The Week

No one would say that Missouri thrives on squeakers, but it does win them and the Tigers are still undefeated after a successful 13-9 struggle with Oklahoma State, at home in Columbia. The Cowboys seemed determined to play Mr. Nice Guy. Three times they fumbled the ball away to set up all of Missouri's scoring. But the winner's most successful offensive move of the day was a 79-yard march that failed. The Tigers had fashioned a 13-3 lead on a 35-yard John Cherry to Jim Sharp pass and two Greg Hill field goals, when it took possession on its own 20 midway through the fourth period. Five and a half minutes later the Missouri drive died at the OSU one, but so did the Cowboy chances. They had time enough for only one touchdown march and when an onside kick failed the Tigers ran out the clock to win.

Kansas State had a close one in the Big Eight, too, getting by Iowa State at Manhattan 21 19, but Oklahoma had an easy time in Norman against Colorado 34-7. Sooner Safety Randy Hughes turned the game around early in the second quarter, picking off a Clyde Crutchmer pass, returning it 95 yards for a touchdown and a 14-7 Oklahoma lead just when it seemed the Buffaloes would go ahead.

SOUTHWEST

1. HOUSTON (6-0)
2. SMU (4-1)
3. TEXAS (3-2)

Poor Arkansas. There the squad was, all suited up for a friendly game of football and what it got instead before a record crowd at Razorback Stadium was a public goring, Longhorn style. Football hath no fury like a team humiliated, and Texas, all but drawn and quartered by Oklahoma the week before, was determined to save face, to take its frustrations out on the first thing that moved. Poor Arkansas, alas, moved.

Or rather it tried to move. The Razorbacks threatened but once when they drove to a fourth-and-one situation on the Texas five early in the first quarter. But the Longhorn defense, led by Doug English and Glen Gaspard, stopped Dickey Morton cold on a pitchout, and Arkansas never figured offensively again. Texas, meanwhile, savored every long, grinding, revengeful moment of a 94-yard scoring drive that endured for nine minutes, 57 seconds and gave the Longhorns a 6-0 lead at halftime.

The second half was pure Longhorn stampede. Junior Fullback Roosevelt Leaks, romping for touchdown runs of 43 and 59 yards, amassed a runaway total of 209 yards on 24 carries. Jimmy Moore scored on a 73-yard punt return, and an unheralded freshman, Raymond Clayborn, added six more points on an 85-yard scamper. In losing 34-6, the hapless Razorbacks did some belated face-saving of their own—and avoided their first Texas shutout since 1957—when Rollen Smith recovered a blocked punt in the Longhorn end zone with 13 seconds left.

In his first five starts this season Texas A&M Quarterback Mike Jay was threatening to break a school mark—the wrong kind of mark. Jay's 11 interceptions were closing in on the Aggie record of 19 so swiftly, in fact, that for last week's game with TCU, A&M Coach Emory Bellard replaced Jay, a seasoned ex-marine, with the youngest Aggie of them all, 17-year-old freshman David Walker. Walker coolly rose to the moment, directing the Aggies' T-bone attack to a 35-16 win over TCU. Walker, who ran for 81 yards, second only to Aggie sophomore Skip Walker's (no relation) 122 yards, threw no interceptions, perhaps mainly because he threw so little: of the 364 yards the Aggies rolled up in total offense, all but 11 were on the ground.

SMU edged Rice 27-16 with the help of two high school teammates from Dallas. Freshman Ricky Wesson, who took over at quarterback when Keith Bobo was injured, gained 107 yards, and Wayne Morris churned his way to 166 yards and three touchdowns. It was SMU's fourth win in five starts.