who were limited to 15 yards in total offense in the first half and trailed 28-0 before scoring.
While Yogi Berra tried to spur his Mets to victory in the National League his son Tim led Massachusetts to a 21-20 win over Villanova. Young Berra returned the second-half kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, caught a five-yard scoring pass and pulled in a 17-yarder during the winning drive in the fourth period.
Delaware, going for a record third straight small-college national title, drubbed West Chester 49-14. The Blue Hens built their 16th win in a row around the running of Blair Caviness (107 yards) and Vern Roberts (102 yards) and the passing of Warren Mays (18 for 36).
Down 20-0 at halftime against Connecticut, Lehigh rallied to take the game 22-20. The Engineers did it with a 33-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter by freshman Bruce Crystal and the passing of Kim McQuilken. During the disastrous first half McQuilken's passes gained only 36 yards, but when the game was over he had completed 22 of 39 for 260 yards.
Although he sat out most of the second half, Mike Esposito ran for 154 yards as Boston College bopped Temple 45-0.
SOUTH
1. ALABAMA (1-0)
2. TENNESSEE (1-0)
3. AUBURN (1-0)
Two years ago when the Colorado Buffaloes departed Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge they left a bad taste in the mouths of the LSU Tigers as well as some broken teeth. Getting clipped 31-21 in the season opener was one thing, but Buffalo Tailback Charlie Davis had topped off his 174 yards rushing—the most ever by an LSU opponent—by saying the Tigers had "hit soft." Since then nothing has served to anger the Tiger defense more than reminders that they "hit soft."
Last week the Buffaloes were back, trying to become the first team to go 2-0 against LSU in Tiger Stadium and trying to show they deserve their ranking in the Top Ten. They accomplished neither. This time Buffalo runners felt as if the Rockies had landed on them. "Hit soft" was a thing of the past as Davis was held to 19 yards and Colorado never took possession of the ball outside its own 31.
After a scoreless first half the Tiger offense also got busy. Leading the way was Mike Miley, successor to All-America Quarterback Bert Jones. Miley connected on seven of 10 passes for 140 yards and completed a 30-yard touchdown toss to Bert's kid brother Ben Jones. LSU had a tailback of its own named Davis, too—Brad Davis—and he rambled for 80 yards. It all added up to a 17-6 LSU win.
Like Colorado, Paul Dietzel left behind considerable bad feeling at LSU when he hastily exited to become the coach at Army 12 years ago. Since then his career has been filled with more potholes than a backwoods road. In 1966 he moved on to South Carolina, where his record has been a ho hum 31-42-1. Things had to change. This year Dietzel hired seven new assistant coaches and installed a veer offense. And, reminiscent of his glory days at LSU when special teams had colorful names such as Chinese Bandits, he made up a nickname for his kickoff-return squad, the Nasty Roosters.
Against Georgia Tech the Nasty Roosters, the 11 fastest men on the team, utilized a play that had been successful for Dietzel at LSU. It was a double hand-off on a kickoff, with Henry Laws doing most of the running on a 76-yard return at the start of the second half.
But even more important to the Gamecock cause were sophomore Quarterback Jeff Grantz, Defensive Back Mel Baxley and Punter Robby Reynolds. Grantz passed sharply, got off runs of 35 and 39 yards and twice turned his own fumbles to advantage, passing for a 13-yard gain on one of them and picking up eight yards on the other. Baxley intercepted a pass two yards in his end zone and raced it back for a touchdown. Reynolds, who was just getting over the chicken pox, was a pox to Tech's Randy Rhino, the nation's leading punt returner last season, who managed just one runback for seven yards.
With free substitution permissible this season, Bear Bryant came up with a fleet-footed method of exploiting the rule. Against California he had sophomore Danny Ridge-way run onfield with the next play and then leave before the action resumed. Bryant needed no such gimmicks. His Crimson Tide inundated the Golden Bears 66-0, gaining a school record of 667 yards in the process. Bryant used 73 players, including 14 backs, six of whom averaged better than 10 yards a carry.
Alabama's win came in the second game of a doubleheader in Birmingham. In the opener heavily favored Auburn survived a brawl and 51 passes by Oregon State's Alvin White (he completed 23) to win 18-9.
"There were times we just couldn't get shoe to shoe with Condredge Holloway to make the tackle on him," said Duke Coach Mike McGee of the Tennessee quarterback. With the surprising Blue Devils ahead 17-7 in the third quarter Holloway saved a busted play by wriggling away from three tacklers and going 49 yards for a touchdown. Then, with slightly more than two minutes left, he ran an option keeper en a fourth-and-four and dived for five yards. That put the ball on the Duke one-yard line, from where the Vols scored on the next play for a 21-17 win.
Fran Curd's debut as coach at Kentucky almost turned out to be a bummer. Lexington was mired down in a historic traffic jam as 48,000 fans—the most ever to attend a game in the state—inched along unfinished roads toward brand-new Commonwealth Stadium. Worst of all, the bus was almost late in getting the Wildcats to the field. Once there, however, they sped to a 31-6 halftime lead over Virginia Tech. But from then on the Gobblers took command as Rick Popp zeroed in with his passes. He finished with nine completions, two for TDs, but it was not quite enough as the Wildcats hung on 31-26.
Pittsburgh's new go-get-'em coach, Johnny Majors, got 'em with an impressive 7-7 tie against Georgia's Bulldogs, who were booed lustily at the conclusion. The Panthers missed a chance to win when freshman Carson Long, who kicked goals of 51 and 54 yards as a high-schooler in Ashland, Pa., failed on a 34-yarder. Since arriving at Pitt, Majors has received permission to red-shirt, has put on a strong recruiting drive, obtained a new locker room with wall-to-wall carpeting, saunas and has installed a reception room for families of boys he recruits. Said Majors, "When they got me they weren't getting a virgin."
VMI was floored 37-8 by Navy, which stole six passes and got 172 yards rushing from Cleveland Cooper. A 69-yard punt return for a touchdown by Danny Buggs with eight seconds left gave West Virginia a 20-13 win over host Maryland. But a third visiting team, Kansas State, was stopped 21-10 by Florida as David Bowden passed for three touchdowns.
With North Carolina State behind 7-3, Dave Buckey took over at quarterback and promptly completed a 34-yard pass to get the Wolfpack going on a 43-23 romp over Virginia. North Carolina fought its way to a 34-27 comeback victory over William & Mary and Chuck Ramsey kicked three field goals as Wake Forest got past Florida State 9-7.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
THE BACK: South Carolina Quarterback Jeff Grantz was on target with seven of nine passes, two for touchdowns, and he carried the ball 11 times for a total of 102 yards and two more TDs in a 41-28 upset of Georgia Tech.
THE LINEMAN: John Villapiano led the defense as Bowling Green thrashed Syracuse 41-14. The Falcon linebacker set up the game's fourth touchdown by forcing a fumble, intercepted one pass, broke up two others and made 19 tackles.