Blue White Illustrated

P R E V I E W games to hold high-scoring Texas with- out a TD. Mitchell, who had gained 146 yards on 27 carries, was named the game's top of- fensive player, and end Bruce Bannon the top defensive player. Zapiec was given the game ball. The wishbone had netted 159 yards rushing and 83 yards passing, while the Lions had gained 239 yards on the ground and 137 through the air. "Nobody stays in one defense and stops them," Paterno told reporters. "We kept moving around a lot and changing up on them, and trying to guess with them. We made a lot of good guesses. … We moved from a five-man front to a six, we stag- gered the tackles right and left, and a lot of things." The Lions whooped it up in the locker room, tossing Pennsylvania Gov. Milton Shapp into the showers with Paterno. Penn State had "stormed through, over and around the Longhorns for a resound- ing 30-6 victory," wrote Sam Blair in The Dallas Morning News. "When it was over, not a soul was making jokes about the so- called Eastern style football, which the Lions supposedly play. ... Rarely, if ever, has a good Royal team, supposedly oper- ating under normal strength, been sub- jected to such a licking." Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Times-Herald wrote, "The vaunted Wishbone T offense... was most ineffective. This was due partly to poor execution on the part of the Steer offen- sive unit... and partly to a rather savage Penn State defense." The Lions finished No. 5 in the final AP poll and set school single-season records for scoring (454 points), rushing (3,347 yards) and total offense (4,995 yards) – records that were not broken until 1994. Mitchell and Vitiello also set several team records, with Mitchell also establishing NCAA single-season marks for TDs (28), rushing TDs (26) and points (174). "The Cotton Bowl game is one of the greatest victories in Penn State history," Paterno said years later. "I don't think we've ever had a game that we had to win more than this one. There was so much that had been done that was ready to go down the drain if Texas had beaten us." ■ !&## %'&&&)## ##&$' %!"(#+&)!%)*'+ No. 37 in Lou Prato's book - , Autographed copies available via louprato@comcast.net or through Lou Prato & Associates at 814-954-5171 Price: $16.95 plus shipping, handling and tax where applicable Also available with autograph: Lou's book "We Are Penn State: The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions" Price: $19.95 plus shipping and tax where applicable

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