Pride In The Red Jersey

By halftime Alabama had pushed Mississippi around for 250 yards, but the best it could manage in point terms was an 11-yard scoring pass, Davis to Split End Dave Bailey, and another field goal by Bill Davis for a 13-6 lead.

The second half was different. Alabama's rushing simply overpowered the Rebels. On the first drive of the third quarter Davis ran for seven, then pitched back to LaBue, who ran for 22 more and a score. On the second drive Musso went seven for a touchdown, giving him 31 for his career and tying Charley Trippi for the SEC record. On the next drive Bisceglia went 15 yards for a touchdown, building the score to 34-6.

After that touchdown, Alabama lost Davis, at least for the moment. He was holding for the extra-point try when Mississippi's Elmer Allen, a 236-pound tackle, came busting through and flattened him. Davis left with a hip and shoulder injury and Allen left with a personal foul. Later Billy Kinard, the Ole Miss coach, told Bryant that he felt worse about the injury to Davis than he did the loss.

But that was later. Up in the stands the Alabama fans were screaming, "We want blood." And, "Go to hell, Ole Miss, go to hell." And, "Hang it up, Ole Miss, hang it up." "O.K.," said Bryant, and he gave them Musso, who ordinarily would be a spectator with Alabama leading by 28 late in the fourth quarter. But the best Bryant could manage at quarterback was Butch Hobson, a 188-pound fourth-stringer who proved he knew what to do with the ball. He gave it to Musso, who ran 41 yards to the Mississippi 18. Then Hobson got two, two more, and finally 14 for a touchdown.

In the press box a scout put his hands to his head and said, "Here The Bear is moaning about depth and now he comes up with a fourth-string quarterback who looks like he was borrowed from Texas."

On the last play of the game, with Alabama leading 40-6, Hobson ran 11 yards for a first down. The 11 pushed Alabama's total for the day to 557 yards, with 531 of them coming on the ground. Mississippi has been playing football since 1893 and the most any team ever managed to pick up rushing against it was the 433 LSU got in 1945. Last year, when Ole Miss won 48-23, Alabama managed to gain just 27 yards on the ground.

For his part, Musso ran 22 times for 193 yards, with few of them coming in the position you might expect from a runner, totally upright. Usually Musso is in the act of falling, only he never quite does. He gets hit, bounces along on one leg for a while, then spins, leans over backward and picks up another yard or two, and then for a finale puts a hand down and scrambles as far as he can before the rest of the world jumps on his back.

"I don't know which I like best," Bryant said. "Watching Musso run or watching him block. He simply wipes out people when he blocks."

Which is exactly what Alabama is doing in the old bruising Bear Bryant style: wipe people out, nose to nose, jaw to jaw. Once again there is pride in the red jersey.