THE GOLD STANDARD: 1958 - Year of the Tigers

LSU 26, Rice 6: Tigers slip – and slide – past Owls

by Marty Mule
(Second in a series)

Paul Dietzel (Photo courtesy of The Jack Andonie Museum)

Players and staff were starting to feel ill on the short but tumultuous plane trip to Houston. Winds and torrential rains outside were buffeting the aircraft – and its retching, white-knuckled passengers.

“Man, some of us were rolling in those seats,” halfback Don “Scooter” Purvis recalled of that trip, “including our trainer, maybe the sickest of us all.”

Getting back on the ground was foremost in the minds of the LSU Tigers, but their coaches also had to be concerned with what would happen once they did: getting the legs of the athletes to stop shaking; providing liquids intravenously to those who threw up so much on the plane; trying to rest; trying to, somehow, eat – and then trying to play a football game, all in a matter of hours.

The brightest season in the 65-year history of LSU football was being ushered in by two of the darkest and wettest days of what passes for autumn in the South.

Torrential rains drenched Houston on Friday, forcing LSU coach Paul Dietzel to postpone the trip until Saturday, the day the Tigers would open their 1958 season against defending Southwest Conference champion Rice, an opponent that overcame a 14-0 deficit to beat LSU 20-14 in 1957.

* * *

This Tiger team was pony-light but extremely quick across the board. “We have the best team speed since I took over,” Dietzel, entering his fourth season at LSU, said. “Ten of our 11 starters can run 50 yards in 6.1 seconds or better.”

That was LSU’s strongest suit, and Dietzel even switched offenses to take advantage of it, going to the wing-T, a misdirection formation. That move was not only to take full advantage of the Tigers’ breakaway backs, but it would also aid the light linemen who now would be pulling or making their blocks downfield, not always at the line of scrimmage where the lack of beef would be a detriment.

The wing-T was being used at the time by only two other schools, small college power Delaware under Coach Tubby Raymond, and Iowa under Forest Evashevski. Both spent time in the offseason helping Dietzel install it.

Ironically, LSU and Iowa would finish that season No. 1 and No. 2.

A lot of things had to fall into place for that to happen for LSU, and one of them was the emergence of quarterback Warren Rabb. Recruited as a tailback by the single-wing programs of Tennessee and UCLA, Rabb was as good a runner as he was a passer – mandatory skills for the key position in that scheme.

Rabb, a junior, the wing-T, and the new substitution pattern would all be making their debuts against Rice – along with two sophomore walk-ons, Mickey Mangham, an end from Maryland who worked his way up to the elite starting unit, and Andy Bourgeois, a 5-foot-10 end on the “alternate defensive unit” – all on a swampy field.

* * *

The weather seemed to be conspiring to negate the biggest positive of this Tiger team.

Now, Dietzel could just envision that one major upgrade from the 5-5 Bayou Bengals of 1957 – speed – being offset by the three inches of rain that drenched the Texas megalopolis, with his players sloshing across the liquid mess, shimmering on the field of Rice Stadium. “Handling that slippery ball,” Rabb recalled, “was my No. 1 concern.”

Dietzel couldn’t have known it, of course, but Owls coach Jess Neely, a grisly veteran of the SWC wars, had even more worries. Neely spent the week leading up to the season-opener shuffling personnel around after his second unit whipped the first team 16-0 in an intra-squad game. The one Owl that seemed to have a lock on his position was All-American end Buddy Dial, who ignited Rice’s fourth-quarter comeback the year before with an acrobatic catch.

* * *

Seldom does one failed play influence the winning of a game as much as LSU’s second of the night. Billy Cannon shot into the Rice secondary and sped past the startled defenders. Quarterback Warren Rabb dropped a pass onto the outstretched fingers of the speeding halfback 30 yards downfield.

It was a perfect pass. But Cannon, looking to the end zone instead of the wet ball, dropped it.

But it alerted Rice to Cannon’s breakaway speed, and for the rest of the night it tried to account for him on every play.

Billy Cannon (Photo courtesy of The Jack Andonie Museum)

A few minutes later, with the ball on the 9, Rabb rolled out to his left. The Owl secondary went back almost en masse to put a shield around Cannon and Johnny Robinson in the end zone, allowing Rabb to race across the goal line for the first touchdown of the night – and of the season.

Purvis set up LSU’s second touchdown with a punt return of 27 yards to the Rice 37.

After a couple of plays, Robinson hit Cannon with a 20-yard halfback pass to the 2, where fullback Red Brodnax scored.

* * *

Despite the fact that the rain continued all day Saturday, letting up only just before kickoff, Dietzel’s worst fears were unfounded. His team had little problem with the soggy field, or, consequently, the Rice Owls. Not only moving well offensively, the Tiger defense held the Owls to 55 total yards and one first down in the opening 30 minutes.

There was more of the same coming. On the first play of the second half, Cannon stepped through a hole at right tackle and went for 25 yards, his longest jaunt of the night.

Neely was almost at a loss to describe the versatility of Cannon. “If you pinch in (clog the middle) on him,” Neely said with a shrug, “he’ll just go around you.”

As he did later.

Cannon punted within an inch of the Rice goal. When the Owls kicked back, Cannon back-tracked as if he were going to let the ball die at the 35. When the Rice coverage team relaxed, he scooped it up and raced to the 4, setting up LSU’s third touchdown.
Robinson took a handoff, ran past his own blocker, and was hit at the line. Spinning out of the tackler’s grasp, Robinson split two more defenders as he went across the goal line.

* * *

Sitting high above the field in the press box was Bear Bryant, the new coach at Alabama and the old coach at Texas A&M where he beat LSU – and his old assistant, Dietzel – two-out-of-two games. Bryant and his entire staff were scouting the Tigers, against whom the Crimson Tide would open its season the following week.
Bear caught an eyeful.

“I was impressed with LSU’s depth, speed and kicking,” Bryant said. “They were the best kicking team I’ve seen in years.”

Though he wouldn’t say so publicly at the time, Dietzel saw enough to be secretly pleased. Cannon clearly demonstrated he was among the best all-around weapons in the SEC, if not the country; Robinson was in the upper echelon as a runner, receiver, passer and defender; Rabb was excellent running the team; and Brodnax looked to be as good a blocker as he had been a runner in 1957 – which is to say, very good. Defensively, the Tigers held the Owls to seven first downs, and Dial had just one inconsequential reception.

So far, Dietzel’s Grand Experiment worked as well as he could have hoped for.
“This game was important for morale,” Dietzel reflected. “Of the 38 boys we brought to Houston, we played 33.”

* * *

No one would have thought that this particular game, on the opening weekend of the season, would have caught the eye of anyone without a rooting interest.

But it did.

Not much attention was paid to this 50 years ago, but Dr. E.E. Litkenhaus was a mathematician who dabbled in college football by coming up with rankings and forecasts based on a formula in a syndicated national column.

Looking back on it now, though, is startling: After the opening weekend, in the Litkenhaus Ratings LSU was ranked No. 1.

(Next: Birth of the Bandits)

LSU 7 6 6 7 - 26

Rice 0 0 0 6 - 6

LSU – Rabb, 9-yard run; PAT, Davis kick.

LSU – Brodnax, 2-yard run; PAT, kick failed.

LSU – Robinson, 5-yard run; PAT, run failed.

Rice – Chilton, 4-yard run; PAT, kick failed.

LSU – Davis, 3-yard run; PAT, Davis kick

Attendance: 45,000

Team Statistics

Rice LSU

7 First downs 13
123 Rushing yards 239

21 Passing yards 27

144 Total yards 266

2-8-2 Passes C-A-I 2-9-2

9-38.2 Punts 7-36.5

6-2 Fumbles, lost 3-1

1-5 Penalties 8-90*

Individual Leaders

Rushing

Rice – Searcy, 5-28 yards

Chilton, 7-18 yards, 1 TD

LSU – Cannon, 9-53 yards

Purvis, 6-46 yards

Robinson, 8-34 yards, 1 TD

Passing

Rice – Dueitt, 4-1-1, 14 yards

Schnable, 4-1-1, 7 yards

LSU – Rabb, 4-1-1, 7 yards

Matherne 4-0-1

Robinson, 1-1-0, 20 yards

.

Receiving

Rice – Searcy, 1-7 yards

Dial, 1-24 yards

LSU – Brodnax, 1-7 yards

Cannon, 1-29 yards