The Evening Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 27

THE EVENING SUN SPORTS SECTION BALTIMORE, TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1979 Three Teams Claim National Crown Bear Sang Early Song Of Victory The Associated Press The national championship in college football is up for grabs after a costly fumble by Penn State in the Sugar Bowl. The Nittany Lions' chances for their long sought-after national title quickly turned sour in the wake of fu 14defeat by N- 2 Alabama yesterday. And while the Crimson Tide was claiming the No. 1 ranking there were other voices heard from after the results of New Year's Day. Third-ranked Southern Cal put in a bid for the title with a 17-10 decision over No.

5 Michigan in the Rose Bowl, and fourth-ranked Oklahoma hoped to move into the picture after a 31-24 decision over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl last night. Only the winner of the Cotton Bowl, No. 10 Notre Dame, was apparently out of the title picture. The Fighting Irish beat the ninth-ranked Houston Cougars in a 35-34 thriller, but their 9-3 record pales in comparison to the glittering 11-1 marks of Alabama, Southern Cal, Oklahoma and Penn State. "Alabama should be No.

1," said a distressed Joe Paterno, the Penn State coach who lost an opportunity for the Nittany Lions' first national championship. fense. I believe we have the greatest offensive team in the country. "Defense? Alabama has a great defensive team. Penn State also has a great defensive team, but I felt all season there are quite a few teams with a better offense than Penn State.

Whatever the final polls say, I just hope we're recognized in a position representative of the greatness of this team." Alabama's performance yesterday certainly measured up to a No. 1 ranking. Bryant's boys stopped Penn State when they had to in fact, two times within the 1-yard line in the final quarter. Major Ogil-vie ran 8 yards for the tie-breaking touchdown with 21 seconds left in the third period. "We beat the best team we've played all year," said Alabama running back Tony Nathan.

"They were strong and well-coached! We just took it to them." That's exactly what Southern Cal did to Michigan at the start of the Rose Bowl, running np a 17-3 lead in the first half behind the quarterbacking of Paul McDonald and the running of Charles White. McDonald passed 9 yards for one score and White ran 3 yards for another to give the Pacific-10 champions all thejwints they needed in the Pasadena classic. The victory continued the West's mastery in the "Alabama beat an awfully good football team and has as much right to claim it as anybody." Alabama Coach Bear Bryant seconded the motion. "Yes, I feel we're the best in the country," he said. "There are a couple of reasons I would vote our team No.

I they overcame all the injuries and peaked today, and our schedule was extremely difficult. There were no soft touches." One of the toughest opponents for Alabama this year was Southern Cal. The Trojans beat the Crimson Tide at the start of the season, and it's the primary reason that voters will give them heavy consideration as the nation's top college football team. "I pick us No. 1," said Southern Cal Coach John Robinson, who like Bryant insisted that his team played one of the toughest schedules in the country.

"It's one of the greatest teams in USC history." Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer, meanwhile, wasn't exactly claiming a title for his team, but was promoting the possibility. Asked who deserved to be No. 1 when the final Associated Press poll is released tomorrow morning, Switzer replied: "I don't know. I think we are a great team. We've led the nation in rushing and scoring and came up just a few yards-short in leading in total of Rose Bowl, where Pacific-10 teams have won for five straight years.

The game was punctuated by a mild earthquake. Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims and quarterback Thomas Lott scored two touchdowns apiece in Oklahoma's victory over Nebraska the first time that the Big Eight rivals have met in a bowl game, the victory gave the Sooners a bit of revenge for a 17-14 loss to the Cornhuskers Nov. 11. Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana completed an 8-yard TD pass to receiver Kris Haines as time ran out and Joe Unis kicked the vital extra point to give the Fighting Irish a spectacular comeback victory over Houston's Southwest Conference champions. The Cougars had built a seemingly safe 34-12 lead through the first three quarters before the Irish staged their rally on the coldest day in Cotton Bowl history, with the chill factor a minus-6 degrees.

In action Sunday, Stanford scored a 25-22 victory over No. 11 Georgia in the Bluebonnet Bowl behind quarterback Steve Dils, who completed three touchdown passes in a 4 Vi -minute span in the third period. I BILL TANTON 1 A Alabama Deserves No. 1 By Chuck Newman Knight News Service NEW ORLEANS Alabama's fcear Bryant went without his favorite fedora in yesterday's Sugar Bowl game against Penn State. "The question has been asked," boomed the announcement over the Superdome loudspeaker, "as to why Coach Bryant isn't wearing his hat.

The. answer is that he is inside and he is too much of a gentleman to wear it inside." So much for the pressing problems confronting society today. So the 65-year-old legend of Alabama had his reason for no hat. But what was he doing singing before one of the most important games in Crimson Tide history? "I don't know," said Alabama linebacker Barry Krauss, who led a guerilla assault that blasted Penn State's national championship hopes, "but he was singing, like under his breath. I don't know what he was singing but when we heard him, we knew he was loose.

And you better believe that I wasn't going to ask him to name that tune." The 238-pound Krauss was fondling the trophy that came with being named the game's most valuable player and happily recalling some of the incidents in the game. Like his one-on-one hit of Penn State tailback Mike Guman that preserved Alabama's 14-7 lead and probably a national championship. Like the six solo tackles and five sacks of Penn State quarterback Chuck Fusina that Alabama's defensive unit had accomplished. "All I know is that Coach Bryant told us to leave it all out on the field. And I can speak for our team in saying that we are air dead tired.

We left it all out oij the field." It had been a gruelling, debilitating three-hour war for the national championship. Krauss and his front-line comrades had foiled Penn State's plans to exploit what had been a porous Tide secondary unit. "We knew they wanted to attack our pass defense," Krauss was saying. "And our plan was to get to them first before they hurt us." So the Tide front line, along with tbe linebackers, started coming at Fusinajear-ly. From the top.

And they evidently unnerved the Nittany Lion offense. "From the beginning," Byron Braggs, the 6-foot-6, 264-pound Tide noseguard who harassed Fusina the entire first half, declared, "they seemed to be arguing among themselves. They were asking each other, 'What's going Penn State all-American offensive' tackle Keith Dorney denies that there was inner conflict but admits that he was waiting for the Nittany Lions to get their offensive act together. "A couple of times we would get a first down and I kept thinking, 'Now, we'll start But it seems it never happened." State got one first down in the first quarter and never showed a continuity on offense. They ended with three first downs rushing, and only 19 yards total rushing for the day.

"We knew we could stop their running game," Braggs bragged. "Our main concern was their passing. Don't take anything away from them, they were strong, real strong blocking. Sometimes they just overpowered us. We had to rely on; our quickness." Alabama quarterback Jeff Rutledge Continued, Page C10, Col.

1 way. Even when Penn State had two chances to score from the 1-yard line and tie or go ahead, it was Alabama that proved tougher, stopping the Nittany Lions both times. And when Penn State appeared to have been granted a reprieve and pos-. session of the football on the Alabama 20 after a punt, there was a yellow penalty flag on the green Superdome rug. Penn State had had 12 men on the field, and Alabama had a first down.

"The kid forgot to come off the field," Paterno explained. "Which kid?" he was asked. "It doesn't matter," Joe said. "It wasn't his fault." It was Paterno's fault, of course. When a kid forgets, it's because his coaches didn't prepare him properly, and even if a special teams coach is directly responsible, the head coach has the overall responsibility.

Paterno knows that and admits it. USC Claims Title AP Photo THAT'S MY POP Notre Dame's Joe Unis (right), who won Cotton Bowl with extra point, celebrated victory with his dad, Tom. Taste Of Revenge Is Bittersweet For Sooners, Who Can't Forget From this vantage point, the choice is clear: Alabama has earned the No! 1 college football championship and deserves it. But there is less than unanimity on this, as the final Associated Press poll tomorrow will show. Out West, where things always look different, Southern California is claiming No.

1 after its 17-10 victory over Michigan in the Rose Bowl. And there is at least one facet of the Trojans' claim that the greatest Alabama diehard will have a hard time refuting: Southern Cal beat Alabama this year. Still, to this observer, it was all settled in rather conclusive fashion yesterday in New Orleans, where 'Bama beat Penn State in the Sugar Bowl, 14-7. Those who are concerned about the crowning of a valid national champion, which, I presume, means everybody who follows college football, were lucky this year. What we had yesterday was a head-to-head meeting between No.

1 and No. 2. Penn State, with 19 straight wins over two seasons, was No. 1. Coach Bear Bryant's Crimson Tide, beaten this year only by USC, was No.

2. Since the inception of the AP pell in 1936, when Minnesota ended up No. 1, there have been only five times when No. 1 met No. 2 at the end to decide it all.

In the other years the season ended with some degree of ambiguity and uncertainty, although the pollsters always managed to confer the mythical championship on someone. But the Sugar Bowl certainly told us which was the better team, No. 1 or No. 2. No.

2 was. Penn State was denied what would have been its first national championship in 92 years of football. Alabama is claiming its fifth title, all under the 65-year old legend, Bryant. Penn State Outplayed From a personal standpoint, Penn State's loss comes as a disappointment, largely because of admiration for the Nittany Lions' coach, Joe Paterno. Paterno has long been an anomaly, a football coach who does not think football is life's be-all and end-all, and who does not view a loss as a form of dying, which is a good thing today.

Joe has rare intelligence and balance, and more of the perspective of the educator than his peers in big time coaching. All that seems to matter today, though, is that Alabama has the better team. The Tide earned its victory all the Slashing I-back Berns, who gained 99 yards on 19 carries, had said earlier he wanted to show the Sooners they were beaten by the better team in Lincoln. "I didn't think there was any way they could win," he said. "I don't think it proved anything." But the championship was not decided in the Sugar Bowl, says John Robinson, the USC coach, and he was on record with that before the fact.

"I'm going to vote for USC for No. 1," said Robinson after his Trojans beat Michigan, 17-10. (The coaches vote in one wire service poll; sports writers cast the AP ballots.) "We've beaten five bowl teams this year," Robinson said, "and six that are ranked in the top 20." It is surprising to me that the first words out of Robinson's mouth were not about his team's convincing early season win over Alabama, in Birmingham yet. Similar words did follow, however. "We defeated Alabama, the Sugar Bowl champion," Robinson said.

"We defeated Notre Dame, the Cotton Bowl champion. We defeated Michigan, the Big Ten champion. We've beaten some good football teams." USC's sin was losing an October game to Arizona State. That in all likelihood will cost the Trojans the national championship. For sheer drama, the game of the year was Notre Dame's 35-34 win over Houston in the Cotton Bowl yesterday.

Trailing by 22 points, the Irish scored 23 in the final quarter to win, the last touchdown coming with no time remaining in the game. The kicker, 5-foot-8 Joe Unis, even had to kick the winning extra point twice, the second time from 5 yards further back after a motion penalty. MIAMI (AP) Oklahoma avenged its only defeat by winning this year's Orange Bowl, but the victory only added to the Sooners' frustration. Oklahoma ran up a 31-10 lead then held off Nebraska for a 31-24 victory in the "Rematch Bowl." Nebraska won at Lincoln in November, 17-14. Top-ranked Penn State's Sugar Bowl loss to Alabama left the fourth-ranked Sooners, 11-1, with a longshot chance of moving ahead of two other once-beaten teams, Alabama and Southern Cal, in the Associated Press poll that will be announced tomorrow.

However, most of the Sooners are convinced they let a national championship slip through their fingers when they lost six of nine fumbles during the earlier Nebraska game. "There's no way this game replaces the first one. There's no way to make up for losing the national championship," said quarterback Thomas Lott, who scored two touchdowns while directing the devastating Sooner Wishbone offense. "How can you forget losing to them?" asked Lott, who fumbled five times at Lincoln. "Something like that affects your life so much." Asked if the Sooners still have hope, Lott smiled wanly.

"It helps because we've beaten every team on our schedule. But I don't even think there's a chance. We can't hope for tnat much. It's almost really impossible. And.

we can't blame nobody but ourselves." Coach Barry Switzer, whose team lost its hold on last year's No. 1 ranking with a 31-6 upset loss to Arkansas in the Orange Bowl, said he felt Alabama and Southern Cal were more likely choices than the Sooners. "I doubt if we can ever make up for that loss at Lincoln. We'll be remembered as the team that lost the championship by three yards," he said, referring to Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims' fumble at the Nebraska 3 in the closing moments. "Without that fumble, we would have been playing Penn State here tonight for the national championship," he said.

The Sooners may have cost themselves a few first-place votes by getting out-scored 14-0 in the final quarter. Lott lost a fumble in the quarter, and Nebraska scored a touchdown on the game's final play. "We were thinking that if the other teams played close games, which they did, and we came in here and scored a lot of points and beat them bad, we could move in there," Sims said. But nose guard Reggie Kinlaw, who led the Sooner defense with 11 tackles, said the team was drained by then. "Both the offense and defense were very tired, because we played so hard.

It's very hard to stop the No. 1 offense in the nation," he said. As the Sooner offensive line opened the holes, Lott masterfully mixed plunges by Kenny King and Sims with his own runs and passing and pitches to Sims. A 38-yard pass play from Lott to split end Steve Rhodes moved Oklahoma to the 3, then Lott followed with a 3-yard run to give the Sooners a 14-7 lead at the half. Early in the third quarter, Lott ran 38 yards to the Nebraska 11, and Sims galloped in on the next play.

Sims, who gained 134 yards on 25 carries, had a 2-yard score in the first quarter. An interception by Darrol Ray on the next series set up a 26-yard field goal by Uwe von Schamann that Nebraska matched on the following series with a 31-. yard kick by Billy Todd. Sims' 28-yard run began a drive that ended with Lott's 2-yard run with seven seconds left in the third quarter. The Huskers came inexorably back on a 78-yard, 15-play drive capped by Rick Berns' 1-yard plunge, but after Lott fumbled at the Sooner 42, Nebraska was stopped at the 7.

Quarterback Tom Sorley tossed 2 yards to Junior Miller as the clock ran out for the final score. "We got beat," Sorley said. "I have to concede that to Oklahoma." Irish Comeback Shocks Cougars i Ca fx Sfr 'fill 1 7' h. VUrfv DALLAS (AP) "They kept celebrating and we kept coming," said Dave Huffman, Notre Dame's center and team philosopher after the Irish came from a 34-12 deficit with a last-second touchdown for a 35-34 win over Houston yesterday in the ice-laden Cotton Bowl. Dallas was hit with its worst ice storm in 30 years, and the wind-chill factor had slipped to minus-8 degrees.

There were no-shows and an estimated attendance of 32,500. But there were only a handful of diehards who saw Joe Montana hit Kris Haines with an 8-yard touchdown pass as time ran out. Joe Unis, a Pallas native, was then pressed into twice kicking what proved to be the winning point, and the 10th-ranked Irish had culminated what might go down as one of the greatest comebacks in Notre Dame history. Montana, Notre Dame's comeback kid, had been fighting the flu and was shivering so much that he couldn't come out of tha dressing room immediately alter the intermission at halftimc. In fact, Montana didn't return until late in the third quarter, at which time Houston.

Southwest Conference champion, was beginning to celebrate what appeared to be a runaway victory. "No, no, no," said Houston Coach Bill Yeoman. "We didn't Continued, Page CS, Col. 3 AP Photo STEALING FROM A LION-Alabama's Jim Bub Harris (9) and Dnn McNeal (28, behind Harris) come down with hall for interception alter Penn State pass for Bob Bassett (while jersey) was short in Sugar Bow! won by 'Bama, 14-7. AP Photo 'WE DID IT' Notre Dame Coach Dan Drvinc embraces an assistant alter his Irish staged miraculous Cotton Bowl comeback.

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