Tigers Smash Porker String, 14-7
McCormick, Labruzzo Spark Cotton Bowl Upset
1/2/1966
LSU raced to two second quarter touchdowns along an astonishing expressway that weaved treacherously through the right side of Arkansas' defensive line Saturday to crumble Razorback chances for a second consecutive national championship.
A huge tackle and a dwarfish tailback engineered the super-highway project that paved the Tigers' 14-7 victory before the largest Cotton Bowl audience in history, 76,200.
The upset defeat for the No. 2 ranked Razorbacks ended the nation's longest winning streak at 22 games and, as it was to turn out three hours later, almost certainly cost Arkansas a second straight national title.
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Michigan State, No. 1 team in the polls at the end of the regular season was upset by UCLA in the Rose Bow, just as Razorback loyalists had hoped.
AND IF IT HADN'T been for the second quarter road show by LSU's mammoth David McCormick, a 6-6, 240-pound left tackle, and Joe Labruzzo, a 5-9, 170-pound tailback, the Razorbacks likely would have claimed the mythical national title – just as last year's 10-7 Cotton Bowl win over Nebraska had gained the Grantland Rice award after Texas upset Alabama in the Orange Bowl.
It was McCormick and Labruzzo who dealt most of the misery to the Razorbacks and overcame a 7-0 leads Arkansas had grabbed with a 87-yard drive only the second time they owned the ball.
McCormick, who was named the game's outstanding lineman, an almost unheard of accomplishment for an interior offensive lineman, created almost unbelievable devastation at the right side of the Razorback defense as the Tigers powered 80 yards to tie the score at 7-7 and then 34 yards for what proved the winning touchdown with just 18 seconds left in the first half.
IN FACT, FOR most of that ill-fated second period (for the Razorbacks), it was like the Tigers had lost their playbook. With McCormick leading the charge that caved in the right side of the Porker line down after down, Labruzzo looped and darted through the debris like a man trying to get out of the way of falling buildings.
Incredibly, the Tigers blasted away at almost the exact spot in the Arkansas defense for 16 of 18 running plays in those two drives, almost never without success.
Labruzzo stormed along the same avenue from three yards out to score the first touchdown with 4:15 remaining in the second quarter, and Doug Moreau's first of two perfect conversions afforded the 7-7 tie. That touchdown drive was the more remarkable in that it seemed doomed early by the loss of a quarterback and 15 valuable yards on a clipping penalty on the same play.
SOPH QUARTERBACK Nelson Stokley, who started the second quarter after Pat Screen had failed to generate much offense for the Tigers in the first period, reinjured a knee as the penalty threatened to squash the drive as it claimed a first down at the Arkansas 43.
But Screen, who had reclaimed the starting job from Stokley with two fine performances in the final two regular season games for LSU, quickly picked up the momentum Stokley had helped ignite. He scrambled around right end for 11 yards and passed to Billy Masters for 14 to the Arkansas 35.
McCormick and Labruzzo picked up from there and it was apparent ever after the Razorbacks would surely have to create some of their trademark offensive magic if they were to stretch the nation's longest winning streak to 23.
And almost no sooner had this realization stuck uncomfortably in the throats of the normally vociferous Razorback fans, than the situation became just twice as serious.
RAZORBACK quarterback Jon Brittenum hobbled from the field with that later proved a slight shoulder separation on the first play from scrimmage following LSU's tying touchdown. Ronny South, who has seen only limited duty as Brittenum's sub this season, took over. Two plays later, South fumbled as he handed off and the Tigers' Bill Bass recovered on the Arkansas 34-yard line.
It was more of the same as LSU raced the clock with less than three minutes to play. After Screen passed 19 yards to Moreau, Labruzzo fell in behind McCormick's blasts and carried over for the score from just outside the 2, beating the clock by that scant 18 seconds to take an amazing 7-point lead to the dressing room at intermission.
THE RAZORBACKS has been here before, however, and were by no means read to concede so early.
And when Tommy Burnett leaped high to grab a high bounce on a fine Bobby Nix punt to kill the ball at the LSU 2-yard line early in the third quarter, it looked as if the Razorbacks were in position to launch a counter-attack.
They gained the planned field position at the LSU 49.
Brittenum, his shoulder apparently recovered enough to fire the ball almost with his usual rifle shots, a moment later hit end Bobby Crockett (who was to record a brilliant performance with 10 catches for 129 yards) for 19 yards and a first down at the LSU 15.
BUT ON THE next play, end Ernest Maggiore crashed through to drop Jim Lindsey for a 5-yard loss on one of the three big defensive plays which stymied each Arkansas threat in the second half. The play stalled the Arkansas momentum on the series and Martine Bercher's field goal attempt from the 36 was no good.
Those same clutch plays by the Tiger defense snuffed out both Razorback fourth-quarter attempts to launch dramatic last-ditch drives like the one that gained a 27-24 verdict over Texas in that all-time thriller at Fayetteville in October.
Crockett, who was runner-up to McCormick in the outstanding linemen ballot, began to recreate those dramatic moments for still-hopeful Arkansas fans after LSU had missed a chance to ice it away with Moreau's 9-yard field goal attempt was wide with 8:27 to play.
CROCKETT MADE three great catches, for 8, 16 and 18 yards. And suddenly Arkansas owned a first down at the LSU 36. But defensive back Jerry Joseph darted in front of Crockett, racing along the right sideline to intercept a slightly short throw by Brittenum on the next play ay the LSU 20.
Still the Razorbacks charged back once more in the desperate attempt launched from their own 11-yard line with less than two minutes to play.
Brittenum connected with Crockett four time, Brittenum raced eight yards and out of bounds to stop the clock, Bobby Burnett exploded up the middle eight yards to move the ball to the LSU 28 and the Razorbacks used their last time out to stop the clock with a scant 32 seconds to play.
Still, to those who had seen the Arkansas magic before, it looked possible.
BUT ON THE next play, George Rice, another of the monstrous Tiger tackles, stormed through to smother Brittenum for a 7-yard loss.
There was only time for Crockett to end a fabulous final college season by struggling 11 yards with a Brittenum pass to the 24-yard line with only four seconds to play.
The Razorbacks tried valiantly to get off another play but the massive Rice plucked the ball from the mass of scurrying players as the final gun sounded and waved it like a peanut in his huge hand.
It was a sickening ending for Razorback loyalists, of course, and an unbelievable one measured by the precision of the 87-yard drive the Razorbacks had put together in the first quarter.
LSU's defensive plan from the start obviously was to wedge its linebackers in tight to curtail the inside charges of tailback Burnett, who gained more than 100 yards rushing in five consecutive games.
It succeeded in stopping Burnett, but it left the outside vulnerable to the swift strikes of Harry Jones, who sprinted 21 and 9 yards to ignite the Arkansas touchdown drive.
BUT IT WAS the incomparable Crockett who scored it, taking a short pass from Brittenum at the LSU 12 and somehow walking a tightrope the final yards down the left sideline for the touchdown with 3:35 left to play in the opening quarter.
At the time it looked as if the expected touchdown parade, with the Razorbacks leading it, was underway.
But that was before little Joe Labruzzo found the second-period expressway and a tank named McCormick to clear the traffic.
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