The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-11-14
Notre Dame 3fCinch" For National Title
Layden's 1938 Irish Prove
 Greatest Team Since Rockne'
By HARRY FERGUSON United Press Sports Editor)

ANCW ! VIE INONs LE----NO1 x OQt- ball moves into its final fortnight today with Dixie and the midwest boasting five teams that dominate the 1888 season.
 The five leaders Notre Dame, Texas Christian, Duke, Oklahoma Tennesse are undefeated and un- tied, but there is many a slip be- tween mid- November and the Rose Bowl and none of them is going to have 8 picnic this weekend.
 Notre Dame goes against rugged tough Northwestern team; Texas Christian plays Rice; Duke takes on North Carolina State in one of those neighborhood brawls that so often produce upSets; Oklahoma meets Iowa State, tied but not defeated; :. and Tennessee has the easiest time of any of them, against Kentucky.
 Taking into account the stiffness of the schedules and what happened last Saturday, all teams will have to make way today for the Irish of Notre Dame. Elmer Layden has brought a great team to its peak here in mid November and for one brief week at least he is king of the grid iron.
 Leaving out great teams that have been defeated or tied, the ranking of the big five is as follows: l. Notre Dame, 2. Texas Christian, 3. Ten nessee, 4. Duke, 5. Oklahoma.
 BIanked Minnesota
 .Notre Dame moves to the head of the list not because any of the others faltered or even were hard pressed, but because the Irish proved on Saturday that they could check a power team and go on to victory. That 19 to o victory over Minnesota saw Notre Dame at its best when its best was needed. Layden has sent his team to the wars seven times this year and you can search in vain for 8 soft spot on this schedule Kansas, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Car negie Tech, Army, Navy and Min neSota.
 No one knows how good Texas Christian really is, because nobody has been able to extend that great team since Arkansas lost an early season game by one touchdown Since then TCU has scored more than % points in each of its games and has never yielded more than one touchdown.
 All defensive laurels go to Duke which has not yielded a point all season. There is one of the great lines of the nation and, now that the injured backf1eld men are back, a powerful offensive team as well.
 Tennessee got over the hill Sat- urday by defeating Vanderbilt, If to 0, and with only Kentucky and Mississippi in its way, it's hard to see how it can be kept out of one of the Bowl games.
 Oklahoma, starting stiff sched- ule with Rice, seems to get better every week. Saturdays 21 to o vic- tory over an up and coming Mis- souri team proved that it could take care of itself in any league.
 Cornell Clicks
 The chief casualties as another Saturday narrowed the undefeated list were Dartmouth, Iowa State and Santa Clara. Dartmouth ran into big Cornell team, with a brick-wall line, and it was the old, old story of star backs being unable to go any place unless somebody was opening holes. Cornell upset the Big Green, 14-7.
 Iowa State came out better, get- ting 13 to 13 tie with Kansas State but dropped out of the select circle.
 Santa Clara, which has been squeaking out victories for the last two weeks. caught red hot St. Mary's team yesterday and lost, 2 to 0. That game confirmed the sus- picion of west coast observers that Slip Madigan has finally whipped a green team into shape and is likely to pop up next year with one of the best in the country.