The Week

Way back in 1912, Shorty Miller of Penn State ran for 250 yards against Carnegie Tech. That was the most ever for a Nittany Lion runner—until Curt Warner zipped and ripped his way for 256 in 26 cracks at Syracuse last week. Warner's big gainer was a 69-yard scoring burst. Todd Blackledge kept Orange defenders honest; he completed 10 passes in a row before missing on his final attempt. Two of Blackledge's throws were good for TDs as Penn State won 41-16 to remain one of eight undefeated and untied teams in Division 1-A. Pitt (page 30), which beat Florida State 42-14, was another of those eight.

Oliver Luck, an Academic All-America and Rhodes Scholar candidate, passed West Virginia to a 27-6 victory over Virginia Tech. Luck completed 17 of 27 passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns.

Tink Murphy's 15-for-20 passing netted 204 yards as Temple won 24-12 at Rutgers. Four field goals by Steve Fehr led Navy to a 25-10 triumph at Boston College.

Unbeaten Yale drubbed fellow Ivy League opponent Columbia 48-17 as Rich Diana rushed for 131 yards and scored three touchdowns. Marc DiNunzio ran back a Brown punt 94 yards for a TD in a 14-9 Cornell win. Dartmouth, down 10-0 in the second quarter at Harvard, won 24-10 as Sean Maher scored, twice and ran for 118 yards. Princeton traveled to West Point, where Army got its first shutout in 123 games, 34-0.

WEST

Stanford Coach Paul Wiggin called it a "brilliant play." Southern Cal Coach John Robinson felt it should have been called intentional grounding. "It" was a deliberate forward fumble by Cardinal Quarterback John Elway, who saw he was going to be tackled short of a first down and gambled on dropping the ball. It rolled out of bounds, giving the Cardinals a first down at the USC three instead of losing the ball on downs. On the next play, Elway passed to Flanker Mike Tolliver to cut the Trojan lead to 25-17 with 2:01 left in the Pac-10 game. But a two-point pass try failed, and an onside kick was recovered by USC to quash Stanford's hopes and the score stood.

Southern Cal led 25-3 in the third period before Elway, who passed for only 36 yards in the first half, began clicking. He threw for 199 yards after the intermission. Conversely, John Mazur of the Trojans was more effective in the first two periods, in which he got all of his 175 passing yards. Marcus Allen of Southern Cal had 153 yards in 40 carries, the first time he's finished below 200 this season.

Washington State was one of five major teams to have an undefeated, untied record marred last week. The Cougars, off to their best start in 51 years, led UCLA 17-10 with 4:53 to go, but wound up with a 17-17 standoff. Seven plays after the Bruins fell on a fumble at the State 32, Frank Cephous raced six yards for the tying touchdown. The Cougars outgained UCLA 475 yards to 320 and remained first in the Pac-10.

Arizona State whipped California 45-17 and Washington swamped Oregon State 56-17 to stay in the race. Robert Weathers rushed for 208 yards as the Sun Devils' offense rolled up 630 yards, and Arizona State got a team-record 51-yard field goal from Luis Zendejas. Four first-half touchdown passes by Steve Pelluer enabled Washington to coast.

"I think we felt like we were slapped in the face," Arizona Coach Larry Smith complained when his Wildcats, who beat USC the week before, were made one-point underdogs to Oregon, which was 1-4. The Ducks led 14-9 in the final period, but Vance Johnson's 11-yard run and Brett Weber's 32-yard field goal gave Arizona an 18-14 win.