COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Colorado’s Williams Grabs Defensive Award

Alfred Williams, the defensive leader for top-ranked Colorado, won the Butkus Award today as the nation’s top linebacker.

Williams, a 6-foot-6, 236-pound senior from Houston, had 86 tackles and 12 1/2 sacks this season. He also recovered a fumble, blocked a field goal and broke up five passes for the Buffaloes (10-1-1), who will play Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.

Williams edged Illinois’ Darrick Brownlow for the award. Both players received six first-place votes, but Williams topped Brownlow 31-28 in points in voting by a panel of sports journalists and football experts.

Players receive three points for a first-place vote, two for second and one for third.

Notre Dame’s Michael Stonebreaker finished third, followed by Miami’s Maurice Crum and Clemson’s Levon Kirkland.

Stonebreaker received one first-place vote and 12 points, while Crum got five points and Kirkland two.

Williams will be honored Saturday at the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, Fla., which sponsors the award.

Texas A&M; head football Coach R. C. Slocum has criticized CBS for picking up and broadcasting a play that the Aggies used for a crucial two-point conversion attempt against Texas.

The play failed and Texas held on to win, 28-27, Saturday.

“I disapprove of CBS. I think they are out of line to position themselves to gather information that could influence the outcome of the game,” Slocum said Monday. “In the future, we will be more mindful of where their cameramen are.”

Robin Brendle, a spokeswoman for CBS Sports, said broadcasting the called play was inadvertent, but added, “A big part of our telecast is trying to get in the huddle and capture the essence of the game.”

Late in the fourth quarter, A&M; halfback Darren Lewis was stopped well short of the goal line on the play that would have given the Aggies a one-point lead.

Before the conversion play, the CBS national viewing audience heard A&M; plan and call the play on the sideline.

If the Texas coaches had heard that information, they could have adjusted their defense, according to several callers to radio talk shows.

Steve Ross, assistant sports information director at Texas, said Longhorn coaches could not have heard the broadcast because they don’t have their television sets turned on in the coach’s booth at Memorial Stadium.

Ross said the sets are kept off for fear that a planned play may be broadcast. “We do it just for that reason,” he said.

Ray Perkins, fired as coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, says he wants to return to college coaching, even if it’s at a small school.

“I want to be somewhere where I can possibly make a difference with young people,” he told The Birmingham News on Monday night from his home in Tampa, a few hours after losing his job.