The Week

1. ALABAMA (1-0)
2. TENNESSEE (1-0)
3. AUBURN (1-0)

Two years ago when the Colorado Buffaloes departed Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge they left a bad taste in the mouths of the LSU Tigers as well as some broken teeth. Getting clipped 31-21 in the season opener was one thing, but Buffalo Tailback Charlie Davis had topped off his 174 yards rushing—the most ever by an LSU opponent—by saying the Tigers had "hit soft." Since then nothing has served to anger the Tiger defense more than reminders that they "hit soft."

Last week the Buffaloes were back, trying to become the first team to go 2-0 against LSU in Tiger Stadium and trying to show they deserve their ranking in the Top Ten. They accomplished neither. This time Buffalo runners felt as if the Rockies had landed on them. "Hit soft" was a thing of the past as Davis was held to 19 yards and Colorado never took possession of the ball outside its own 31.

After a scoreless first half the Tiger offense also got busy. Leading the way was Mike Miley, successor to All-America Quarterback Bert Jones. Miley connected on seven of 10 passes for 140 yards and completed a 30-yard touchdown toss to Bert's kid brother Ben Jones. LSU had a tailback of its own named Davis, too—Brad Davis—and he rambled for 80 yards. It all added up to a 17-6 LSU win.

Like Colorado, Paul Dietzel left behind considerable bad feeling at LSU when he hastily exited to become the coach at Army 12 years ago. Since then his career has been filled with more potholes than a backwoods road. In 1966 he moved on to South Carolina, where his record has been a ho hum 31-42-1. Things had to change. This year Dietzel hired seven new assistant coaches and installed a veer offense. And, reminiscent of his glory days at LSU when special teams had colorful names such as Chinese Bandits, he made up a nickname for his kickoff-return squad, the Nasty Roosters.

Against Georgia Tech the Nasty Roosters, the 11 fastest men on the team, utilized a play that had been successful for Dietzel at LSU. It was a double hand-off on a kickoff, with Henry Laws doing most of the running on a 76-yard return at the start of the second half.

But even more important to the Gamecock cause were sophomore Quarterback Jeff Grantz, Defensive Back Mel Baxley and Punter Robby Reynolds. Grantz passed sharply, got off runs of 35 and 39 yards and twice turned his own fumbles to advantage, passing for a 13-yard gain on one of them and picking up eight yards on the other. Baxley intercepted a pass two yards in his end zone and raced it back for a touchdown. Reynolds, who was just getting over the chicken pox, was a pox to Tech's Randy Rhino, the nation's leading punt returner last season, who managed just one runback for seven yards.

With free substitution permissible this season, Bear Bryant came up with a fleet-footed method of exploiting the rule. Against California he had sophomore Danny Ridge-way run onfield with the next play and then leave before the action resumed. Bryant needed no such gimmicks. His Crimson Tide inundated the Golden Bears 66-0, gaining a school record of 667 yards in the process. Bryant used 73 players, including 14 backs, six of whom averaged better than 10 yards a carry.

Alabama's win came in the second game of a doubleheader in Birmingham. In the opener heavily favored Auburn survived a brawl and 51 passes by Oregon State's Alvin White (he completed 23) to win 18-9.

"There were times we just couldn't get shoe to shoe with Condredge Holloway to make the tackle on him," said Duke Coach Mike McGee of the Tennessee quarterback. With the surprising Blue Devils ahead 17-7 in the third quarter Holloway saved a busted play by wriggling away from three tacklers and going 49 yards for a touchdown. Then, with slightly more than two minutes left, he ran an option keeper en a fourth-and-four and dived for five yards. That put the ball on the Duke one-yard line, from where the Vols scored on the next play for a 21-17 win.