Ohio State and Texas on Sunday were named co-recipients of the MacArthur Bowl, awarded annually to the top college football team by the National Football Foundation. Same as it was with the UPI coaches poll at the time, bowl games didn’t factor into the organization’s crowning of a national champion. The Associated Press and the Football Writers Association of America, however, would wait until after the bowls.
Charlie McClendon, coach of Nebraska’s newly designated Orange Bowl opponent, LSU, met the press in Miami on Sunday, just as Husker coach Bob Devaney had done the day before. McClendon acknowledged the Tigers’ underdog role but said LSU’s familiarity with night games could provide his team an edge.
Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghain said an LSU win was one of three things that needed to happen to propel the Fighting Irish to a No. 1 ranking — the two others being an Ohio State loss to Stanford in the Rose Bowl and a Notre Dame win over Texas in the Cotton.
Meanwhile, the Big Eight released its final statistics, and the Huskers were the leaders in scoring offense, rushing defense and scoring defense, plus a close second in total offense and total defense.
Nebraska also finished with a passing game that was the league’s most efficient by a large margin. The Huskers’ 62.3 percent completion rate left all other teams in the dust, as no other squad cracked 49 percent.
Individually, I-back Joe Orduna was the top scorer, and defensive backs Bill Kosch and Joe Blahak were first and second in interceptions.
