The Week

Marc Wilson, who threw seven touchdown passes the week before in his first start for Brigham Young, had just one as the Cougars squeezed past Wyoming 10-7. This time, Wilson was intercepted six times and picked up only 96 yards on 10 completions in 26 attempts. BYU, which had been leading the nation in scoring with an average of 48 points a game and had been gaining 464 yards each time out, was bested by Wyoming 304 yards to 234. Nine fumbles ruined the Cowyboys' hopes. Wyoming lost seven of its fumbles, three of them being recovered by Linebacker Larry Miller. Brigham Young's triumph kept the Cougars (3-0) in first place in the Western AC. Second-place Arizona State (2-0) demolished Texas-El Paso 66-3 and Colorado State (3-1) downed New Mexico 14-9.

1. USC (5-2)
2. STANFORD (5-2)
3. UCLA (4-3)

MIDWEST

While Minnesota and Notre Dame deserved Sunday's headlines (page 20), lesser surprises were pulled off by Purdue and Michigan State. Mark Herrmann, the 6'5" freshman quarterback, and Split End Reggie Arnold put on a whale of a show as the Boilermakers won their first Big Ten game by toppling Iowa 34-21. Herrmann threw for five touchdowns and Arnold set a conference record by scoring four of them on receptions of 22, 43, 28 and 26 yards. Herrmann, who completed 13 of 20, now has 1,858 yards passing, tops in the nation and the third highest single-season total in Big Ten history and he still has four games to play.

Michigan State upended Wisconsin 9-7. With a fourth and one at the Spartan 12 early in the last period and Wisconsin trailing 9-0, Badger fans urged their team to go for it. Wisconsin Coach John Jardine complied, disdaining a field-goal try. Alas, the Badgers did not pick up the yard, and Wisconsin rooters turned their fury on Jardine. Wisconsin finally scored with 1:42 left, but could not catch the Spartans, who got 100 yards rushing from Jim Earley and a 51-yard field goal from Hans Nielsen.

Despite coughing up the ball on half of its eight fumbles, being intercepted once and giving up 252 yards on the ground, Ohio State beat Northwestern. The Buckeyes' 35-15 triumph, which moved them a game ahead of Michigan in the Big Ten, was built around a ground attack that netted 300 yards. Two State touchdowns were set up by long runs, a 73-yard gallop by Ron Springs and a 64-yarder by Jeff Logan, and Rod Gerald hit on nine of 14 passes for 148 yards. Illinois disposed of Indiana 21-7.

Colorado figured it would not have much difficulty penetrating Nebraska's porous defense, and for a while the Buffaloes gamboled and rambled all over the field. Howard Ballage returned a kickoff 98 yards for six Colorado points and Fullback James Mayberry barged over from one yard out to build the lead to 15-3.

But Husker Coach Tom Osborne inserted an extra linebacker and that helped contain the Buffs' running. Colorado was kept scoreless the rest of the way and Nebraska amassed 480 yards, 390 of them on the ground, en route to a 35-15 Big Eight win. For the fifth week in a row, I. M. Hipp ran for more than 100 yards for the Huskers, this time zipping for 172 on 31 carries and scoring on runs of 28 and four yards. Once-tied Colorado suffered its first loss of the season.

Moving into undisputed leadership in the conference was Oklahoma, which stomped Iowa State 35-16. Fullback Kenny King, who had missed the previous game because of a bruised shoulder, picked up the first 65 yards of a 71-yard drive to the Sooners' first touchdown and wound up with 146 in 23 trips.

With Oklahoma State leading Kansas 7-0 at halftime, Cowboy Coach Jim Stanley chewed out his No. 1 ground-gainer, Running Back Terry Miller. "You can run harder than you've been running," Stanley told him. "Let's get with it." After the intermission, Miller got going, romping 34 yards for a TD and coming through with his 15th straight 100-yard game as the Cowboys won 21-0. With 149 yards in 31 tries, Miller became the Big Eight's alltime rushing leader and raised his career total to 4,117 yards. His 1,043 yards for this season made him the first runner in the conference to gain 1,000 yards three consecutive years.