Tiger Plays Role By HAL BROWN Miami Nebraska's football team might hope it doesn't find the LSU Tigers as ambitious as Mike III, the LSU Tiger mascot was before LSU's -opening Miami workout Saturday afternoon for their New Year's night engagement against the Huskers in the . Orange Bowl. Mike III, a cute little baby tiger, wrestled a photographer ' to the ground during a picture . coco inn nrnnninrt tts a T CTT t L - PL J 1 1 wornoui aiier me team s ar- tivai licic ocliuiuay iiuuil, U1UI1 wrapped himself around the leg of another and attracted more attention than did the Tiger gridders at their Miami Military Academy practice site. Before turning his attention to playing briefly with the rolicking Bengal tiger, LSU coach Charlie McClendon told writers the most impressive thing to him about the Nebraska team was its size and physical strength. "I said after our game with Notre Dame that I didn't think I'd ever see another team with the size and physical strength that Notre Dame had," he offered, "But I had to retract that when I saw films of Nebraska. "Of course, at the time I made the original statement, I didn't know we'd be playing Nebraska. Many opponents appeared to be holding their own against Nebraska in the first half, but that size and strength seemed to tell in the third and fourth quarters. "Nebraska is a team that hasn't beaten itself and that's why they've gone 18 straight games without being beaten." The LSU coach pointed out that his Tigers hadn't faced any team similar in style to Nebraska, but added, "we've faced a lot more formations than Nebraska will throw at us. "They aren't a complicated team, but they just do what they do well and that's why they win and that's why Bob Devaney is the most successful coach in the nation. "Nebraska just lines up at you and gets the job done." la addition to their size and physical strength, McClendon points out he is impressed with the Huskers' passing ability and the completion percentages attained by quarterbacks Jerry Tagge and Van Brownson. "They are more effective passers than anyone I've seen," he observes. "One of them is hitting 63 per cent and the other one 65 per cent and that's phenomenal. "We've seen some great college passers such as Joe Theismann of Notre Dame, Archie Manning of Mississippi and Pat Sullivan of Auburn, but none of those can match the completion percentage of those Nebraska quarterbacks. "And it's not a matter of just throwing a few passes to get that great percentage. They throw 25 or 30 passes a game." The LSU coach said he viewed a bowl game much in the same vein as does Devaney as a reward to the players for a good season. "We're planning all our workouts for right after our lunch period he pointed out, "because I don't think we should lose track of the fact that a bowl game should be a reward for the players for a successful season, "They have made sacrifices and they deserve to have some fun. When we're out on that football field, we're serious about football, but when we're off it, we want to have some fun. "We think it's important to know when to be serious about football and when to hr.ve fun.' Along this line, McClendon Cont. on Page 4C
