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Show In The Background Cowpokes Fall Short Of Goal m By MAC BACKMAN Wyoming's Sugar Bowl Cowboys didn't embarrass themselves or the Western Athletic Conference in their 20-13 loss to LSU New Years Day, but ya couldn't help but feel that the Pokes could have done better. The Cowboys came into the game as the nation's only undefeated and untied team (10-0). Louisiana State's Tigers were a comparatively comparative-ly modest 6-3-1, but the Louisiana Tiger turned the proverbial tale in the final tallies. As it was, the Pokes almost tip- ped the Tigers in LSU's own New Orleans home grounds, but if Wyoming Wy-oming had made their usual quota of game mistakes one or two at the most they might have won the game easily. The Pokes made enough errors in the second half to make up for a season. Wyoming On Move During the first half, Wyoming seemed to have LSU by the jugular vein. Led by quarterback Paul Tos-cano's Tos-cano's passing and kicker Jerry DePoysters long-range field goal kicking, the Pokes exploded to a 13-0 halftime lead. Truly, Wyom- I - . I ing was playing no better than they did most of the time" during the 1967 season, but it was the Pokes' finest hour. LSU came back the second half to score twenty. Undistinguished Louisianna State quarterback Nelson Nel-son Stokley. who couldn't have cuthrown your Salina, Utah grandmother grand-mother during the first half started pitching the ball like Joe Namath when the ncrmally unyielding unyield-ing Wyoming defense faltered. He connected with two touchdown passes pass-es in the second half to give him a not-really-red-hot six completions in twenty attempts. An unheralded sophomore tailback named Glenn Smith, who shall never be another Bronko Nagurski, added the other touchdown. This isn't to discount LSU, a fine team who lost their three games by a total of ten points. But for many reasons, the Pokes looked better in defeat than the Tigers looked in victory. DePoyster, who comes not from 'l another state but another planet ! averaged an amazing 49 yards on four punts for a Sugar Bowl record Jim Kiick showed why he ranked with Utah's Charlie Smith and Ari-zona Ari-zona State's Max Anderson as the WAC's best runner by ripping oft one clutch gain after another. Paul Toscano, one of the nation's leaders in total offense and passing, hit a pass receiver 17 times in the 24 times he put the ball in the air, Only trouble was that three of tira receivers were LSU pass defenders. To1, show you how bad things were in the second half, even Kiick threw a costly interception. Wyoming's Mike Dirks performed reminiscent of Utah's ohn StipecA wherA he made some key. tackles. The Pokes, defensive line, small by collegiate or even intramural standards, did a pretty good job containing LSU. Teamwise, Wyoming had 20. first downs to LSU's 12; 167 yards on the ground to LSU's 91; and 239 yards in the air to LSU's. What hurt was Wyoming's 65 yards in penalties to LSU's 25. What REALLY hurt was LSU's 20 points to Wyoming's 13. Bad Selection The way the Southern sports-writers sports-writers knocked the Sugar Bowl Committee's selection of our northeast north-east neighbor, you couldn't help but root for the Pokes if you lived north of the Mason-Dixon line. Southern hospitality, overrated since Colonial times, was really lacking on that New Orleans field. The refereemg was excellent, but the rabid LSU fans nere so loud that not even Tiger vi6y.s signals could be heard. . spirit is great, but an LSU crovjA s like a couple more men on ttw ' , field. . , J Most of the" Southeast .writers SltJ fans seem to think that Wyoming still belongs to the Spanish, a literary masterpiece appeared in a j Louisiana sports section which read something like this: "The Cowboys Cow-boys won't even show up. It will be embarrassing when Wyoming gets out of the Bush League and gets slaughtered on national T.V. by a major college team," meaning, I guess, LSU. To which S.L. Tribune Sports (Continued on Page 7) - |