SOUTH
Florida State pulled out all the stops in trying to halt its 15-game losing streak. The Seminoles brought in alumnus Burt Reynolds, who announced he was donating $50,000 to his alma mater's football program, and Reynolds had Lee Majors, star of TV's Six Million Dollar Man, and Miami Dolphin Fullback Larry Csonka in tow. With such support Florida State surged to a 17-0 halftime lead over Baylor.
Alas, in the second half the Seminoles reverted to form, and Baylor got rolling with some wingback reverses by Phillip Kent. The first two times Kent ran the play in the third period he gained 21 and 42 yards, each carry keying a touchdown drive. Steve Beaird, who gained 107 yards for the day, scored three times from inside the two and Baylor won 21-17. As one sign on the sidelines said, GRIN AND BARE IT, BURT.
"We looked at their films and at who they'd played and we came here with a light regard for them," said Pittsburgh Middle Guard Gary Burley of the Panthers' opponent last week, North Carolina. "When we saw how tough they were, it was too late to recover." The Tar Heels rushed for 328 yards, passed for 224 more and generally kicked Pittsburgh around the field while winning 45-29. Although Carolina used no special defenses, it held Tony Dorsett to just 61 yards in 19 carries.
Houston's Veer offense, surprisingly dormant all season, sprang to life in the fourth quarter as the Cougars came from behind to beat South Carolina 24-14. The catalyst proved to be a sophomore quarterback, Bobby McGallion, who had not been in for a single play all season and was scheduled to be redshirted for the year. Coach Bill Yeoman inserted him with Houston trailing 14-7, and two four-play drives later the Cougars led 21-14.
With their fans chanting "We're No. 1," unbeaten Florida made LSU its fourth straight victim, 24-14. The Gators coasted to a 17-0 lead with the help of what Coach Doug Dickey termed, "The best defensive play I've ever seen." Florida is in excellent shape in the SEC since it does not have to play Alabama. The Crimson Tide needed to rally to beat Mississippi 35-21. Down 21-14 in the third quarter, Willie Shelby, a 172-pound junior, ran 58 yards for his second touchdown of the day and, minutes later. Rick Watson crashed in from the eight-yard line to put the Tide ahead to stay. Mississippi State, boosted by Richard Blackmore's 77-yard punt return and a 63-yard scoring pass from Rocky Felker to Stan Black, held oft Kansas State 21-16. Tennessee needed Stanley Morgan's 48-yard punt return for a touchdown in the final 48 seconds to earn a 17-10 win over Tulsa.
Duke beat Purdue 16-14 to bring the Boilermakers back to earth after their upset of Notre Dame. Clemson came from behind three times to beat Georgia 28-24, and Georgia Tech did precisely the same thing to Virginia. The Yellow Jackets won when Jimmy Robinson made a leaping catch of a Rudy Allen pass in the end zone with only 37 seconds remaining. Miami of Ohio slipped by Kentucky 14-10 and North Carolina State had a surprisingly rough time beating Last Carolina 24-20.
1. Alabama (4-0)
2. Auburn (4-0)
3. Florida (4-0)
EAST
Army had hopes of duplicating Navy's upset of Penn State but only succeeded in copying itself, blowing a 14-0 lead for the second week in a row. The Nittany Lions fumbled twice in their first five plays from scrimmage and Army capitalized by marching 21 and 38 yards for touchdowns. But after the opening eight minutes and 21 seconds the day belonged to Penn State, which went on to win 21-14. Army never again crossed midfield.
For the day Penn State pounded out 247 yards on the ground. It took the lead 15-14 late in the first half after scoring drives of 75 and 63 yards. Coach Joe Paterno ordered a two-point conversion after the first touchdown and got it on a run by Jimmy Cefalo. Penn State's final score of the day came in the fourth quarter on a carry of 19 yards by Duane Taylor, the longest run from scrimmage by a Nittany Lion this year.
In Annapolis, Navy was also copying its form of last week—by getting shut out. Boston College, which had been beaten badly by Texas and Temple, whitewashed the Middies 37-0, making Navy's aggregate score for the last two weeks 0-89. The Middies, kept on their heels by the kickoffs of Fred Steinfort, all six of which went into or through the end zone and could not be run back, never got past midfield until the final period. Steinfort also set a Navy-Marine Memorial Stadium record with a 50-yard field goal.
Temple looked like a possible upset victim for the first 29 minutes of its game against Marshall but finally got moving for a 31-10 win. "They outcoached us and outplayed us," said Temple Coach Wayne Hardin, "but we just outpersonneled them. It's one of those games I'm very happy to get out of our system." Quarterback Steve Joachim, the nation's total offense leader going into the game, got his bell rung scoring his team's first touchdown and had to turn play-calling responsibilities over to his coach. "I can execute, but I can't remember them," he told Hardin. He executed a 31-yard scoring pass to Flanker Dave Rodier at the end of the half for a 14-7 lead and kept right on rolling in the second half. For the day he gained 245 yards, 20 below his pregame average.
Brown's soccer-style kicker, Jose Violante, connected from 37, 47 and 49 yards, the last a school record, to give the Bruins a 9-7 lead over Pennsylvania. But then, with just 2:42 to play, the Quakers' Adolph (Beep Beep) Bellizeare, who had been held to just 45 yards in 14 carries, returned a punt 61 yards for a touchdown and a 14-9 victory. Harvard's superb end, Pat McInally, caught three touchdown passes from Quarterback Milt Holt, each giving the Crimson the lead, but Rutgers came back each time and finally won 24-21. The winning score, a one-yard lunge by Quarterback Bert Kosup, capped an 80-yard, 11-play drive. Princeton won its first Ivy League contest in two seasons by blasting inept Columbia 40-13; Dartmouth lost its second in a row, 14-3 to Holy Cross; and Cornell scored its first shutout in six years by taking Bucknell 24-0. Maryland beat Syracuse 31-0 after leading only 7-0 at half-time.
1. Penn State (3-1)
2. Temple (3-0)
3. Delaware (4-0)
MIDWEST
Surprising Wisconsin was nearly perfect in a 59-20 massacre of Missouri. The score could have been worse. It was 59-7 at the end of three quarters and Coach John Jardine put in everyone but the dean of women in the final period. The Badgers scored nine of the first 10 times they had the ball, beginning with an 81-yard run by Billy Marek on the first play from scrimmage. Quarterback Gregg Bohlig completed all eight of his passes for 131 yards and directed an offense that piled up 485 yards overall. Now the Badgers are stalking bigger game. As Jardine pointed out, "Getting ahead that much meant that we can go into next week's game against Ohio State not all battered and bruised."
Kansas shocked Texas A&M with three second-half touchdowns and recorded a 28-10 upset. The Jayhawks trailed 10-7 at half but took the lead when Quarterback Scott McMichael connected with Flanker Emmett Edwards, anchorman on Kansas' 1974 NCAA 440-yard-relay champions, for a 61-yard third-quarter score. Running Backs Robert Miller and Laverne Smith, ranked 10th and 11th nationally in rushing before the game, picked up 142 and 135 yards respectively while A&M's Bubba Bean, ranked seventh, was held to 48.
Michigan State scared Notre Dame. The Spartans spotted the Irish a 16-0 halftime lead, courtesy of two fumbles and a 14-yard punt, but the second half was a different story. First, Quarterback Charlie Baggett took Michigan State 99 yards to make it 16-7. Baggett passed to End Mike Jones for the last 26 yards. After a Notre Dame field goal, its only score resulting from a legitimate drive, Baggett marched the Spartans 76 yards to close the gap to 19-14. Too little, too late. Less than four minutes remained and the Irish ate up all but 12 seconds of that by staying on the ground, content to give the ball to Fullback Wayne Bullock, who scored both Notre Dame touchdowns and gained 126 yards with a school-record 36 carries. Baggett's desperation bomb at the end was intercepted by Randy Payne.
With the wind at his back, California Quarterback Steve Bartkowski completed 14 of 19 passes for 244 yards in the second and third quarters to lead the Golden Bears over previously undefeated Illinois 31-14. West Virginia handed Indiana its 11th loss in a row, 24-0. Northwestern, on the other hand, managed to win its first game of the season, beating Oregon 14-10 despite a brilliant 196-yard rushing performance by the Ducks' Don Reynolds. Nebraska and Oklahoma won with ease, the Cornhuskers 54-0 over Minnesota and the Sooners 63-0 over Wake Forest.
1. Ohio State (4-0)
2. Oklahoma (3-0)
3. Michigan (4-0)
WEST
Who won this game? Iowa equaled USC's passing yardage of 114, made 21 first downs to the Trojans' 15 and out-rushed USC 284 yards to 142. Iowa ran 91 offensive plays to USC's 44. And what about the score? The Trojans won 41-3, that's what.
USC did not march for its scores, it exploded. Anthony Davis got the first touchdown with an 80-yard return of a kickoff. Rover Back Charlie Phillips got two others by grabbing fumbles in midair and racing 83 and 98 yards with them.
Fumbles—six of them—also played a big role in Wyoming's 16-10 loss to Arizona State. "Six fumbles, well it just makes you sick," said Coach Fritz Shurmur. "If it was only one guy fumbling, we could correct it much easier. But we had several who just left the ball on the ground."
Michigan had not yielded a point in the first quarter over the last two seasons and the Wolverines did not figure to have much trouble with Stanford, but at the end of the first period the Cardinals led 6-0, courtesy of 52- and 42-yard field goals by Mike Langford. At the half Stanford still led, 9-6. "We played terrible in the first half," said Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler. "We played our best football of the season in the first half," countered Stanford Coach Jack Christiansen. Michigan proved too strong thereafter, although Cardinal Quarterback Jerry Waldvogel, who completed 21 of 40 passes for 229 yards, mounted a 75-yard fourth-quarter scoring drive that narrowed the margin to 20-16. Michigan ground out its own 75-yard drive at the end of the to win 27-16.
Washington State borrowed the University of Washington's Husky Stadium for its game with Ohio State and got shellacked 42-7. Archie Griffin scored on a 75-yard run and gained 196 yards overall for the Buckeyes. Washington Coach Jim Owens denounced WSU's use of his team's field, presumably on the ground that it would help State's recruiting program at Washington's expense. WSU Coach Jim Sweeney disagreed. "Nothing we did here today should hurt Washington's recruiting," he said.
Billy Waddy rushed for 171 yards, scoring on runs of 67 and 11 yards, to lead Colorado over Air Force 28-27. UCLA had to struggle to get by winless Utah 27-14 but undefeated Arizona breezed by UTEP, 42-13.
1. Arizona (4-0)
2. USC (2-1)
3. Arizona State (3-1)
SOUTHWEST
TCU had lost 15 straight games to Arkansas but last week the Frogs' new coach, Jim Shofner, thought he had reason to be optimistic. "We're just an inch away from being a good football team," Shofner confided shortly before the opening kickoff with Arkansas. "Right now I think our defense can play with anybody." With anybody, maybe. With Arkansas, no. The Razorbacks jumped all over the Frogs 49-0, the largest margin in the teams' series. Arkansas Coach Frank Broyles used 12 runners in all and they responded with 377 yards rushing. The Razorbacks also threw the ball. They had gained just 19 yards passing in three previous games but covered 167 against TCU.
Texas still can't seem to get anywhere through the air although the Longhorns did manage to beat Washington 35-21. Darrell Royal alternated Quarterbacks Marty Akins and Mike Presley with each series and Akins reinforced his first-team status by engineering four of the five Texas touchdown drives. But there was nothing reassuring about the Longhorns' passing attack. Akins completed one of five passes for 10 yards and Presley two of five for 26.
The running game was a different matter. Roosevelt Leaks, back at fullback after a trial run at halfback, could gain only 34 yards on 12 carries but freshman Earl Campbell picked up the slack with 125 on 16 attempts. Still, Texas had to struggle. Its pass defense seemed worse than its passing attack. Washington Quarterback Chris Rowland, a 38% passer prior to this game, hit on 24 of 37 for 328 yards and two touchdowns. Rowland threatened an upset through most of the fourth quarter but Texas was able to stop a 76-yard drive on downs at the four-yard line and later clinched the game when Sammie Mason intercepted a Rowland pass in the end zone.
Texas Tech squeaked by Oklahoma State 14-13. Tech led 14-7 at the half on the strength of a 16-yard pass from Tommy Duniven to Lawrence Williams. State scored the only touchdown of the second half after a five-play, 84-yard drive highlighted by Fullback George Palmer's 69-yard dash, but then decided not to gamble and failed to get the single point when there was a bad snap from center. Sam Lisle picked up the ball and almost made it into the end zone but Tech's Randy Olson and Curtis Jordan stopped him.
SMU, with more than 400 yards of rushing, handed Oregon State its fourth loss of the season, 37-30.
1. Texas Tech (3-0-1)
2. Texas (3-1)
3. Arkansas (3-1)
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
OFFENSE: Kansas Quarterback Scott McMichael, a sophomore, completed 12 of 14 passes for 178 yards and two second-half touchdowns is the Jayhawks rallied from a 10-7 deficit at intermission and upset Texas A&M 28-10.
DEFENSE: USC Rover Back Charlie Phillips, a 6'3" senior, set an NCAA single-game record for return yardage with fumbles when he covered 181 yards on touchdown runs of 83 and 98 as the Trojans overwhelmed Iowa 41-3.
