Fiesta Bowl
1974
Oklahoma St. 16
BYU 6
TEMPE, Ariz.-An alert Oklahoma State football team cashed in on the
mistakes of Brigham Young's second-string quarterback and took home the
Fiesta Bowl trophy after a 16-6 victory here. BYU, champion of the WAC,
had a 7-3-1 record entering the game. OSU was.
Gary Scheide, Brigham Young's all-conference quarterback, had led his
Cougars down the field twice to within field-goal range in the first
quarter. On the second trip, he had thrown a pass to flanker John Betham, and interference was called against OSU at its 45-yard line. But
back behind the line of scrimmage, Scheide was writhing in pain on the
ground after he had been tackled by the game's outstanding defensive
player, the Cowboys’ 6-5, 256-pound defensive end, Phillip Dokes.
Scheide suffered a shoulder injury and went to the dressing room with
his arm in a sling and 2:90 left in the first quarter.
It was a bitter disappointment to many in the sellout crowd of 50,878
who had come to see the nation's leading passer. Mark Giles came in to
replace Scheide and moved the Cougars to the 31, from where Mark Uselman
kicked his second field goal of the game to put BYU ahead, 6-0
The Cougar defense didn't allow the Oklahomans to advance beyond their
own 35-yard line until Giles threw a pass that was intercepted by Tony
Buck on the BYU 35 and returned to the 26. Three plays later, the
Cowboys scored on a 12-yard pitchout from quarterback Charlie Weatherbie to Ken Walker. The score came with a little more than seven
minutes remaining in the first half.
But it was all over for BYU. The Cougars' defense kept them in the ball
game until the final minute and 14 seconds, but the offense couldn't get
started without sparkplug Scheide.
Coach Jim Stanley of Oklahoma State said, "There's no way to measure
Scheide's loss. The injury had to have a great deal of influence on the
outcome of the game. My heart goes out to them. I know how they feel."
In the Cougars' silent dressing room next door, Coach La Veil Edwards
called newsmen into a small cubicle and said, "I thought we were going
to go real big the way Scheide took us down the field the first two
times we had the ball. I am awfully sorry for Scheide. Not only did he
want 10 win this game for the Western Athletic Conference, but he was
to leave the day after this game for the Hula Bowl. “Now he has to miss
that, too."
Edwards seemed annoyed by the statement of one of the visiting newsmen
that be was surprised at BYU's tough defense.
"Why should you be surprised?" Edwards asked. "Our defense has been
superb all season. It was great today, but we just had to keep them out
there too long. Giles did a good job for us and he kept getting
stronger as the game went along," Edwards said in defense of his
inconsolable quarterback, whose two intercepted passes and one fumble
set up OSU scoring opportunities.
The Cowboys had a chance to widen the margin late In the third quarter
when Giles' pass glanced off receiver Tom Toolson's shoulder and was
caught by OSU's Mike Allen at the BYU 33. The Cowboys moved the ball to
the five-yard line for a first down, but were stopped by the Cougars'
front five, Keith Rivera, Paul Linford, Larry Carr, Wayne Baker and Stan
Varner, on four blasts at the line.
After a BYU punt, the Cowboys could get back only to the 32-yard line,
from where Abby Daigle booted a field goal to put the Cowboys ahead,
10-6. Still within shooting range, the Cougars staged one of their
patented late-minute marches. But it fell short.
After the Cougars' Jeff Blanc had fielded a punt on his own two-yard
line and been spilled immediately, Giles threw a pass from behind his
goal line to split end Sam LoBue at the 17. Mixing short passes and
line thrusts by Blanc, Giles worked his team all the way to the Cowboys'
28, but the drive fell five yards short of a first down and OSU took
over to start its only sustained drive of the day.
Taking the ball to the BYU 40. Weatherbie handed off lo halfback Leonard
Thompson, who had made several gains on sweeps. He raced to his right,
faded back and threw a pass to end Gerald Bain who was all alone in the
end zone, to make the score 16-6 and break the WAC's stranglehold on the
Fiesta Bowl championship. In the first three years of the new bowl
game, Arizona State represented the WAC and defeated Florida State,
Missouri and Pitt in that order.
Thompson, whose pass resulted in the only scare OSU made without help
from the Cougars, was impressed with BYU's defensive line."We expected
our offense to be able to push aside their line, especially on the
sweep plays, but we ran into something awfully tough. They hit hard. We
had to pass to get over them."
Oklahoma State's powerful wishbone offense was held to a total of 147
yards on the ground. So feeble were the offensive attacks after Scheide
left the game that the award for the most effective offensive player of
the game went to Walker, who gained only 35 yards for Oklahoma State. Dokes, whose most important tackle of the day was his bone-crusher on
Scheide, received the award for the best defensive' player of the game.
In the trenches at the 1974 Fiesta Bowl.
Scott Burk started for OSU
Mike Allen returns pass interception late in game
The story of this one was Scheide's first quarter departure due to injury
Attendance- 50,878
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
BYU- FG Uselman 30
BYU- FG Uselman 41
Second Quarter
OSU- Walker 12 run (Daigle kick)
Third Quarter
OSU- FG Daigle 42
Fourth Quarter
OSU- Bain 40 pass from Thompson (kick failed)
Individual Statistics
Rushing
OSU- Walker 7-35, Nelms 6-32, Turner 9-27
BYU- Blanc 19-55, Giles 10-33, Mahoney 6-31
Passing
OSU- Bain 2-48, Boyer 2-12, Lisle 1-10
BYU- Blanc 4-36, LaBue 3-50, Toolson 3-36
Receiving
OSU- Weatherbie 4-13-21, Burk 2-4-16
BYU- Giles 11-26-138, Shiede 4-5-43
