THE WEEK

SOUTHWEST

The Aggie offense never really penetrated the Baylor 15-yard line, yet Texas A&M still won 20-0. Huddling for a postgame prayer before a record crowd of 51,200 in Waco, the Aggies had reason to be thankful. In the first quarter, Halfback Bubba Bean fumbled, but fumbled 10 yards forward, straight into the hands of his Split End Carl Roaches, who scuttled 56 yards for a TD. "I just slid off my block to the inside and the ball came to me," Roaches said. Then, late in the fourth quarter, Defensive Tackle Warren Trahan stretched to his full 6'4", intercepted a screen pass and fell a yard forward into the Baylor end zone. Randy Haddox' 42- and 41-yard field goals accounted for the other six points. But Baylor had nothing to complain about. The Bears never got past the A&M 40.

Big brother won the sibling rivalry, as usual. Defensive Right End Tommy Cones helped his Texas Tech team beat Defensive Right End Mark Cones' Southern Methodist outfit, 20-17. SMU was leading 17-13 when it had to punt from its 40. Punter John Blackburn bobbled the snapback only minimally, but that was all Tommy Cones needed to barrel in and block the kick. The Raiders recovered on the 26 and four plays later Larry Isaac scored.

Rice held Texas to a 6-6 deadlock in the first half on field goals by Bill Schott, but the Owls suffered a bad case of Marty Akins in the second half. The junior quarterback scored twice and rushed 188 yards as the Longhorns bellowed to a 27-6 win. "Rice was keying on the pitch man to prevent the long-gainer," Darrell Royal observed. "That's a good way to defense us, but it gives the yardage to the quarterback." Rice's Tommy Kramer completed 17 of 28 for 254 yards and the TD.

Arkansas slashed up Colorado State 43-9, scoring six of the first eight times it got the ball. Halfback Ike Forte scored two touchdowns for the Hogs and set up another with a 67-yard run.

1. Texas A&M (6-1)
2. Texas Tech (5-1-1)
3. Texas (5-2)

SOUTH

"We simply had a lot more people than TCU," said Alabama Coach Bear Bryant, a nicely understated summary of Tide football since approximately the Ice Age. No fewer than 12 different backs carried the ball for 'Bama, and six of them scored touchdowns in a 41-3 rout of Texas Christian. Willie Shelby got his hands on it only six times, but he was the leading ground-gainer with 86 yards. All these ball bearers did it without a down's worth of help from regular Quarterback Richard Todd, who remained on the injured list. "I wanted to play him but the staff overruled me," Bryant complained. Robert Fraley and Jack O'Rear did nicely instead, accounting for five touchdowns between them.

Auburn, which has an amazing record of 39-5-3 in homecoming games since its first one was played 50 years ago, burned Florida State 38-6. The Tigers are now 7-0, while FSU is 0-7, but the Seminoles trailed only 7-6 at halftime before swallowing their 19th straight defeat. Auburn went 79 yards to score on its first series, then went dry. "The drive was too easy," said Split End Thomas Gossom, who caught four passes for 85 yards and a TD. "We let down after that."

The number of bowl scouts watching Maryland defeat North Carolina State was seven. The margin of victory was only 10, 20-10. But the win gave the Terrapins, who have never yet won an ACC title outright, a firm hold on the league lead. Two field goals by Steve Mike-Mayer, three interceptions and a crucial penalty decided the outcome. After a 44-yard kick by Mike-Mayer had put the Terps ahead 13-10, N.C. State drove to a third and one on the Maryland 29. Richard Carter raced to a first down, but a lineman's illegal procedure obliged the Wolfpack to try a 48-yard field goal, which failed. Terp Tailback Louis Carter wrapped it up with a TD after an interception by Bob Smith.

Georgia Tech added a backbone to its Wishbone and upset previously undefeated Tulane, 27-7. Tech talkers had not touched much on defense before this game, for the ample reason that there wasn't any, but the Yellow Jackets limited their victims to 88 yards rushing in this one.

Florida scored all of its live touchdowns before Duke got near the scoreboard, and the sun shone bright all day on a palmy homecoming crowd of 56,251 as the Gators won 30-13. Don Gaffney operated the Wishbone superbly, connecting on touchdown passes to Alvis Darby and Lee McGriff.

"It was one of those games where whoever got the ball last won," apologized Kentucky Coach Fran Curci after Georgia beat his club 24-20. Three times Kentucky coughed up the ball in its own territory, and three times Georgia scored. First Quarterback Mike Fanuzzi fumbled on his 26, and then superkicker John Tatterson let two punts slide off the side of his foot, setting up 41-and 32-yard Georgia touchdowns.

Mississippi State demolished Louisville 56-7, and Vanderbilt beat Ole Miss for the first time in 23 years, 24-14, as Fullback Jaime O'Rourke scored two touchdowns and Defensive Back Jay Chesley ran an interception back 66 yards for a third.

Memphis State beat North Texas 41-0, and Tennessee edged Clemson 29-28 in a brawl that saw two touchdowns scored in the last two minutes. South Carolina scored its second straight upset, dumping North Carolina 31-23. And then there was Wake Forest, which lost 14-0 to Virginia, extending its Streak of scoreless quarters to 22.

1. Alabama (7-0)
2. Auburn (7-0)
3. Maryland (5-2)

WEST

Brigham Young's third straight victory shattered favored Arizona 37-13. Since Arizona State hounded toothless New Mexico 41-7, the Western Athletic Conference race was snug as a pair of shrunk longjohns. Arizona State is 3-0, BYU 3-0-1 and Arizona 3-1. BYU received star performances from Quarterback Gary Sheide and Flanker John Betham. Sheide completed 20 of 35 passes for 267 yards and five touchdowns—three to Betham and two more to Tailback Jeff Blanc. The Cougars forced seven turnovers: two fumbles and five interceptions, on three of which they scored. "I think Arizona came into the game thinking we didn't have a running attack," Sheide said. "We showed them one and that's what opened up our passing game." ASU Coach Frank Kush, meanwhile, used three quarterbacks in the Sun Devil romp. None dazzled, but it's hard to argue with 41 points.

In other action, Wyoming stomped on Utah 31-13 and Texas El Paso beat Texas Arlington 28-14. Independent Utah State beat West Texas State 21-16.

"Pat is a victim of our success," says USC Coach John McKay. The freeway alumni have been wondering why Pat Hayden, who completed 56% of his passes for 1,823 yards last year, has completed only 20 of 58 for 216 yards this season. "If they want stats I can give them stats," McKay notes. "But we might not win." Well, USC won 31-10 against Oregon State, yet Hayden passed—50% complete for 101 yards and two touchdowns. Anthony Davis scored twice to set a new Pacific Eight record for TDs.

John Sciarra of UCLA devastated hopeful California with two intercontinental missiles to Split End Norm Anderson, for 69 and 40 yards, then scored himself. Later, he went to the hospital with a broken ankle and returned to watch the rest of the game from the bench. UCLA won 28-3.

Since the last game of 1972, when Washington began a 10-game Pacific Eight losing streak, Husky fans have waited for the team to do something besides stutter, stumble, fumble and fall. Saturday the Huskies did. To the astonishment of 52,500 faithful dreading the sequel to last year's 58-0 loss to Oregon, they plucked the Ducks featherless 66-0. The defense held Oregon to 55 total yards and two first downs, while the offense rolled up 508 yards. It was the most decisive win in Jim Owens' 18 years at Washington.

In the remaining Pac 8 game, Stanford edged Washington State 20-18.

1. USC (5-1)
2. Arizona State (5-1)
3. UCLA (4-1-2)

EAST

Penn State continued its domination of archrival West Virginia, defeating the Mountaineers 21-12 despite trailing in first downs (20 to 18) and yardage (374 to 367). The highly ranked Nittany Lions have not lost to West Virginia since way back in 1955, when Sam Huff was around. Joe Paterno called the present Morgantown defensive line the best since that era, but his Lions capitalized on two West Virginia breakdowns for touchdowns. Early, the Mountaineers fumbled a center snap and were trapped at their 35. Later, West Virginia deflected a Penn State field goal attempt, but the ball was batted into the end zone by a Mountaineer, allowing Ron Coder—a Lion walk-on who played his high school ball in Japan—to fall on it for a TD. In between, State marched 89 yards, Duane Taylor scoring from the eight.

"This is the closest Temple will ever get to a bowl—the Poultry Bowl," scoffed Delaware captain Ed Clark after his Blue Hens had ruffled the Owls and come within a hoot of winning, 21-17. "They ain't exactly the champions of the universe. You don't get the kind of bell ringers we gave them from somebody like Holy Cross." Temple picked on 5'8" Delaware Cornerback Steve Schwartz for its decisive touchdown, Steve Joachim hitting 6'3" Jeff Stempel, and even that, Delaware felt, should have been ruled offensive interference.

Boots made the news as Pittsburgh squeaked by Navy 13-11. The first three scores were all field goals: Pitt 6, Navy 3. Then Tony Dorsett atoned for three fumbles by scoring a critical touchdown on fourth down.

Undefeated Yale rattled past Cornell 27-3, and Ivy League co-leader Harvard sneaked out of Hanover with a 17-15 decision over Dartmouth. The Crimson had to bat down a desperate pass as the gun sounded to get past the northerners for the first time since 1968. Penn's Quakers also edged Princeton 20-18, and Columbia ended an 11-game losing streak by slipping through hapless Bucknell 38-33.

Army beat Holy Cross 13-10.

1. Penn State (6-1)
2. Pittsburgh (5-2)
3. Temple (6-0)

MIDWEST

Ohio State overwhelmed Northwestern 55-7, scoring eight of the 10 times it got possession, and one of those touchdowns came on a 93-yard kick-off return by Len Willis. That run occurred in the first quarter, immediately after North-western's lone touchdown, so that the Wildcats had no time to savor their 7-7 tie. Why didn't Ohio State score the other two times? Once, a pass was intercepted. The other time, the clock simply ran out as the Buckeyes were on the Northwestern one-yard line.

Michigan similarly hobnailed Minnesota 49-0. "Now they don't have to write about how everybody almost beats us," Coach Bo Schembechler said. Those narrow wins over Stanford and Wisconsin did not bring out the lamb in Bo. Michigan amassed 620 yards, moved the ball at will and generally made Minnesota's offense look like rejects from Bernie Bierman's 1930s' playbook. The Gophers were limited to 149 yards and seven first downs to Michigan's 33. To compound the insult, Michigan Quarterback Dennis Franklin dared to throw a pass on fourth down. Admittedly, it was his only incompletion of the day, but normally he wouldn't get away with that even in practice.

While Oklahoma was also winning big, Nebraska was winning little, 7-3 over Oklahoma State. "I'm shaking now, I've got the chills," Nebraska Cornerback Ardell Johnson said after making the game-winning fumble recovery at the Cornhusker goal with only 3:22 left. Monsterman Wonderful Monds Jr. hit Oklahoma State's Charlie Weatherbie hard on the Nebraska one-yard line, and Weatherbie dropped the ball. Johnson, who had previously blocked a field-goal attempt, scooped it up.

The bomb and the bobble started Notre Dame toward its best first half in years as the Irish whomped Miami 38-7. Tom Clements hit End Pete Demmerle for a 47-yard touchdown on the game's sixth play. Then, after Miami drove 70 yards only to miss a field goal, a booming 69-yard Notre Dame punt put the Hurricane back deep in its own pond, where Clarence Latimer fumbled. Fullback Wayne Bullock scored on the next play, his 11th touchdown of the season. Notre Dame toyed with Miami after that, passing for an unusual 186 yards (and two scores) in 28 attempts. As for the defense: Miami's leading ground-gainer was Punter Rod Huffman with 37 yards on one surprise run.

In the Big Eight, Missouri beat Colorado 30-24 as Tony Galbreath, a junior college transfer who did not start a game until last week, scored three touchdowns, rushed for 146 yards, and caught four passes for 59 yards. Iowa State surprised Kansas 22-6, to make its conference record 2-1. But this week the Cyclones play Oklahoma.

In the Big Ten, Iowa upset 4-1-1 Illinois, 14-12. To do it, the Hawkeyes' Ed Donovan had to catch an eight-yard screen pass with 17 seconds left in the game after Iowa had been penalized back from the three. Iowa's other touchdown was set up by a fumble recovery on the Illinois 48. Michigan State walked over Purdue 31-7, and Wisconsin got past Indiana 35-25.

Miami of Ohio ground down Toledo 38-22 to gain sole possession of first place in the Mid-American Conference, Sophomore Fullback Rob Carpenter's three touchdowns enabled the Redskins to run their undefeated streak to 19 games.

1. Ohio State (7-0)
2. Oklahoma (6-0)
3. Michigan (7-0)

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

OFFENSE: Sophomore Quarterback Ron Bass, who started for the injured Jeff Grantz, rushed a remarkable 39 times for 211 yards and scored two touchdowns to lead South Carolina to its 31-23 upset of North Carolina.

DEFENSE: Iowa State Safety Barry Hill intercepted four passes during a 22-6 win over favored Kansas, setting a career record of 18. The old mark, which was held by Darrell Royal of Oklahoma, was achieved in four seasons.