The Lincoln Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • Page 24

First downs Rushing yardage Passing yardage Return yardage Passes Punts Fumbles lost Yards penalized 42 6: ops ft i COLOR Utah State Nebraska The offense displayed brilliant balance with 239 yards through the air and 230 on the ground. Old stuff. Jerry Tagge unloaded a touchdown "bomb" to Johnny Rodgers. That's a surprise? The Cornhuskers have a 4 0 record to carry into their Big Eight opener at Missouri next week. It's a habit.

Only once in 10 seasons (1969) has a Bob Devaney coached club failed to enter its first conference game with an undefeated record. There was only momentary concern that anything unusual might develop in Memorial Stadium Saturday. Utah State, with quarterback Tony Adams mixing his plays beautifully, quickly collected three consecutive first downs at own 26 and Tagge immediately hit Rodgers for a 13 yard gain. On successive third down plays he then hit Rodgers for 19 yards and Jeff Kinney for 22. The latter play carried to the Utah State 12 and Rodgers then zipped around left end into the end zone.

It didn't count as the Cornhuskers were called for illegal procedure. That became an all too familiar happen ing as the day went on. The Cornhuskers were red flagged eight times for 97 yards, only 28 yards less than they'd accumulated in three previous starts. The penalty didn't deter the Cornhuskers long. Two plays later Tagge tossed a screen pass to fullback Bill Olds in the right flat.

The jarring junior ran out of the arms of Tom Murphy and Bob Galeazzi at the line Cont. on Page 3C, Col. 2 How They Scored 'Old Stuff nn Utah State i 11 23 40 89 53 230 138 239 14 10 17 2 12 23 0 8 37 3 39 0 1 42 91 NU 6 7 13 14 20 21 27 28 28 34 35 41 42 US Time left First Quarter 0 Olds, 14 pass from Tagge 5:23 0 Sanger, kick 0 Tagge, 3 run 0:45 0 Sanger, kick Second Quarter 0 Mason, 53 pass interception 11:15 0 Sanger, kick Third Quarter 0 Tagge, 1 run 9:07 0 Sanger, kick 6 Wicks, 39 pass from Adams 7:19 (kick failed) 6 Rodgers, 36 pass from Tagge 5:55 6 Sanger, kick Fourth Quarter 6 Anderson, 22 pass from Brownson 8:35 6 Sanger, kick character, Nebraska string to 23 games previously undefeated hand came looking they went home defenders turned in one touchdown SECTION 10 PAGES OCT. 3, 1971 LINCOLN SUNDAY JOURNAL AND STAR the outset. The Aggies moved from their own 24 to the Nebraska 39, causing some slight restlessness among the red clad faithful.

Two plays netted nothing, then Willie Harper spilled Adams for a nine yard loss. Folks eased back in their stadium seats. The Cornhuskers took possession at their ByDONFORSYTHE Staying perfectly in ran its unbeaten football with a 42 6 romp past Utah State Saturday. If the 67,421 fans on for something different disappointed. The 'Black Shirt' their fourth straight performance.

Ho hum. Strength Remains Mystery He knows he has ai good football team, but Just how good Nebraska head coach Bob Devaney admits he doesn't yet know. "I think we have a good football team," he offered after Saturday's 42 6 triumph over Utah State for the Huskers fourth one sided victory of the season. "But how good we are right now I think again boils down to how good the teams are that we've beaten. "If they're good football teams, then we are a very good team, but I think we've got to wait a few more games before we can tell." The next test comes against Missouri and will be the Huskers' first road game of the year and the first on natural grass.

"With the exception of that one year when we beat them by 35 0, we've always had trouble with Missouri and we've had particular trouble moving the ball on them." Loss Doesn't Matter The fact that Army defeated Missouri Saturday Hd not lessen his concern over the Nebraska flanker Johnny Rodgers (20), master of the open field, cuts sharply as he's safety Craig Smith (10) as he collects a small chunk of the 237 yards he got against next move while Gary Dixon (22) and SUNDAY JOURNAL AND STAR COLORPHOTO BY HARALO OREIMANIS confronted by a trio of Utah State defenders. Rodgers' most pressing concern is eluding the Aggies in rushing, pass receiving and kick returns. Woody Cox (32) awaits Rodgers' Keith Wortman (65) detain another defender. Victory Fuentes, McCovey Blast Giants to the Pirates said the Giants winning pitcher, Gaylord Perry, "always has pitched pretty well against us and he's always a good competitor." The skipper said he may make some lineup changes for Sunday's second game when Pittsburgh faces San Francisco left hander John Cumberland. "If I do, I'll let you know tomorrow," he added.

Willie Stargeil, the major league's home run leader, who had 48 during the regular season, went hitless once fouling out with the bases loaded. Oliver, however, followed with a single producing a pair of runs in the seventh inning. "The first couple of times up, Perry got me on fast balls and the second two I think it was his sinker," Stargeil commented. "He's a good pitcher. Hitting is one of two things, SAN FRANCISCO (AP) "Willie McCovey hit the kind of ball he's making a hundred grand a year to hit, a fast ball right down the middle." Pittsburgh's losing pitcher Steve Blass, in the Pirate's quiet clubhouse, calmly discussed the two home runs in the fifth inning Saturday that brought his downfall Tito Fuentes, the San Francisco Giants' second baseman, hit one with a man on base and the ball just cleared the right field fence.

Then after Willie Mays walked, McCovey unloaded a tremendous drive into the unfinished second deck of Candlestick Park's right field. Those four runs brought the 5 4 victory in the opening game of the National League's championship playoffs. think the pitch to Fuentes would have been a ball if he hadn't swung at it," Blass asserted. "It was a low slider." Bucs Boarded PITTSBURGH SAN FRANCISCO bl ab bl Cash 2b 5 2 2 1 Hendersn If 4 0 2 1 Hebner 3b $010 Fuentes 2b 4112 Clemente rf 4000 Mays cf 2 110 Stargelt If 4 0 0 0 McCovey lb 3 1 1 2 AOIiver cf 4 0 12 Kingman rf 3 0 0 0 BRobrtsn lb 4 0 2 0 Bonds rf 10 0 0 Sanguilln 4 0 10 Dietz 4 0 0 0 JHerndz ss 2 110 Gallagher 3b 2 0 0 0 Davalillo oil 1 0 0 0 Lanier 3b 10 0 0 Moose MMay ph Giusti Blass Alley ss 0 0 0 0 Soeier ss 3 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 Perry 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 2110 1000 Total 37 4 3 Total 28 5 7 5 Pittsburgh 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 4 San Francisco ...001 040 llx McCovey, Speier. DP Pittsburgh 1.

LOB Pittsburgh 9, San Francisco 4. 2B Cash, Henderson, Mays. HR Fuentes (I), McCovey (1). Blass, Perry 2. IP RER BBSO Blass (LA l) 5 2 Moose 2 0 0 0 0 0 Giusti 1 10 0 11 Perry 0) 4 3 1 HBP oy perry (Stargeil).

2:44. A 40,977. fcr a double that drove in Chris Speier with the initial San Francisco run in the third inning. Manager Danny Murtaugh of Before he ran into homer trouble, the Pittsburgh right hander had set a strikeout record for the National League playoffs with nine. "I had set my mind that I was going to challenge him," Blass said of his pitching to slugger McCovey.

"I struck him out with a fast ball once and the other time I thought I had him set up for an off speed curve. He did hit that one, but Roberto Clemente caught it." On his third trip to the plate, McCovey connected. The Pirates center fielder, Al Oliver, declared the brilliant sunshine made it especially difficult to see. "That's the worst I've seen the sun in San Francisco. On Ken Henderson's hit, I didn't even see the ball.

I saw him hit it and then I just ran back to the fence hoping it would land somewhere near me." The ball hit at the 410 foot sign Jim Anderson, well their first playing high school ball Husker Players Respect Mizzou Tigers. "Army is a good foot ball team this year he pointed out. "They beat a good Georgia Tech team a week ago." In recapping the Utah State encounter, Devaney could find only one major fault with his Huskers. "Aside from the one offensive drive we let them put together against us, I think played a fine football game, both on offense and on defense except for those penalties," he pointed out. "Those holding and clipping penalties we had can cost you a ball game if it's close.

We've got to eliminate those." The Husker coach was particularly pleased with the balance shown by his offense with 230 yards rushing and 239 passing. Still Could Run "Utah State played eight men on the line of scrimmage against us and we still were able to run the ball against them," he observed. "The defense they were using also gave us the out atternson passes. "We tried to take advantage of the defenses they were in. They took the sprint option away from us out of the spread formation, but they gave it to us from our I formation.

We also went to our out patterns and then felt we bad a chance to beat them deep and that's what happened on the touchdown pass to (Frosty) Anderson. "That was a fine catch Frosty made." The Husker coach said he thought his team had come out of the game with no injuries that would hamper any of the Huskers this week in preparing for Missouri. He also plans to devote more practice time to working out on the natural grass practice fields this week. On The Inside I 33 NE Victorious I Page 2C CU Wins 1 Page 3C 3 3 ND Triumphs Page 5C Oklahoma Outduels USC, 33 20 USC 15 53 176 3a ls i 7 43 30 ou 72 516 139 144 4 43 I 2 50 First downs Rushing yards Passing yardaq Return yardagt Passes Punts Fumbles lost Yards penalized NORMAN, Okla. (AP) Fleet halfback Greg Pruitt stole the spotlight with his daring running as eighth ranked Oklahoma's super charged wishbone offense staying almost exclusively on the ground crumpled Southern California 33 20 in an actionrpacked in tersectionai football battle here Saturday afternoon.

Pruitt scored three touchdowns on runs of 38, 75 and seven yards. On two of those runs, the 5 foot 9 halfback from Houston, slowed down near the goal line to give his foes a chance to catch up with him only to turn on the speed at the last moment. Quarterback Jack Mildren produced two touchdowns in the romp and halfback Joe Wylie added another as the Sooners broke the game open with 14" points the third quarter. Southern Cal led twice in a see saw first half, scoring on a lfryard pass from quarterback Jimmy Jones to split end Edesel Garrison and a three hard plunge by fullback Sam Cunningham. But the Trojans just couldn't stop Oklahoma's heralded run ning attack, featuring the outside scampers of Pruitt and Wylie, the power running of fullback Leon Crosswhite and the ball handling magic of Mildren.

Southern Cal 7 0 20 Oklahoma 13 14 0 33 Okla Wvlle 1 run (Kick failed) USC Garrison 1 pass from Jones (Rae kick) Okla Pruitt 42 run (Carroll kick) USC Cunningham 4 run (Rae kick) Okla Pruitt 7 run (Run tailed) Okla Pruitt 75 run (Carroll kick) Okla Mildren 11 run (Carroll kick) USC Belelo 12 pass from Rae (Run failed) A e2XK Sunday Baseball Major League playoffs, noon (3). Pro Football San Francisco 49ers v. Philadelphia Eagles, noon, (6 10); AFC game, 3 p.m. (3); Chicago Bears v. Los Angeles Bams, 3 p.m.

(6 10). College Football Notre Dame highlights, 10:30 a.m. (3); College highlights, 1 p.m. (7) Nebraska highlights, 6 p.m. (7 10).

Monday Pro Football Oakland Raiders v. Cleveland Browns, 8 p.m. (7). either you do or you don't. I had chances today and didn't.

The first game of the American League playoff series between Baltimore and Oakland was postponed Saturday, leaving moody Vida Blue of the A's with one more day to fully regain the confidence a teammate reveals he lost after his sensational first half season. The rainout postponed until Sunday the start of the best of five series that opens with the 24 game winning Blue a different Blue than the one who posted 17 victories by the All Star Game going against Oriole lefthander Dave McNally. The second game of the series will be played Monday originally scheduled as an open day after the teams flew to the West Coast for resumption of the playoffs. Aggie quarterback Tony Adams middle guard Rich Glover (79) By HAL BROWN Nebraska's co captains, Jerry Tagge and both products of Green Bay. remember and last trip to Missouri.

It was a 17 7 loss for the Huskers, their last defeat. "I can't remember when Nebraska last beat Missouri down there," Anderson offered to writers in the NU dressing room after Saturday's win over Utah State. "Can you?" Anderson and Tagge were still in Green Bay the last time it happened, 16 14 in 1965. "The conference games are going to be a lot tougher than our non conference games," Anderson allowed. "They're all going to be tough from now on." The Husker defensive back also doesn't feel that the four easy victories racked up so far will have any effect on their preparations for Missouri.

"I think we'll be ready to go against Missouri," be predicted. "The fact that we've won easily so far doesn't matter. What matters is if you respect your next opponent and we respect Missouri, "I think they might have been looking ahead to us when they lost to Army today." But while admitting respect for the Tigers, Anderson added, "This Is what we've been waiting for, the start of the Big Eight season, I think we owe Missouri something." Tagge Echoes Sentiments Tagge echoed those sentiments. "Playing in the Big Eight is what means everything to us," Tagge emphasized. "I remember Missouri has been the toughest of any team we've played on me.

"We lost to them when I was a sophomore and we were fortunate to beat them last year. I think they may have been looking ahead to us today and they'll be ready when we play them." The Husker quarterback heaped praise on the NU coaching staff for the easy non conference wins. "They've done a great job of preparing us," he observed. Continued on Page 3C, Col. 6 fJ Most fans had a better view of Utah State receivers on this play than did (11), whose vantage point was ruined by the extended arms of Nebraska and tackle Larry Jacobson (75.).