
THE WEEK
WEST
UCLA came within one tick of the clock of an upset by Stanford, but managed a 13-13 tie on a 38-yard field goal by Brett White in the final second. The Bruins nearly blew it by failing to call timeout with about 12 seconds left. "We were in fast offense," said UCLA Quarterback John Sciarra later, "and I'd called two plays in the huddle, but it took us too long to get the first one off." An incompletion left the lone second, which White needed.
California showed its strength in pounding Oregon 40-10. Cal's speedy Chuck Muncie picked up 126 yards rushing and Quarterback Steve Bartkowski passed for 183 yards and two touchdowns while completing 10 of 17 throws. USC's Anthony Davis galloped for 194 yards and two touchdowns as the Trojans manhandled Washington State 54-7. Oregon State won its first game of the season after four nonconference losses by downing Washington 23-9.
Arizona Quarterback Bruce Hill dizzied Utah with superb ballhandling and completed 18 of 29 passes for 218 yards and two touchdowns as the Wildcats tore up the Redskins 41-8. Arizona's balanced attack gained 289 yards rushing and 228 passing.
Tulane won its fourth straight, 10-3, over Air Force in a downpour. Sophomore Martin Mitchell scored the game's only touchdown by disdaining a fair catch on a punt and wading 54 yards for a score. "Our defenders didn't believe anyone would take that ball without a fair catch," moaned Academy Coach Ben Martin. Colorado had a 34-7 field day at Iowa State.
1. Arizona (5-0)
2. USC (3-1)
3. Arizona State (3-1)
SOUTHWEST
Oklahoma had major trouble with Texas before pulling out a 16-13 victory. The Sooners lost three fumbles in the first half and trailed 13-7 in the fourth quarter. A 40-yard end-around by Billy Brooks tied the score at 13-all, but John Carroll missed the extra-point attempt that would have put Oklahoma ahead. With nine minutes left Texas moved to midfield and tried for a first down on a fourth-and-one play at its own 49. Freshman Earl Campbell made the yardage but lost the ball when he was tackled by Leroy Selmon. The Sooners' Rod Shoate recovered, and moments later Tony DiRienzo, an exchange student from Brazil, kicked a game-winning 37-yard field goal.
The Longhorns' traditional spot atop the SWC was held by an unlikely trio—Baylor, SMU and Texas A&M. The Bears held an early 14-0 lead, then fell behind 17-14 in their game with Arkansas. They seemed doomed when the Razorbacks stopped them on fourth-and-one at the Arkansas 31 with just 3:43 remaining, but three plays later Razorback Quarterback Mark Miller fumbled the snap from center and Baylor's Wharton Foster recovered at the Arkansas 36. Tailback Steve Beaird capped a seven-play drive by scoring from one yard out to give the Bears a 21-17 upset win.
Texas A&M Halfback Skip Walker scored three times in a nine-minute span in the second quarter and rushed for 138 yards overall as the Aggies surprised Texas Tech 28-7. SMU Fullback Dave Bostick ran for 105 yards, and 160-pound Quarterback Ricky Wesson added 103 more and three touchdowns as the Mustangs trampled TCU 33-13.
1. Texas A&M (4-1)
2. Texas Tech (3-1-1)
3. Texas (3-2)
SOUTH
It did not figure to be much of a contest when Florida State, owning the nation's longest losing streak at 16, traveled to Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, where Alabama had won 32 straight. But with one minute and 27 seconds left State not only led 7-3, it had the ball. And Alabama was lucky to be that close. The Seminoles' placekicker, Ahmet Askin, had missed field-goal attempts of 19 and 26 yards. The Crimson Tide's only score had come on Bucky Berrey's 44-yard field goal late in the third quarter. Facing a fourth down at their own five-yard line, the Seminoles went into punt formation but elected to concede a safely rather than risk kicking the ball. Punter Joe Downey ran out of the end zone, which made the score 7-5 but gave State a free kick from its 20. Alabama returned the ball to the Seminole 48 and immediately struck for 32 yards on a pass from Jack O'Rear to Ozzie Newsome. Three plays lost three yards before Berrey, with 33 seconds remaining, kicked a 36-yard field goal to give the Tide a scary 8-7 win. It was the first time Alabama had failed to score a touchdown at Denny Stadium since Bear Bryant became coach in 1958.
The only other unbeaten team in the Deep South is Auburn, which humbled Kentucky 31-13. During the week Auburn Coach Snug Jordan had called his offense "disgusting." His players responded by running up their highest offensive total of the season—429 yards, 363 of them on the ground. Kentucky managed to rush for 236 yards, 127 of them by all-SEC Fullback Sonny Collins, and scored the first two touchdowns from scrimmage against Auburn all season, but it was not enough.
Florida had its hopes of an SEC title dimmed when it was upset by Vanderbilt 24-10. The Commodores turned the ball over six times in the first half but rallied with 18 second-half points to win. All the Vanderbilt scoring drives were directed by Substitute Quarterback David Lee, who played from midway in the first quarter for injured Fred Fisher.
LSU also had turnover problems, fumbling four times in the first half, but it too rallied, to beat Tennessee for the first time since 1933, 20-10. Clemson fumbled five times and never rallied as Maryland ran up its biggest victory margin since 1959, 41-0. It was the Terps' second straight shutout and the third straight game in which their first-team defense has not yielded a point. Horace King ran for four touchdowns, one of 79 yards, as Georgia stunned Mississippi 49-0. Georgia Tech slipped past North Carolina 29-28 on a two-point conversion pass from Rudy Allen to Jimmy Robinson with 36 seconds remaining. Roland Hooks ran for a two-point conversion with 3:46 left as North Carolina State overcame a 21-point deficit to beat Virginia 22-21.
1. Alabama (5-0)
2. Auburn (5-0)
3. North Carolina State (6-0)
EAST
Penn State's Nittany Lions finally shook off their extended case of the blahs and mauled an opponent. The victim, Wake Forest, never had a chance. Penn State returned the opening kickoff to its 38, then ate up the remaining 62 yards in just eight plays to take a 7-0 lead. It was 21-0 at the half, 48-0 after three quarters and 55-0 at the end. Lion Quarterback Tom Shuman threw a pair of touchdown passes, one of 57 yards to Jimmy Cefalo, who also ran 39 yards for a score.
Pittsburgh scored 24 points in the second half to come from behind and beat West Virginia 31-14. The Mountaineers held a surprising 14-7 halftime lead even though they still were playing without their sensational wide receiver, Danny Buggs. "A week ago we decided to give Danny a complete rest," said Coach Bobby Bowden. "We didn't want to spend the year with half a football player." The Panthers tied the game late in the third quarter on a 73-yard drive, and finally took the lead midway through the fourth quarter on Carson Long's 45-yard field goal. But with less than five minutes to play the issue was still in doubt. Pitt faced a fourth and one at the Mountaineer 43-yard line and Coach Johnny Majors decided to go for the first down. The Panthers made it, and two plays later Quarterback Billy Daniels hit world-class sprinter Karl Farmer with a 41-yard touchdown pass to put Pitt out of reach. The Panthers' Tony Dorsett picked up 145 yards on 38 carries.
Temple won its 12th straight by pounding Southern Illinois 59-16. The Owls set a school record for total offense with 622 yards, 460 of them on the ground. Quarterback Steve Joachim, who entered the game as the national leader in total offense, was held to 17 yards rushing and 159 passing but he scored three touchdowns on short runs, threw for another and directed his team to six touchdowns in their first 10 possessions.
Navy lost its third straight, to Syracuse 17-9. Penn and Cornell tied 28-all when Cornell Middle Guard Steve Horrigan stopped Penn's Adolph (Beep-Beep) Bellizeare for a loss on a fourth-and-one play at the Cornell four-yard line with less than two minutes to play. Harvard, Yale and Princeton won. The Crimson pounded hapless Columbia 34-6, the Elis shut out Brown 24-0, and the Tigers edged Dartmouth 14-7. Rutgers remained undefeated, dropping Lehigh 37-16.
1. Penn State (4-1)
2. Temple (4-0)
3. Pittsburgh (3-2)
MIDWEST
Notre Dame needed a 20-play, 80-yard drive to pull out a 10-3 victory over stubborn but winless Rice. It was not a grand old day for the Irish, who suffered through 85 yards of penalties in the first half. Ara Parseghian had successive 15-yard penalties called against him while trying to discover why one official was calling his offensive linemen for not "having their helmets breaking the plane of an imaginary line running through the bottoms of the numbers on the center's back." In the end it was Quarterback Tom Clements who saved the day. He engineered the winning drive, coming up with five consecutive third-down successes, four of them on passes. Wayne Bullock pounded over from the two for the winning score with just 3:08 left.
Missouri scored three touchdowns in the final seven minutes to upset Nebraska 21-10. The heroes for the Tigers were a sophomore quarterback, Steve Pisarkiewicz, and Tony Galbreath, a nonlettered junior who had been converted from fullback to tailback just four days before the game. Pisarkiewicz passes and Galbreath runs ate up most of the yards in a 71-yard, 12-play drive that got Missouri on the scoreboard with 6:56 to go. A fumble recovery at the Nebraska 25 then led to a six-play scoring drive culminating in a nine-yard Pisarkiewicz-to-Mark Miller touchdown pass. Missouri got one last score following a late interception returned to the Cornhusker five. The Tigers' defense, in fact, played a big role all day. The Nebraska ground attack, which had been averaging 346 yards a game, managed just 101 yards in 54 carries.
Kansas downed Kansas State 20-13 in a thriller that ended when Wildcat Quarterback Steve Grogan was tackled at the Jayhawks' two-yard line on the last play of the game. Kansas had led 12-0, fallen behind 13-12, and did not gain the winning margin until late in the fourth quarter when Laverne Smith, who had 139 yards on 17 carries, raced 51 yards for the score.
While Big Ten powers Ohio State and Michigan did their thing (page 26), Illinois spoiled Purdue's homecoming with a 27-23 win, and Indiana won its first game of the season by crushing Minnesota 34-3.
1. Ohio State (5-0)
2. Michigan (5-0)
3. Oklahoma (4-0)
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
OFFENSE: Junior Quarterback Cornelius Greene led top-ranked Ohio State to a 52-7 victory over Wisconsin by running for 146 yards and two touchdowns and completing five of his seven passes for 81 yards and another score.
DEFENSE: Missouri Linebacker Lynn Evans, a 6', 205-pound senior, had six unassisted tackles and six assists as the Tigers held Nebraska's running game, which had been the fourth best in the nation, to 101 yards in a 21-10 upset.