Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1193094
7 victory that Paterno admit- ted was "deceiving." Mitchell ran for 209 yards and five touchdowns on 24 carries, and the Lions ham- mered Maryland, 63-27, at Beaver Stadium the following Saturday. Mitchell set three more school records, sur- passing Lenny Moore's career and single- season rushing yardage marks and snapping Pete Mauthe's single-season scoring record of 119 points set in 1912. A week later, Mitchell scored four touch- downs to break the national college record set by Arizona's Art Luppino in 1954. However, again, the Lions needed 28 points in the fourth quarter to beat feisty North Carolina State, 35-3, with four bowl scouts looking on in Beaver Stadium. The Lions dropped from No. 5 to No. 6 in the rankings with two road games left, Pitt and Tennessee. Game day against Pitt was Saturday, Nov. 20. That was also bowl selection day, and for the first time invitations would be allowed at 6 p.m. rather than the following Monday. No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Oklahoma were headed for a Thanksgiving Day show- down, and media specula- tion early in the week had the winner playing No. 4 Alabama in the Orange Bowl and the loser going to the Sugar Bowl against No. 5 Auburn. The Cotton Bowl wanted to match Penn State or No. 8 Georgia against the Southwest Confer- ence winner, either No. 12 Texas or No. 17 Arkansas, although both had already lost two games. The Gator Bowl tried to come up with a dream game between Penn State and No. 7 Notre Dame that would put the bowl on the same level in prestige and payoffs as its New Year's Day coun- terparts. But before Saturday, Fighting Irish coach Ara Parseghian said that once-beaten Notre Dame would not play in any bowl. The Lions took care of business at Pitt Stadium, scoring 35 points in the first half en route to a 55-18 victory that dropped the Panthers to 2-8. In the locker room, Cotton Bowl officials Wilbur Evans and Field Scovell issued their formal invita- tion. The players voted and university ad- ministrators accepted. "We haven't even put Tennessee into the contingency," said Bob Scannell, dean of Penn State's Phys- ical Education School, which ran the ath- letic department. "I'm sure Joe will take care of that." Joe didn't, or, rather, his team didn't. Even before the nationally televised game between No. 5 PSU and twice-beaten, 12th-ranked Tennessee, many sports- writers were again questioning the caliber of the Nittany Lion team and mocking what they labeled its soft schedule. On the morning of the game, the Chat- tanooga Times headline declared, "Penn HANGING ON BY A THREAD PSU defensive end Jim Laslavic pulls down Texas quarterback Eddie Phillips. Photo courtesy of the Pattee & Paterno Library Archives C O T T O N B O W L P R E V I E W