Evening star., 1954-11-23
Missouri Must Beat
Ierps To- Top 500
In LuckIess Season
By Merrell WhittIesey

The 4 won. 4 lost, / tie record
that Missouri takes against
Maryland here Thanksgiving
Day is somewhat of a disappoint-
nent to the Tigers, Clay Cooper.
the backfield coach, was saying
while scouting the Terps here
last week.
Missouri hoped to at least dup
lcate last years record Of six
victories against four defeats,
but a loss to Nebraska and a
tie with Colorado have been
among the disappointments. Now
the Tigers will finish below 500
unless they upset the Terps.
The Tigers did not set too high
a goal because their schedule in
cludes Purdue, Southern Meth
odist, Indiana, Oklahoma and
Maryland. Their only victim
among their top five opponents
is Indiana.
Mention Of the Oklahoma
game brought a shudder to Coo
per. While he didn't say that
Missouri should have won, he
did say the score could have been
much closer than Oklahoma's 81
13 margin.
Quick Change in Game.
Missouri and Oklahoma were
scoreless with 3la minutes to 60
until halftime. The Tigers punted
to Oklahoma. The punt return
was fumbled at midfield and
Missouri recovered. "We thought
we were in good shape-tied with
Oklahoma, less than minutes
to go until the half, and we had
the ball at midfield," Cooper said.
But Missouri's first play
brought l5-yard penalty, and
so did the second. It wasn't as
bad on the third. The Tigers
drew only a five-yard penalty.
A long pass missed. a running
play lost three yards and all of
a sudden Missouri had fourth
down and 48.
The Tigers kicked into the
wind, Oklahoma returned the
ball fairly deep into Missouri
territory and with 48 seconds to
go completed q pass for touch
down. The SoonerS kicked of,
Missouri fumbled, and Okla
homa scored again at the half
time gun. So a scoreless ball
game suddenly became 14-0 for
Oklahoma, and that took the
life out of the Tigers.
Incidentally, Cooper said this
years Oklahoma team is better
than last years. You seldom
hear a coach drool over an old
rival the way Cooper did about
Oklahoma.
He also said that Nebraska
had a pretty fair football team,
and after the days scores were
IN Cooper said it was good for
the Big Seven, in his estimation,
that Nebraska won the right to
play in the Orange Bowl, rather
than Kansas State. K-State
beat Nebraska, but the Missouri
backf1eld coach said he thought
Nebraska was a SO per cent
better ball club on any day ex-
cept the day the two played.
Injuries Started Trouble.
Back to Missouri, Cooper said
the Tigers troubles started when
they lost Terry Roberts at left
guard before the season started.
They also lost the second and
third string left guards due to
injuries, and that position alone
cost them a couple of ball games.
While Cooper was scouting
Maryland, Missouri was trounc-
ing winless Kansas, Alb, last
Saturday after leading $40 at
halftime.
Vic Eaton, Missouri's top quar-.
terback, CAME out of the. Kansas
game as the top passer in the
Big Seven with his 80 compile
tions in 81 tries for 572 yards.
Tony Scardino, ailing off and on,
has completed 81 of AZ, which
gives the Tigers better than a
500 passing attack against the
Terps.
The Missouri team will arrive
at SGT tomorrow afternoon and
stay at the Dupont Plaza Hotel.
Game time Thursday is 2 O'Clock
and not noon as printed on the