Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 21

K---- Vi'-a-v Psychologically Hot Layoff Worries Just Stop LSUyFelloivs! 49ers Whip Vikings Devaney Sfliirnal am- 'W Aa fcn I -v Minneapolis-St. Paul W) The San Francisco 49ers are headed for a National Football Conference championship game against the Dallas Cowboys and it's just possible the road was cleared by a little psychology that kept them from blowing their cool in the cold. Whether coach Dick Nolan's pregame training plan and quarterback John Brodie's short-sleeved game jersey were all part of a planned ploy to divert attention from the frigid cold that has become an ally of the Minnesota Vikings probably will never be known. What is known is that Nolan did not subject the 49ers to the cold of pro football's most northern, outpost until absolutely necessary, that the short-sleeved Brodie passed for one touchdown and scored another. And that the 49ers defeated the Vikings 17-14 Sunday in an NFC playoff.

But, in the deliriously happy San Francisco dressing room Sunday, the suspicion grew that psychology had become part of strategy. "Cold will affect you if you think about it," Nolan acknowledged. "There was a lot written about it." By DON FORSYTHE Miami, Fla. The "generation gap" is no problem for Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, but another sort of gap does concern head football coach Bob Devaney. "The thing that worries me as much as anything is that we finished our season two weeks ahead of LSU," says' Devaney.

Offensive line coach Carl Selmer echoes Devaney's concern. "The layoff will definitely hurt us," he says. "We've had trouble getting back into con-dition." But the fourth day of workouts in Miami Sunday brought the Cornhuskers closer to the peak they had in November. While the general condition of the squad is improving there was concern Sunday for the legs of split end Guy Ingles and cornerback Joe Blahak. Ingles has not yet fully recovered from a pulled muscle he incurred during the' workouts in Lincoln.

He. participated in only about half of Sunday's workout before LINCOLN, NEBRASKA DEC. 28, PAGE 21 So, urilike the Los Angeles Rams who came in here last year early in the week and lost a playoff game, Nolan didn't expose the 49ers to the cold, remaining on the West Coast for workouts. That obviously pleased Brodie, who pointed out with a smile. "I'd rather freeze for three hours than four days." Knowing he would only be out in the nine-degree weather for that short period, Brodie donned his short -sleeved shirt, kept his troops from losing their cool over five fumbles attributed to the chilling cold and directed them to within one victory of their first championship in the 49ers 25-year history.

Then, when he was asked about his warm-weather uniform, he turned aside the amateur psychologists trying to analyze the significance by pointing around the dressing room and saying: "There isn't a guy in the house that's cold right now." Despite completing 16 of 32 passes for 231 yards, combining with Dick Witcher on a 24-yard pass that made it 7-7 and scoring on a quarterback sneak to make it 17-7, Brodie disdained the hero's role that the statistics pointed his way "Our defense outplayed theirs, that's all it was," said the 14-year veteran. Following a fumble that enabled Paul Krause to scoot 22 yards for a 7-0 Minnesota lead after 6:23 of the first quarter, the San Francisco defense shut out the Minnesota offense until the Vikings scored with one second showing on the clock. Brodie's pass to Witcher tied it, a 40-yard field goal by Bruce Gossett late in the second period put the 49ers ahead to stay and Brodie slammed in from a yard out to build the bulge to 17-7 with 1:20 to go. The victory set up a pupil-teacher clash between Nolan and the man under whom be learned his defensive theories, coach Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys. "I enjoy playing against them Tom taught me everything I know," said Nolan, who took the 49ers to the Western Division title with the Dallas school of defensive thinking.

The chance to redeem themselves, which slipped away with three fumbles and two interceptions, obviously left some of the Vikings unsettled. AP WIREPHOTO Nebraska coach Bob Devaney chats with some of his defensive stalwarts, (from left) Willie Harper, Dave Walline, Ed Periard and Larry Jacobson, as the Huskers prepare to meet LSU in the Orange Bowl. Shula Forecasts Colt-Raider Battle Rugged9 Asked if he would do the same against Baltimore, Madden replied, "Apparently the Colts and Dolphins play some similarly because of the Shula influence. But we'll be dealing with different personnel so I can't say we'll do the same thing." Said Shula, "Our season comes to a screeching halt right now. It'll be strange having nothing to do on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I'm proud of the way our guys battled all the way." The Raiders' Sherman had a telephone call in the locker room from California Gov. Ronald Reagan. With his congratulations came the governor's hope that two California teams would be in the Super, Bowl. And, some of the Raiders admitted they had a pregame boost on hearing that cross-bay rival San Francisco had i beaten Minnesota in the National Conference layoffs thus building the possibility of California clubs meeting in the big finale on Jan. 17.

Oakland UP) Don Shula, a fellow who should know, foresees a rugged battle all the way when the Oakland Raiders collide with Baltimore's Colts next Sunday in the American Football Conference championship game. Shula left the head coaching job at Baltimore this year to take over the Miami Dolphins, and it was that team which fell 21-14 Sunday to Oakland in a National Football League opener. v- "Oakland has a great all-around football team," Shula commented. "They run and pass. Baltimore hasn't shown much of a running game until this week.

But they have a lot of weapons, a lot of big-play guys. Baltimore's defense is good, and their linebackers are exceptional." Oakland guard Gene Upshaw put it a little differently when he said, "Baltimore is going to be tougher playing at home. They're like us, they've been in championship games before and they know what it's all about. We're going to have to be more consistent. We can't give Baltimore those fumbles like we gave Miami." The young Dolphins, who reached the playoffs in 1970 after a last-place finish in 1969, scored first before the 54,401 in Oakland's Coliseum.

Paul Warfield took a 16-yard touchdown pass from Bob Griese on the second play after Charlie Smith fumbled and Bill Stanfill recovered at the Oakland 19 in the second period. The Raiders tied it up shortly before halftime on a 22-yard pass from Daryle Lamonica to Fred Biletnikoff. Defensive back Willie Brown sent the Raiders ahead to stay in the third period with a 50-yard touchdown runback of Griese's only intercepted pass'. "I had dropped back into a zone defense, and saw the ball coming directly at me," Brown related. "I had no idea I could go all the way." Lamonica unloaded an 82-yard bomb to Rod Sherman in the final quarter, and even though the Dolphins did collect another touchdown, on a seven-yard pass from Griese to Willie Richardson, it came too late.

After that touchdown, Miami almost got away with an onside kick, but the ball slithered out of bounds and officials awarded it to Oakland. Lamonica and Brown each were pesented game balls by their teammates, who now look ahead to their fourth title game in as many years'. The past three were for the old American Football League or divisional championship. Raider coach John Madden said his club used a "prevent" 1 defense more than usual in the successful effort to keep Griese and the Dolphins from exploding for long touchdowns. In the prevent, only three men line up on- the front with four linebackers and four others in the secondary.

it may even have sent a chill down a couple of backs. "You don't mind going down so much in a 'flaming battle," said coach Bud Grant. "But to be a victim of your own errors And his voice trailed off. But he quickly regained his com-posure, and possibly remembering the Vikings had the best record in pro football during the regular season admitted frankly: "It's an abrupt end. It's kind of hard to swallow." being given the rest of the day off to rest his leg.

Blahak limped off the field with a muscle cramp earlv in Sunday's workout and didn't return. "I don't think its serious, but we're just not taking any chances," said physical therapist George Sullivan. Veteran John Decker moved into Blahak's spot on the left corner. The Michigan senior had started there in the opener against Wake Forest before Blahak earned the No. 1 job.

Woody Cox filled in for 1 Ingles on the No. 1 unit and third string quarterback Bob Jones took a turn at split end with the No. 2 unit. Ingles, and Blahak, however, are expected to be ready for the Friday night test with LSU. The Cornhuskers will have one more workout at their Dade Junior College practice site, then shift their practices to the Orange Bowl stadium itself Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon.

LSU coach Charlie McClcn-don Sunday stressed that the Cornhusker offense would present some problems for his Tigers. '1 Devaney's teams don't beat themselves," he claimed. "Their four backs are better runners than we've faced all year and we haven't faced any quarterbacks with passing percentages like these." Statistics Dolphins Raiders Is 12 118 114 124 187 -5 19 13-27-1 8-16-0 Miami 0 7 0 714 Oakland a 7 7 721 Mia Warfield pass from Griese (Ye-premian kick) Oak Biletnikoff 22 pass from Lamonica (Blanda kick) Oak Brown SO pass Interception (Blanda kick) Oak Sherman 2 pass from Umonica (Blanda kick) Mia W. Richardson 7 pass from Griese (Yepremian kick) First downs Rushinq yardaqe Passing yardaqs Return yardage Passes Punts Fumbles lost Yards penalned 5-3? 432 2 30 San Francisco 7 3 0 7 IT Minnesota 7 0 0 714 Minn Kraust fgmbla ratum 22 (Co kick) Witcher 14 pass from Brodi (Gossett kick) SF FG Gossett 40 SF-Brodie 1 (Gossett nick) Minn Washington 24 pass from Cuozzo (Cox kick) Attendance 46,050. Ur ft 4Just Tired' Rangers Blow Big Lead as Blues Earn Tie Tiny Guy Says He's TV Fan Statistics 49ers Viking 14 14 Firs downs Rushing yardage Passing yardage Return yardage Passes Punts i Fumbles losf Yards penalized 96 193 16-32-0 i 8-34 3 37 117 124 34 J7.

7-3 2 5 New York W) Suntanned Sidney Salomon Jr. wore an ear-to-ear grin outside the St. Louis Blues dressing room. "That was some effort," grinned Salomon, "some effort." The Blues are the most sue cessful of the National Hockey League's expansion franchises Saints Sign Roberts down cost the Rangers five goals and a 7-4 loss in Detroit Saturday night, i "That's when you get tired," said Francis. "We're not machines, you know.

This has been a tough stretch." Elsewhere in the NHL Sun-, day, Buffalo beat Detroit 5-2 and Montreal took Philadelphia 4-2. In Saturday night's games, Detroit defeated New York 7-4, Pittsburgh downed Boston 4-2, Chicago dropped Vancouver 4-2, St. Louis tied Minnesota 1-1, Montreal tied Buffalo 4-4, Los Angeles trampled California 9-3 and Toronto blasted Philadelphia 9-1. Rookie Marc Tardif connected for his first NHL hat trick, scoring three times in Montreal's victory over Philadelphia. mm rs.

tC ir .1 ILiFglutl Lai Miami, Fla. UPl Nebraska's Guy Ingles isn't too fast, but he's small. That's the joke around the Cornhusker football camp. Opponents haven't had many laughs over being whipped by a pass receiver with such unawesome physical credentials. Ingles is 5-foot-9 and weighs 158 pounds about the size of Bubba Smith left leg.

"Don't let, that fool you," says Nebraska coach Bob Devaney. "Ingles has been tremendous, as good as anybody for a three-year career with us." Ingles caught 34 passes for 603 yards this season, good for eight touchdowns. His career totals are 78 receptions and 34 seconds apart by Jimmy Johnson and Guy Kendron. That cut Montreal's edge to 3-2 but the Canadiens tacked on a third period goal by Tardif to wrap up the victory. The loss stretched Philadelphia's winless string to eight games.

Buffalo spotted Detroit a two-goal lead and then roared back to rub out the Red Wings. Steve Atkinson keyed the comeback with two goals for the expansionist Sabres. Power play goals by Gordie Howe his third in two games and Tom Webster got Detroit off in front. Then goals by Atkinson and Floyd Smith the score for Buffalo in the second period. Don Marshall broke the tie for Buffalo early in the final period and then Paul Andrea connected with two Red Wings in the penalty box.

Atkinson breakaway goal capped the victory for the Sabres. 1,212 yards. Not bad for a gridiron midget. New Orleans UP) J. D.

Roberts, interim coach of the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League since midseason when coach Tom Fears was fired, was made head coach Monday, the Saints announced. Roberts, 38, has signed a multiyear contract. No details were announced." Roberts, brought to New Orleans from Richmond, where he was coach of the Atlantic Coast League team, won his first game with the Saints in November but lost the following six. The Saints were 1-5-1 when he joined them and finished with a 2-11-1 record. Roberts, an All-America at Oklahoma, formerly scouted for the Saints and the New York Jets and was an assistant coach at the University of Houston, Auburn, the U.S.

Naval Academy, Oklahoma and the University of Denver. Writers Barred From Workouts "I'm not super slow," claims Ingles. "I run the 40-yard dash in 4.6 seconds. Of course, that isn't super fast, either." The umana boy received a big share of his football educa tion through television, spend ing Sunday afternoon watching Two goals by Tardif and one by Billy Collins had given the Canadiens a 3-0 edge but the Flyers bounced back with goals Watches Given To Coaches And Seniors Kansas City Gf-Coaches of Big Eight Conference basketball teams were presented watches by the league Sunday night. Seniors on Big Eight teams also received watches.

Dr. Clyde Jones, faculty representative of Iowa State University, made the presentation to coaches Glen Anderson of Iowa State, Jack Hartman of Kansas State, Sam l1 LSU offensive backfield coach Charley Pevey noted that the Tigers haven't seen much or the defensive alignment utilized by the Cornhuskers. "Most of the time we've seen a 'split 40' front and Nebraska has what we call a '50'," he said. The' "50" refers to the Cornhuskers' five-man defen-sive front. Tiger quarterback Buddy Lee, the starter in LSU's 1-2 quarterback tandem which also features Bert Jones, described the Cornhusker defense as being much like Notre-Dame's.

"Notre Dame's defense is the the best we've faced. They shut us out," he said. "On film Nebraska looks big and aggressive just as good as Notre Dame." Policies Protested North Platte Ul The Lincoln County Wildife Club has sent Sen. Ellen Craft of North Platte a formal protest on what its president, Dallas Darland of North Platte, calls happenings I within the State Game and Parks Commission. A Darland said the letter protested, among other things, the "loss of a seining crew, the loss of trained biologists from fishery and game management in the state, the loss of professional attitudes by staff members and employment of staff members on a political basis." The letter said the "low "morale" of employes and staff on the Game Commission is due to a cut in salaries and the use of Game Commission money for "tourism and parks." Darland said his group is not opposed to tourism, but felt tourism and parks should be treated and administered separately.

At its Dec. 17 meeting, the commissioners went on record as insisting that no game and i fish funds be spent on tourism, and favoring a space tax of, some sort to fund the tourism program. y. the great pro players make their offensive moves. "Instant replay helps me with two West Division titles and three straight appearances in the Stanley Cup finals.

Still, they can enjoy the accomplishment of showing up an established team and that's just what Salomon's club did to New York Sunday night. Third period goals by Bill McCreary and Red Berenson earned the Blues 44 tie with the Rangers in a game which saw them trailing by three goals late in the second period. The Rangers have been unbeatable in their own rink this season, going 18 games without a setback at home. So the tie, especially after trailing 3-0 and 4-1, felt awfully good to Salomon and the Blues. It didn't sit quite as well with Emile Francis, whose Rangers have blown 4-2 leads in the third period of their last two starts.

"We just ran out of steam, that's said Francis. "We've had six games in nine days and another one coming up Tuesday. With all the travel in between, we're a tired hockey club." The Rangers weren't too tired not to fight. They brawled the Blues to the tune of 80 penalty minutes including 10 majors and one misconduct whistled down.by referee Art Skov. New York bunched first period goaJs by Jim Neilson, Dave Balon and Walt Tkacaik for the early lead.

Gary Sabourin of St. Louis and Pete Stemkowski of New York swapped early goals in the second period and then Jim; Lorentz took advantage of some sloppy Ranger clearing to score the Blues' second goal with just 1:15 left in the middle period. McCreary made it 4-3 less than one minute into the third period and theft the Rangers pressured -Blues' goalie Ernie Wakely. Berenson broke up the attack at the blue line study the pros' techniques he says. "They are experts, You get an idea of how it really All event frac unlet followed-by all tine a.n.

lutleat boldfaced (or p.m. Monday "State College Basketball Chadron Holiday Tournament, Chadron v. Metropolitan, Colo. St Tuesday State Prep Basketball Pius v. Omaha Paul VI at Waverly Tournament, 7.

College Basketball Wayne Holiday Tournament, Wayne v. Missouri Western; Kearney Holiday Tournament, Kearney v. Sioux Falls, S.D.; Hastings Christmas Tournament, Hastings v. Simpson, Iowa; Doane Invitational, Doane v. Southwestern, Chadron Holiday Tournament.

Regional College Basketball Big Eight Tournament at Kansas City, 3, 7 and 9. Wednesday State College Basketball Chadron Holiday Tournament; Wayne Holiday Tournament; Kearney Holiday Tournament; Hastings Christmas Tournament; Doane Invitational Prep Basketball Pius at Waverly Tournament Regional, College Basketball Big Eight Tournament at Kansas City, 1, 3 7 and 9. 1 AP WIREPHOTO Pasadena, Calif. MV-John Ralston borrowed a bit of Woody Hayes' strategy Sunday, barring Ohio State writers from a heavy Stanford workout that included some scrimmaging. The Stanford coach, whose Pacific-8 kings are 11-point underdogs against the Big Ten champions in the Rose Bowl Friday, said he would close practices to Buckeye writers the rest of the way.

"We'll practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but they will be of a secluded nature," Ralston said. "You will have trouble finding us." Rod Sherman (13) grabs a pass from Oakland teammate Daryle Lamonica, although he has trouble, and raced 82 yards to score. Van Dillen lulo Finals should be done." Ingles will put his moves on display New Year's night against Louisiana State in the Orange Bowl. It's on NBC-TV and starts at 7 p.m. "LSU's defense is really tough and quite a challenge, said Ingles.

"Their rushing defense is quick.and tough and their secondary makes a guy like me work hard." Ingles said, "You can throw a blanket over the best five or six teams in the country and LSU is one of them-1 figure if Ohio State and Texas get spilled earlier New Year's Day, then we might be playing for No. 1." The Cornhuskers' small wonder will be out there Friday 1 night doing his stuff with short physical assets. He's prepared, though watching all those pro playoff games on TV and learning new moves to throw at the Tigers. Aubrey of Oklahoma State, Sox Walseth of Colorado, Ted Owens of Kansas, Norm Stewart of Missouri, Joe Cipriano of Nebraska and John MacLeod of Oklahoma. Cliff Meely, Colorado's senior star, was unable to be present for the presentation at the Big Eight pre-season basketball tournament players' banquet.

Walseth failed to give an explanation as to why Meely was not present to be given a watch, and Owens blurted: "I was afraid he was going to be around for another year." year." New Orleans, La. WV-Erik Van Dillen bested fellow Davis Cupper Tom Gorman 6-5, 5-6, 6-3 Sunday right and moved into the Sugar Bowl Invitational Tennis Tournament final round against Pakistan's Haroom Rahim. Van Dillen, a sophomore at Southern California, showed a strong back hand and an evenly balanced game to overcome Gorman's big serve and booming overhead game. Gorman is from Seattle, Wash. Rahim, the current U.S.

amateur champ and the only amateur in this field, sprung an upset earlier in the evening by trimming Davis Cupper Charles Pasardl of San Juan, ba "Wednesday Monday and went the length of the rink to beat goalie Gilles Villemure for the tying goal. A similar third-period let- Orange Bowl Preview p.m. (6); 8 p.m. (7-10). Peach Bowl Arizona Stata v.

North Carolina, 7 p.m. (6), Hassling 10:25 p.m. (7)..