College Football: Imagination, It's Wonderful

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Pro football is not exactly an inexact science. Every pass that Baltimore's Johnny Unitas throws is sure to be a perfect spiral, and everybody knows who is going to carry the ball when the Green Bay Packers need a yard or two: Jimmy Taylor, of course. Each team employs the same basic formations and the same plays. "Execution" is everything. Watching the pros play ball is like watching a diamond cutter at work.

In other words, a bore—as far as many college coaches are concerned. "The pros are more stereotyped," insists Tennessee's Doug Dickey, and Minnesota's Murray Warmath declares: "The pros have no imagination." There was certainly no shortage of imagination as the 1966 college season got under way last week. Southern California's Coach John McKay called for a fake punt on fourth down and with his team leading by only ten points. Any pro coach who made a call like that would probably spend the rest of his career selling peanuts in the stands, but McKay's Trojans beat favored Texas 10-6—so he'll probably be voted College Coach of the Year.

If it was action the fans wanted, they could spend their time watching "looping" guards, "roving" linebackers and "revolving" secondaries.

If it was confusion, they should have tuned in to the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who fumbled three times against Texas Christian, still won the game 14-10—partly because the Horned Frogs fumbled four times themselves. If it was variety, why, there was a whole alphabet of offensive formations out on the field: split T, spread T, power I, shifting I, crooked I. Duke used something called the split-end multiple T to bury West Virginia 34-15, and Michigan State's wing T soared over North Carolina State 28-10.

Purdue's offense was too complicated even to have a name: 25 different for mations, 75 pass plays, plus a quarterback named Bob Griese, who completed 17 out of 21 tosses for 230 yds. and three touchdowns as the Boiler makers swamped Ohio University 42-3.

One thing those exciting college boys should keep in mind, though. With luck, they'll wind up as pros themselves one day and have to learn how to do such boring things as block and tackle and hang onto the ball.