Playboy's Pigskin Preview

Weather Forecast: crisp, dewy mornings; nippy, blanket-bundling afternoons; cool, frosty nights just right for fireside relaxation. Perfect weather for filling the hip flask, shaking the camphor from the trusty raccoon coat, breaking out the old school muffler, and heading for the stadium for the first home game.

Football Forecast: cloudy with storms. Professional pigskin prophets (including us) find themselves hard-pressed to come up with some fresh lyrics for the annual September song. The standard refrain, "expect the unexpected," will be reprised this fall, thanks to a maze of rewritten rules, coaching changes, conference reorganizations, tactical innovations, plus the annual round of graduations, matriculations and maturations. (continued on page 46)Playboy's Pigskin Preview(continued from page 43)

For a warm-up, here are some of the new elements that have influenced our pre-season- prognostications for the football scene:

Rules: the goal posts have been set more widely apart to increase the potency of the field goal as an offensive weapon, and a "wild card" substitution rule has been introduced to allow a single player to enter the game when the ball is dead.

Tactics: a number of teams are expected to come up with adaptations of Army's highly successful "lonely end" formation. Report has it that Bud Wilkinson, at Oklahoma, is experimenting with a formation featuring not one, but three isolated players. Other coaches, noting that LSU was the nation's only major team to come through unbeaten and untied last year, will undoubtédly be switching to the Bengals' three-team system, or variations thereon.

Coaches: Earl Blaik suddenly retired at West Point to enter private business, and Eddie Erdelatz left Annapolis in great haste for nowhere in particular. Caught by surprise, officials at both schools had to scurry around for successors. And Notre Dame fired Terry Brennan. Seldom in football history has the canning of a coach kicked up such national furor as when Brennan was bounced four days before last Christmas. An extremely able, dedicated and personable coach, Brennan had been hired in 1954 with the announced intention of maintaining "intercollegiate athletics within their proper dimensions ... those of university life and purposes." When Brennan proceeded to do just that, and dropped an occasional game in the process, the South Bend fundraisers found the pickings increasingly slim. There followed the so-called "surrender to excellence," and Brennan was tossed out.

Player Distribution: no longer will two or three teams dominate the major conferences to leave the others scrambling to stay out of the cellar. Given a bit of luck, almost any team in any conference across the land could well wind up on top of its respective heap come bowl time.

As Bobby Dodd, head coach at Georgia Tech, recently observed, "What we're seeing now is a trend toward .500 football in every major conference... . Unless a team comes up with several exceptional players to go with their average boys, there is little chance to improve on an even break."

Better high school coaching all over the country has resulted in a wider distribution of the available good players. The so-called small colleges are now often able to hold their own with the majors.

Conferences: two important considerations here, one on each coast. In the East, eight teams have united to found the University Division of the Middle Atlantic Conference. Out West, the Athletic Association of Western Universities has replaced the defunct Pacific Coast Conference.

So with all this in mind, here we go again with our predictions for another year.

Any way you slice the apple, it looks like Syracuse and Penn State in the East this year. But mostly Syracuse. With the cream of last year's Orange Bowl squad returning and a generous helping of recruits who threaten to displace some of the returning veterans, it looks like a lush year for the Orangemen. Brightest components in this setup appear to be the Davis boys (no kin); Roger at guard is of real pro caliber, and rookie Ernie at halfback is said to be the hottest Syracuse back since Jim Brown.

Penn State's hopes this year seem to be pinned largely on quarterback Richie Lucas, whom Coach Rip Engle has called the finest all-round college football player in the country. The usual risks of having one such outstanding player (enemy defenses concentrate on him and he's likely to get clobbered) are lessened by the presence of Galen Hall, an excellent soph quarterback, and a big, experienced (if somewhat slow) line up front.

But don't count out Navy, the real dark horse in the East. Erdelatz' departure will hurt because there isn't a smarter coach in the country, and the vacillations of Academy brass could have disastrous effects on morale. Nevertheless, the hard core of last year's squad is back, including Bellino and Tranchini. New Coach Wayne Hardin plans to use alternate first teams of equal ability, so the Middies are likely to be just as fresh in the second half as they are in the first.

On the strength of last year's performance and the fact that Bob Anderson and Bill Carpenter are returning, many learned sports buffs are fingering Army for the Lambert Trophy again this year. But not us. The cadets lost 14 of their first 22 from last year, and the Army squad just isn't deep enough to take up that much slack.

The tub-thumpers at Pitt are crying the blues this year over the loss of their best line material. However, Mike Ditka, the best Pitt end in 20 years, is still around. Principal problems: lack of team speed and reserves.

Villanova, on the other hand, may field its best team in years. The Wildcats seem to have plenty of everything (save quarterbacks). Boston University and Holy Cross also look improved, while Boston College will suffer more than usual from graduation losses.

A new factor on the Eastern football scene is the recently formed Middle Atlantic Conference (University Division). Rutgers and Delaware are co-favorites here, but either Lehigh, Lafayette or Gettysburg could take it with a little luck. Rutgers seems as sound as last year despite the loss of Bill Austin, while Delaware is heavily loaded and could be the number-one sleeper in the East.

Dartmouth and Princeton should vie for Ivy League honors, with a slight nod going to the Tigers on hard-nosed depth. Harvard is the dark horse. Yale should be much improved after a disastrous season last year. Cornell and Penn are also on the rise, so the Ivy League race could turn into quite a scramble.

It looks like a lean year at Notre (continued on page 116)Playboy's Pigskin Preview(continued from page 46) Dame, and things are going to get worse before they get better. The schedule is even tougher than usual, only 13 lettermen are returning, and the boys will have to adjust to a new coaching staff. The first team may be fairly sharp, especially in the backfield, where Mack, Crotty and Izo return, but the reserves will be green and untested. It may be a bleak beginning for Coach Joe Kuharich.

The Big Ten race will be the most unpredictable in the country this fall. To begin with, few folks can remember when a consensus pre-season favorite ever won the Big Ten championship. Secondly, there are four teams this year (Wisconsin, Purdue, Iowa and Ohio State) that are being touted by various dopesters as "sure winners," all of approximately equal potency and any one of them good enough to cop the national championship. Add a refreshing wrinkle, each of these colossi is playing the other three, and here's the way things are lining up:

Ohio State will probably field a first team as lethal as ever, but after that Woody Hayes has trouble. He lost 12 of his top 14 linemen from last year's squad, plus backfield stars Kremblas and Clark. At the opening of fall drills Hayes still hadn't found a starter at center. There is sophomore talent aplenty, but this will be the greenest Buckeye squad since 1947. So Ohio State is the most likely team to be eliminated from the top four.

But Wisconsin still looks like the best bet. This is the year the Badgers have been building for, and they're really loaded. Aside from Auburn's, there probably isn't a better line in the country. Jim Heineke and Dan Lanphear are the deadliest pair of tackles to be found on any team, and Dale Hackbart is superb at quarterback. If the Badgers can survive their games with Purdue and Iowa, which they play on succeeding Saturdays, they could go all the way.

In recent years Purdue's team play has fluctuated from Saturday to Saturday. Last year their biggest slowdown came against Wisconsin and it spoiled an otherwise undefeated season. But this year the Boilermakers look hungry. Most of the work horses are back from last season, and Bob Jarus is one of the niftiest fullbacks in the country. If the depth problem at tackle can be solved, the Boilermakers will roll this year.

In many eyes Iowa is highly favored to repeat as Big Ten champ. These hopes are not without reason, for the Hawkeyes seemed to have enough material last year to field two championship teams. Nevertheless, there are problems: the interior line was hard hit by graduation; Mitchell Ogiego and Willie Fleming are not returning for their senior year (leaving the Hawkeyes without an experienced quarterback to run the complicated winged-T attack) and the eligibility of fullback Don Horn was in great peril as of August 1st. But the Iowa squad is big and deep and the Hawk-eyes' greatest asset has always been the cagey coaching of Forest Evashevski.

It is also quite possible that while these giants are busy knocking each other off, another team (Northwestern or Illinois, or even Michigan State) could sneak in the back door and take it all.

The most likely team to pull this trick is Northwestern. The Wildcats have perhaps the roughest schedule in the country this year (seven Big Ten opponents, with Oklahoma and Notre Dame for "breathers"), but the Evanston 11 may be able to run this gauntlet. They have 29 out of 34 lettermen back from last year's astonishing team, a brilliant crop of sophomores, the Big Ten's best quarterback and halfback in Dick Thornton and Ron Burton, and team speed to spare. Also, keep an eye on soph back Al Faunce. Coach Ara Parseghian, who gets our enthusiastic nomination as Coach of the Year, will probably field two "first" teams this fall.

Both Illinois and Michigan State are set to pull some surprises. Don't count the Spartans out merely because of their disastrous 1958 campaign. Duffy Daugherty still has the nucleus of an excellent team and he's set to spring a double wing formation and dazzling speed on his opponents this year.

At Illinois, Coach Ray Eliot has announced that this will be his last year. It could also be his best. Illinois has always been a rather unknown quantity until the start of the season, Eliot being secretive about his plans and weepily pessimistic in his pronouncements. But he always manages to spring a few eye openers, and the Illini have a tradition of fabulous and unheralded halfbacks. The boys will be anxious to give Ray a suitable send-off, so a booby trap may be awaiting the opposition at Champaign this year. Loss of Ron Kreitling, who gave up his senior year to sign with the Cleveland Browns, will hurt the Illini, however.

We could be wrong, but it looks like a lean year at Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota. All three teams are deeply immersed in rebuilding programs that are only beginning to pay off. The trio is troubled with depth problems, and the Hoosiers and the Wolverines will both be fielding lighter teams this year. If the Golden Gophers do manage to come up with a gilded gridiron year, the credit will largely go to the broad shoulders of Tom Brown, a truly fabulous guard of whom all the other Big Ten coaches speak with awe.

We'd like to call attention here to the rapid rise in the past three years of the Mid-American Conference, a development that has been largely ignored by the press. Outside of league play, these teams have done very well against the majors. The squads at Bowling Green, Miami, Kent State, Toledo and Ohio U are getting stronger every year, and some top-notch football is being played in the shadow of the Big Ten.

The Southeastern Conference looks like a scramble among Auburn, Ole Miss and LSU for the conference title, with Florida, Georgia Tech and Kentucky equally dangerous dark horses. But Tulane (and this will serve for this year's trip out on the limb) gets our nomination as top '59 giant-killer. The Greenies fielded a largely soph team last year, and most of the squad is back: bigger, faster and more experienced. Also, they've been consigned to the conference cellar by all the guessers, and this is the best thing that could happen to an SEC team. Dwarfed by neighboring LSU, the Green Wave could sneak up and engulf a few unsuspecting cousins this fall.

And that is exactly the trick LSU pulled off last year. Dietzel & Co. won all their games, the conference and national championships, the Coach of the Year Award, and every other honor in sight. Not one pre-season dopester (blushingly, we were included) picked them in the top 20! But this year the Tigers won't be lying in the grass; they'll be the prime target on all their opponents' schedules. So, despite the impressive fact that almost the entire championship squad, including Billy Cannon, is returning, we can't see the Tigers duplicating last year's feat.

Our nod goes to Auburn, which sports the most terrifying line in the country. Two All-Americans, Center Jackie Burkett and Guard Zeke Smith, play side by side, and the backfield shows signs of exhibiting some of the spark and speed that was missing (but not especially needed) last year. The Auburn defense will probably be just as impregnable as ever.

Coach John Vaught of Ole Miss recently confided to a close friend that he has more and better material than at any time in his 13 years at Oxford. We doubt that this is merely whistling in the dark, because the Rebs have built a reputation for regularly fielding topflight teams despite a comparatively small enrollment. Vaught will have his usual speed merchants in the backfield and a big and fast line led by guard Marvin Terrell. But the Rebs' best ace-in-the-hole may turn out to be a tackle named Bob Khayat, a field-goal specialist whose toe might well prove to be the margin in the close ones this fall. (An interesting sidelight: both Ole Miss and Mississippi State will field a first-string fullback named Flowers.)

Georgia Tech was a much better team last year than its won-lost record indicated. This year, despite an even tougher schedule, the Engineers will be hard to handle. Coach Dodd still has most of last year's squad, plus an excellent crop of sophomores. But the Engineers will have to win some close ones to carve a 7-3 record from a schedule that includes such intersectional toughies as SMU, Clemson, Duke and Notre Dame.

Tech's companion in the dark horse slot is Florida, which has kept the hard core of its Gator Bowl team, including phenomenal end Dave Hudson. The Gators will be improved, and if they can chew up either LSU or Auburn they will probably land right back in another bowl game.

Both Kentucky and Alabama are planning to use LSU's celebrated three-team system this year, but Kentucky seems more likely to make a success of it. They have the necessary depth plus a truly great halfback named Calvin Bird.

Tennessee will begin to show the first fruits of a rebuilding program this year, but the full harvest won't be ripe for several seasons. Georgia, on the other hand, is beginning to arrive, and should get an even break this season. Vanderbilt and Mississippi State begin the long road back after serious graduation losses.

At North Carolina, Coach Jim Tatum has completed the rebuilding job he went there to do more than three years ago, and the Tarheels are stacked with plenty of everything in all the right places. This looks like the big year they've been waiting for at Chapel Hill. Tatum is up to his ears in speedy giants and gigantic speedsters, but the brightest of Jim's gems is quarterback Jack Cummings, who may be the best in the land. If the Tarheels can take their first two games against Clemson and Notre Dame, the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship will be within easy grasp and the national championship a distinct possibility.

But don't forget Clemson. Last year we predicted great things for this come-from-nowhere team, and they wound up in the Sugar Bowl. The nucleus of that great team is back, including quarterback Harvey White and a terror of a tackle named Lou Cordileone who weighs 250 pounds and does the 100-yard dash in 10.5 seconds. He's faster than some of the Clemson backs. The Tigers could be even more dangerous than last year and the question of the conference title may be settled when they tangle with the Tarheels on September 19.

South Carolina is placing much of its hope for a winning season on fabulous fullback John Saunders, while North Carolina State takes the wraps off a new quarterback named Roman Gabriel who will make State as dangerous as a cornered rattlesnake. Gabriel, who does everything superbly, could easily win All-American mention his first year out, and we hereby nominate him for Sophomore of the Year.

Duke also has an almost certain All-American in guard Mike McGee, but with a green backfield, the Blue Devils' offense will be less spectacular than usual.

Tom Nugent takes over the job of bringing the Maryland Terps back to national prominence, and some progress should be noted his first season. Paul Amen's rebuilding job at Wake Forest will also begin to show results this year, and the Deacons could have their best season in several years.

West Virginia's domination of the Southern Conference may well be ending. For one thing, the Mountaineers have become preoccupied with outside rivalries. But more important, power is on the upgrade at William and Mary, Virginia Tech, VMI and even Richmond. This looks like Virginia Tech's year.

Andy Gustafson's new staff at Miami will be baptized by fire while negotiating a scorching schedule that almost reads like the Top Ten. What's worse, almost the whole first team from last year is missing, and the remainder of the Hurricane squad is largely untested. Things look grim in Coral Gables.

One of the most important recent developments in Southern football has been the emergence of three independents, Florida State, Memphis State and Mississippi Southern. Florida State has already become a major football power after converting from an all-girl school barely 10 years ago. Last year Southern was undefeated, while 1959 looks like it will be the biggest season ever at Memphis State.

It's the same old bogey-man in the Big Eight this year: Oklahoma. This is an announcement hardly calculated to astonish anyone. Bud Wilkinson has the usual collection of gladiators; an excess of everything except experience in the second team. But even this is a questionable liability: the upcoming sophs are so good that they've displaced several of the many returning lettermen. The folks at Norman have said categorically that Prentice Gautt is the greatest fullback in Oklahoma history, and Oklahoma is always one of the fastest teams fielded anywhere. They could drop the opener to Northwestern, but after that it will probably be clear sailing.

Oklahoma hasn't lost a conference game since Bud Wilkinson became head coach in 1947. This year's likeliest candidate to finally turn the trick is Missouri. Under Dan Devine, the Tigers are enjoying a slow but healthy revival, and if Dangerous Dan can find good replacements for the center of his line, this season at Missouri could be the best since the war.

Kansas and Nebraska are also on the upswing with serious rebuilding programs, but the rugged intersectional games on this season's schedule will keep the Kansans from looking as good as they really are. Still, they could take a lesson from Nebraska. The Cornhuskers beat both Penn State and Pittsburgh last year (making them unofficial champions of the State of Pennsylvania) while dropping all but one of their other games.

Colorado suffered the heaviest graduation losses in the Big Eight, and Sonny Grandelius, taking over from Dal Ward, faces a dreary season fighting it out with Kansas State and Iowa State to see who stays out of the conference cellar.

The Missouri Valley Conference is probably the most underrated circuit in the country. In 29 intersectional games last season with other major conferences and major independents, the MVC teams won 21 and lost 8. Yet, within the league, the competition was so close that the champion, North Texas State, suffered its only loss at the hands of the cellar team, Wichita. This year the conference race stacks up exactly the same way: the title is up for grabs and nobody seems to have the needed knockout punch. Likeliest winners, on depth and experience, are Houston and North Texas State. But don't bet any money on it.

We warned you last year that the Southwest Conference title would be a toss-up among the top four teams (Texas Christian, Southern Methodist, Texas and Rice), and that's exactly the way it turned out. This year it will be the same, but with all four schools returning to the starting gate with much-improved teams. Rice seems to have the roughest road to travel because of its intersectional schedule. The Owls, however, have a way of winding up with a much better season than the experts predict, and in this 20th year for Coach Jess Neely it could be the same way.

The role of "team to beat," if it can be allotted to anyone, should go to SMU on the sole strength of All-American Don Meredith's passing. If this slinging junior can stay healthy and the defense can be tightened up, SMU should be one of the half dozen top teams in the nation.

Both Texas and TCU are impressive, thanks to plain old hard-nosed depth. The Horned Frogs have almost their entire squad from the Cotton Bowl game, while Texas has been heavily reinforced where it needed it most with a slew of speedy backs from last year's brilliant crop of yearlings. Both Texas and TCU will sport an impressive ground offense, but both may suffer from ineffective passing. Intersectional battles early in the season (TCU vs. LSU and Texas vs. Oklahoma) could set the pattern of success or disappointment for either team.

Arkansas will display one of the fastest backfields in the land, but a serious lack of experienced depth in the line will make the going rough. Still, the Razorbacks finished strong last year and Broyles' expert coaching has now begun to show results, so look for Arkansas to pull a few surprising upsets this year.

Texas A & M and Baylor are both facing the long climb back from the bottom. Baylor's new coach, John Bridgers, inherits a light and bright green squad. At A & M, Jim Myers will be a bit better off, but not much.

Texas Tech, getting ready to enter the Southwestern Conference in 1960, is busy building an impressive new stadium and a stockpile of talent. Tech has its first All-America candidate in Center E. J. Holub. But this season's schedule is a pretty big bite, and the Red Raiders may not be quite ready to digest it all.

The Border Conference seems destined for a wide-open race. Both past powers, Hardin-Simmons and Arizona State at Tempe, are suffering severe graduation losses and most of the other teams look much improved. From here, New Mexico State appears to have its snazziest team in 20 years, and the Aggies should end up in the top drawer. Hardin-Simmons will be hamstrung by a fierce interconference schedule, but the Cowboys have at least one bright spot in a phenomenal end with the picturesque name of Sammy Oates. As a freshman last year he was practically a one-man team, won every honor in sight, and was one of the nation's leading pass receivers. Sammy, incidentally, is a deaf mute and receives his signals in the huddle by sign language.

The Pacific Coast Conference is dead and buried, apparently to no one's sorrow, and the Athletic Association of Western Universities has arisen to fill the void. The AAWU, composed of the California schools who were members of the PCC and the University of Washington, has contracted to furnish the host teams in the Rose Bowl games after 1960. This year, however, the former members of the PCC will meet in conclave at season's end to select a West Coast team for the Rose Bowl.

But tapping a team for the Tournament of Roses might well raise some thorny problems. The two teams which seem the strongest are both ineligible for the trip to Pasadena; California having gone last year, and Southern Cal being on NCAA probation.

On the strength of statistics, California would seem to be number one again. The Golden Bears return to the fray with only three players missing from their first two teams of last year. They will be heavier, faster and very, very deep. But the picture changes somewhat when we take a look at Southern Cal. The Trojans fielded a predominately sophomore team last year and still finished strong. Added experience and a big boost from soph backfield speed will make USC a fearsome factor on the Coast. Most important of the new faces may be a pair of yearling halfbacks, Lynn Gaskill and Alan Shields.

The actual Rose Bowl bid will most likely go to the winner of a three-way war between UCLA, Washington and Washington State. The Uclans had a poor record last year as illness and death caused coaching changes twice in the same season. Now they are finally off NCAA probation, have full use of their seniors, and a stable coaching staff.

Washington and Washington State seem about equally matched, although the Huskies have the edge with few graduation losses and the expert place-kicking of George Fleming. Washington State was a power in the West for the first time in many seasons last year, but inconsistent play and bad luck hexed them. Both the Huskies and the Cougars will be heavier and faster.

It will be difficult for either Oregon or Oregon State to match some of their excellent teams of recent years. Both have the benefit of clever coaching, however, and the something-new-every-week style of attack will continue to fascinate fans in the Beaver State. (Interesting oddity: Oregon and Washington State are playing each other twice this season.)

Stanford is still rebuilding, and this year boasts one of the finest passing combinations in the country -- Dick Norman to Chris Burford.

College of the Pacific may be the really big surprise on the West Coast. They return with All-America halfback Dick Bass and a line that averages 222 pounds. COP may go undefeated.

The Air Force Academy astonished everyone last year, and they have every prospect of fielding just as good a team this season. Their most obvious liability, of course, is loss of the surprise factor. But returning are backfield aces Mayo, Quinlan, Lane and Pupich, and a small but extremely fast line led by Howard Bronson. Also, the schedule includes Army, and the Falcons should really be up for that one. Look for another great year for the Air Force, and probably another bowl bid.

The Skyline Conference has three favorites this fall, depending on which crag of the Rockies you're from. We'll go along with Wyoming, which seems to have enough stuff left over from the Sun Bowl to continue winning. Brigham Young, though always a contender, operates under an unusual kind of handicap which is especially noticeable this year: the Cougars not only suffer the normal depredations of graduation, but much material is lost each year to church missions. If depth problems can be solved, though, Tally Stevens will have a good first year as head coach.

New Mexico was the surprise of the Skyline last year, and the chances are good that the Lobos will be hotter than ever this season. Albuquerque enthusiasts insist that Coach Marv Levy has two legitimate All-America candidates in his stables, Don Perkins and Don Black.

• • •

If the past is any criterion, your favorite grid giant will probably get the Goliath treatment from some unheralded David. And that dark horse parading to the post may well turn out to be one of a different color at the finish line.

For, win, lose or tie, football beats them all as the essence of the enigmatic and the epitome of the unpredictable. Whether Thanksgiving Day finds us eating turkey or crow is anyone's guess.

Playboy's 1959 Preview All-America Team

Alternate All-America Team

Ends: Ditka (Pitt), Hudson (Florida)

Tackles: Lanphear (Wisconsin), Cordileone (Clemson)

Guards: Davis (Syracuse), Terrell (Mississippi)

Center: Fugler (LSU)

Quarterback: Cummings (N. C.)

Halfbacks: Burton (Northwestern), Anderson (Army)

Fullback: White (Ohio State)

Sophomore Back of the Year: Roman Gabriel (North Carolina St.)

Sophomore Lineman of the Year: Sammy Oates (Hardin-Simmons)

The All-America Squad

(All of whom are likely to make someone's All-America eleven)

Ends: Goldstein (N.C.); Carpenter (Army); Burford (Stanford); Stickles (N.D.); Witcher (Baylor); Simms (Rutgers); Faison (Ind.).

Tackles: Rice (Auburn); Ficca (USC); Gossage (Northwestern); Gardner (Duke); Majac (Missouri); Dingens (Detroit).

Guards: Stalcup (Wis.); Cochran (Ala.); Maltony (Purdue); Bronson (A.F.); King (Rice); Wright (Mich. St.); Dennis (Brig. Young).

Centers: Baughan (Ga. Tech); King (Rice); Holub (Texas Tech); Lapham (Iowa); Andreotti (Northwestern).

Backs: Izo (N.D.); Lucas (Penn St.); Thornton (Northwestern); White (Clemson); Rabb (LSU); Franklin (Miss.); Hackbart (Wis.); Anderson (Army); King (Houston); Bird (Ky.); Kilmer (UCLA); Mack (N.D.); Ramirez (Texas); Jarus (Purdue); Martin (Mich. St.); Saunders (S.C.); Flowers (Miss.); Smith (UCLA); Spikes (TCU).

Top Twenty Teams

National Champion:

Wisconsin 8-1

2. Auburn ..... 9-1

3. North Carolina ..... 9-1

4. Southern Methodist ..... 9-1

5. Mississippi ..... 9-1

6. Oklahoma ..... 9-1

7. Air Force ..... 9-1

8. Louisiana State ..... 8-2

9. Texas Christian ..... 8-2

10. Clemson ..... 8-2

11. Syracuse ..... 8-2

12. Southern California ..... 8-2

13. Texas ..... 8-2

14. Purdue ..... 7-2

15. Iowa ..... 7-2

16. Northwestern ..... 7-2

17. Florida ..... 7-3

18. Georgia Tech ..... 7-3

19. California ..... 7-3

20. Penn State ..... 7-3

Possible Break-Throughs: Navy, Ohio State, Houston, Washington State, Washington, North Texas, Houston, Rice, College of the Pacific, Michigan State, Illinois.

The East

The Midwest

The South

The Near West

The Southwest

The Far West

Coach of the Year: Parseghian--Northwestern

End: Curtis Merz--Iowa

Quarterback: Don Meredith--SMU

Tackle: Don Floyd--TCU

Fullback: Prentice Gautt--Oklahoma

Guard: Mike McGee--Duke

Center: Jackie Burkett--Auburn

Guard: Zeke Smith--Auburn

Halfback: Dick Bass--COP

Tackle: Jim Heineke--Wisconsin

Halfback: Billy Cannon--LSU

End: Jim Houston--Ohio State