The Week

Against Virginia Tech at Tallahassee, Florida State passing whiz Gary Huff missed on his first four tries, then was knocked senseless gaining nine yards on a running play. After a short spell on the bench to clear his head, he came back to hit 19 of his next 33 passes, good for one touchdown and 233 yards, and guided the Seminoles to a 25-12 victory. Gobbler Quarterback Don Strock flooded the air with passes in a vain try to keep VPI in the game, completing 22 of 48 for 276 yards, but could not offset the more balanced offensive zip shown by Huff, Receiver Barry Smith, who caught 10 passes for 146 yards, and Running Back Hodges Mitchell, who churned out 138 yards on 27 carries.

In other games, Stanford paid a cross-continental visit to Duke and returned home with a 10-6 win set up by Reserve Quarterback Mike Boryla, who came in during the third quarter and quickly hit End Bill Scott with a 12-yard scoring pass. The rest of the game was a contest to see which team could fumble the ball away most often, Duke twice blowing touchdown chances in the closing minutes. North Carolina held off North Carolina State in a woolly one 34-33 when State missed a two-point conversion pass after scoring a touchdown with 10 seconds left on a leaping catch by Pat Kenney of a 32-yard pass from Bruce Shaw. West Virginia routed Virginia at Charlottesville 48-10 with the help of four touchdown passes by Quarterback Bernie Galiffa, and Auburn looked something less than prepared to meet Tennessee this weekend while edging out Chattanooga 14-7. "Now that it's over I think it will be damn good for us," said Auburn Coach Shug Jordan. "The players should be very attentive from now on."

MIDWEST

1. OKLAHOMA (2-0)
2. OHIO STATE (1-0)
3. COLORADO (3-0)

Three unfriendly visitors from the West, USC, Colorado and Washington, invaded Big Ten country last week and all three went home with scalps. At Champaign, USC stumbled through the first half of its game with Illinois, then turned on some juice to win easily, 55-20. "We didn't really play very well and I don't know why," said Trojan Coach John McKay. "We were slow on defense and uninspired on offense." Illinois went ahead 7-0 and 14-7 early in the first half on short touchdown runs by Bob Hayes and George Uremovich, but USC tied the game and then went ahead 21-14 just before intermission when Coach McKay's son, Wide Receiver John McKay, grabbed a 31-yard pass from Quarterback Mike Rae in the corner of the end zone. A stern lecture by the coach at halftime seemed to have an inspirational effect on the Trojans, but more inspirational may have been Illinois' front-eight stunting defense, which left only three defensive backs to go man-to-man against the slippery USC receivers. USC quarterbacks Rae and Pat Haden completed 14 of 20 passes for 246 yards and three touchdowns. "We never quit, but we felt like we were trying to hold back a flood all day," summarized losing Coach Bob Blackman.

While its Big Eight rivals Oklahoma and Nebraska were running up huge scores, Colorado was in Minneapolis posting a relatively modest 38-6 victory over Minnesota. The Gophers, in an attempt to recall their great Golden Gopher image of 1934-41, have donned gold jerseys this year and in the first quarter even looked golden, moving to six first downs. The resemblance ended right there. End Bill Donnell recovered a Minnesota fumble on the Colorado 48 and five plays later Buffalo Tailback Charlie Davis scored on a three-yard plunge to trigger a 24-point Colorado second quarter. Davis achieved his sixth consecutive 100-yard rushing game with 119 yards on only 15 carries and scored twice. Quarterback Ken Johnson got touchdowns on two short keepers as Colorado gained a total of 352 yards on the ground and might have rolled up an even more impressive score if Coach Eddie Crowder had not used his reserves for most of the second half.

At Lafayette, Ind. the Washington Huskies proved once again they have a hex on Purdue, beating the Boilermakers for the second straight year with spectacular last-ditch heroics. Last year in Seattle it was a 33-yard touchdown pass by Quarterback Sonny Sixkiller with 2:33 left that lifted Washington to a 38-35 win. This year it was a 25-yard field goal by Steve Wiezbowski with 2:04 remaining that brought a 22-21 victory. Purdue roared through the first half as if destined to put the game completely out of reach. Quarterback Gary Danielson was as elusive as a ghost, gaining 209 yards on nine carries as Purdue marched 86, 80 and 80 yards for touchdowns. Then, on the third play of the third quarter, the momentum switched to Washington. Danielson, who completed only one of nine passes, was intercepted by Washington Linebacker Bob Ferguson. It was the first of three costly turnovers Purdue was to make. Washington scored after the interception on a four-play, 36-yard march, then scored twice more in the fourth quarter on short drives of 48 and 34 yards following Purdue fumbles, but failed on two Sixkiller passing tries for two-point conversions. The Cherokee quarterback more than made up for these lapses, however. Starting from his own 15, he completed three passes for 64 yards, taking the Huskies to the Purdue 10 and setting up Wiezbowski's winning kick.

At Madison the Badgers of Wisconsin had an easy 31-7 time with Syracuse, recovering seven of the Orangemen's 10 fumbles and getting a 153-yard rushing performance from Rufus (Roadrunner) Ferguson, their 5'6", 195-pound tailback. In other games, however, the Big Ten drew a blank. At East Lansing, Georgia Tech Quarterback Eddie McAshan tossed bombs over Michigan State's virtual nine-man defensive line and the Yellow Jackets won 21-16. McAshan completed 16 of his 26 passes, including touchdown strikes of 77 yards—on Tech's first play from scrimmage—and 36 yards to Jim Robinson. "They shocked us on the first play and we stayed in a state of shock all day," said Michigan State Coach Duffy Daugherty.

Notre Dame, its offensive line blocking with explosive quickness, ran up a 30-0 half-time lead at Evanston against Northwestern and coasted home 37-0. Irish Coach Ara Parseghian used five quarterbacks and 12 different ballcarriers as he swept his bench clean in the second half. At Bloomington, Indiana dropped a close one to TCU 31-28 as the Horned Frogs showed a strong running game, including a 72-yard scoring gallop by Halfback Mike Luttrell.

At Columbia, the Baylor Bears upset Missouri 27-0 when sophomore Quarterback Neal Jeffrey threw for one touchdown, scored another and completed seven of 11 passes.