WEST
Poor Ricky Bell. Now that he doesn't have to sit on the USC bench or block for Anthony Davis, people around L.A. are saying that Bell is good. He's just not as tough as O.J. Maybe not, but with 1,068 yards in six games this season, Bell is averaging 178 per game. He carried for a mere 128 in USC's 17-3 defeat of Oregon.
Chuck Muncie of California and Eddie Ayers of UCLA had big days as the Bears trounced Oregon State 51-24 and the Bruins belted Washington State 37-23. Muncie ran for three touchdowns, gained 149 yards and threw a 47-yard touchdown pass. Ayers also scored three times while Quarterback John Sciarra had 213 yards total offense.
Washington freshman Robert Gaines blocked two Stanford punts, both of which resulted in touchdowns, but the Huskies succumbed nonetheless, 24-21.
Unbeaten Arizona stormed back to beat Texas Tech 32-28, but only after heroics by Quarterback Bruce Hill and Placekicker Lee Pistor. With the Red Raiders leading 28-27, 47 seconds to play and no time-outs left, Hill marched the Wildcats 32 yards to the Tech 24 and Pistor kicked a 41-yard field goal with six seconds showing on the clock. A safety on the ensuing kickoff accounted for the Wildcats' final two points. Arizona State coasted past Colorado State 33-3.
1. USC (6-0)
2. Arizona (5-0)
3. Arizona State (6-0)
SOUTH
The Tide is rolling and everybody in the Southeast Conference now knows it as Alabama beat Tennessee 30-7, stopping the Vols' diversified run-pass offense cold. End Leroy Cook led a savage charge that dropped the Vols' quarterbacks 10 times and held Tennessee to 12 yards rushing. Bama's Richard Todd took his team on drives of 59, 80, 80, 47 and 70 yards, and ran for three of the Tide's four touchdowns.
Florida rolled to an easy victory over Florida State 34-8, as Jimmy DuBose picked up 204 yards on 22 attempts. Georgia crushed Vanderbilt 47-3, Auburn scored the last 21 points of the game to nip fumble-prone Georgia Tech 31-27, South Carolina squeezed by Mississippi 35-29 and Mississippi State edged North Texas State 15-12.
Maryland, defending ACC champion, won its 13th straight conference game, 27-0 over Wake Forest. But the real excitement took place in Raleigh where North Carolina State and North Carolina replayed the script from their game of three years ago—this time with a different ending. In 1972, State scored a touchdown in the last 10 seconds, went for two points on orders from Coach Lou Holtz and lost the game 34-33. This year it was the Tarheels who scored with 12 seconds left to pull within a point at 21-20. Carolina went for two points on orders from Coach Bill Dooley and failed. Said Holtz, "The moral is simple. Don't go for two." Duke beat Clemson 25-21 when an 18-yard punt by the Tigers set up a 19-yard touchdown scamper by Tony Benjamin. Virginia Tech won its fourth game in a row, defeating Virginia 24-17.
1. Alabama (5-1)
2. Florida (5-1)
3. Tennessee (3-2)
EAST
Romping through the mud as if he alone were on dry land, Pittsburgh's Tony Dorsett accumulated 268 yards on 21 carries and scored four touchdowns as the Panthers destroyed Army 52-20. In doing so, Dorsett surpassed the efforts of all the noted Cadet running backs who have played in Michie Stadium—Doc Blanchard & Glenn Davis, Pete Dawkins & Bob Anderson and Charlie Jarvis, whose 1968 mark of 253 yards was erased.
"We needed something to pick us up, a change-the-game play," said Joe Paterno of the fake field-goal pass that went for 30 yards and a touchdown and helped Penn State defeat Syracuse 19-7.
Tulane's unpredictable Green Wave upset West Virginia 16-14 and has now won two straight, lost two straight and won two straight. Navy entered its contest with Boston College as the nation's leading defensive team, having yielded an average of only 163 yards a game. But Boston College rolled up that many in the first half, Quarterback Mike Kruczek twice passing to Mike Godbolt for scores, and the Eagles won 17-3. Curt Edwards lugged the ball 37 times for 205 yards as Rutgers shut out William and Mary 24-0.
Brown settled for a 10-10 tie with Dartmouth and slipped half a game behind Harvard and Princeton in the Ivy League race. Harvard's offense continued to roll in a 34-13 defeat of Cornell, Split End Jim Curry catching nine passes for a school-record 214 yards and one touchdown. Yale ran over Columbia 34-7, Penn whipped Lafayette 13-0 and Colgate shocked Princeton with a TD and a two-point conversion in the last 14 seconds to win 22-21.
1. Penn State (6-1)
2. Pitt (5-1)
3. West Virginia (4-2)
SOUTHWEST
Texas A&M won its sixth straight game, beating winless TCU 14-6. Bubba Bean carried armloads of defenders into the end zone on his first-half touchdown runs of four and two yards.
Texas earned a share of the Southwest Conference lead by controlling Arkansas' explosive offense just long enough to win 24-18. Eight Razorback turnovers—five fumbles and three interceptions—made the Long-horns' task a lot easier. Texas Quarterback Marty Akins hit four of five passes for 74 yards and gained another 135 on the ground in 22 carries.
Rice's Tommy Kramer ran for three touchdowns and passed for a fourth as the Owls stopped Southern Methodist 28-17. The victory was the 300th in Rice's football history.
1. Texas A&M (6-0)
2. Texas (5-1)
3. Arkansas (4-2)
MIDWEST
Though their campuses are 155 miles apart, Ohio State and Michigan played as if they could hear the distant rumblings from Ann Arbor and Columbus and were trying to outdo each other. When their separate slaughters were finished, the Buckeyes had rolled over Wisconsin 56-0 and the Wolverines had annihilated Northwestern 69-0.
Previously winless Purdue rallied to knock off Illinois 26-24; Michigan State beat Minnesota 38-15; and Jim Jensen's 202 yards rushing powered Iowa to a 20-10 victory over Indiana.
Oklahoma Halfback Joe Washington was ineffective against Kansas State, gaining only 49 yards in 18 carries, his worst performance since he became a starter. The Sooners finally scrapped the wishbone and went to the air to win 25-3 with the aid of Tony DiRienzo's field goals of 50, 34 and 49 yards. Nebraska held off Oklahoma State 28-20 as second-string Quarterback Vince Ferragamo accounted for all four touchdowns.
Colorado scored four second-half touchdowns, two a minute apart, to beat Missouri 31-20. Halfback Laverne Smith and Quarterback Nolan Cromwell combined for 303 yards rushing as Kansas knocked off Iowa State 21-10.
Notre Dame scored twice in the last 5½ minutes to defeat Air Force 31-30, the win coming when Al Hunter ran 43 yards to the Falcon's 2 to set up Jerome Heavens' TD. Outstanding for the Falcons were Placekicker Dave Lawson (page 24) and Defensive Back Jim Miller, who intercepted three Irish passes, deflected a fourth, recovered a fumble and made seven tackles.
1. Ohio State (6-0)
2. Oklahoma (6-0)
3. Nebraska (6-0)
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
DEFENSE: Alabama Defensive End Leroy Cook, a 6'3", 209-pound senior, made 10 solo tackles in the 30-7 victory over Tennessee, including four sacks of the quarterback for minus 36 yards. Cook also batted down a Vols pass.
OFFENSE: Showing the way through the mud at Army's Michie Stadium, Pittsburgh junior Tony Dorsett ripped off scoring runs of 14, 66, 21 and 35 yards en route to a 268-yard afternoon and a 3,419-yard three-season total.
