Southeastern Roundup : Alabama Breezes to 42-10 Victory

For the second straight game, Alabama quarterback Mike Shula failed to compile impressive statistics and the fifth-ranked Crimson Tide still won.

Bobby Humphrey ran for touchdowns of 2 and 30 yards and Gene Jelks raced 75 yards for another score at Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday to lead Alabama to a 42-10 rout of Vanderbilt in a Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.

Shula attempted only 14 passes, completing 8 for 102 yards, but moved ahead of Joe Namath into fifth place on the all-time Crimson Tide passing yardage list with 2,768 yards. Namath had 2,714.

“It makes you feel good, as a quarterback, knowing you can just hand the ball off and one guy will go 75 yards and the other will go 30 and both score,” said Shula, who had only thrown for 83 yards in a 16-10 victory over Ohio State in the Kickoff game on Aug. 27.

Alabama gained 249 yards rushing, with Jelks carrying 11 times for 116 yards and Humphrey picking up 72 yards in 9 rushes.

Derrick Thomas led an Alabama defense that sacked Vanderbilt quarterback Mark Wracher eight times. The sophomore linebacker had three sacks for 29 yards in losses. Also, he blocked a punt and returned it 44 yards for a score to help spoil the debut of Vanderbilt Coach Watson Brown.

“The Ohio State game motivated me in a big way because I had played good the whole game and people said, ‘Well, you almost lost the game,’ ” said Thomas, who was called twice for pass interference in the closing seconds against the Buckeyes.

Tennessee 35, New Mexico 21--The 10th-ranked Volunteers celebrated their victory at Knoxville, Tenn., in private, refusing to talk to sportswriters because of stories that led to NCAA suspensions for 10 teammates.

Linebacker Dale Jones, who had eight unassisted tackles and one sack, said the team wanted to talk things over and there would be no interviews.

“It’s nothing against you guys in the media, we don’t want you to think that we are pushing our limits, but we just felt because of the things that happened we would wait until later . . . before we talk,” Jones said.

Newspaper reports published Friday forced Volunteer Coach Johnny Majors to suspend eight players in addition to two already benched for breaking an NCAA rule limiting complimentary passes to relatives and classmates.

Sophomore tailback Keith Davis scored on touchdown runs of 46 and 14 yards to give defending Southeastern Conference champion Tennessee a 1-0 record. Jeff Francis, making his first start at quarterback, completed 19 of 32 passes for 230 yards.

Auburn 42, Tenn. Chattanooga 14--Jeff Burger threw three touchdown passes at Auburn, Ala., as the Southeastern Conference’s 14th-ranked Tigers defeated the Moccasins, a Division I-AA member from the Southern Conference.

Burger, whose scoring strikes included 13 yards to Walter Reeves, 41 yards to Lawyer Tillman, and 42 yards to fullback Tommie Agee, completed 16 of 25 attempts for 245 yards.

Mississippi 28, Memphis St. 6--At Jackson, Miss., Chris Osgood tossed a pair of touchdown passes and ran for another score to spoil the coaching debut of Memphis State’s Charlie Bailey, a defensive coordinator at Florida last season.

Osgood, a sophomore, ran 1 yard for a touchdown on an option play, threw a 3-yard scoring pass to split end Ricky Myers and rifled a 45-yard touchdown pass to split end Willie Green.

Osgood completed 12 of 17 attempts for 173 yards and added 28 yards in 8 carries.