November
November 3 Unbeaten (5-0-0) and #1 Oklahoma, met the once-beaten (5-1-0) Colorado Buffaloes on the road, and were losing 19-6 at halftime to a team that was four-touchdown underdog, but came back with touchdowns by Tommy McDonald and Clendon Thomas for a difficult 27-19 win. #2 Georgia Tech won at Duke, 7-0. #3 Tennessee beat North Carolina 20-0. #4 Michigan State crushed Wisconsin 33-0. #5 Texas A&M beat Arkansas 27-0. The poll remained unchanged.
November 10 While #1 Oklahoma registered its fifth shutout in seven games, trouncing Iowa State 44-0, #2 Georgia Tech and #3 Tennessee met in Atlanta for a game that proved to determine the SEC title. There were 23 punts altogether, and no score until midway through the third quarter, when Tennessee end Buddy Cruze noticed that Tech had stopped double-teaming him. Quarterback Johnny Majors (who would later be head coach for UT) passed to Cruze at the 35 yard line, and Cruze ran 64 yards down to the Tech goal line, setting up the touchdown that won the game, 6-0. In the poll that followed, Tennessee was the new #1 by a margin of 2 points (1,446 to 1,444) over Oklahoma. #4 Michigan State narrowly beat Purdue, 12-9. #5 Texas A&M beat SMU 33-7 in Dallas, and increased its record to 7-0-1, with the Southwest Conference title and a trip to the Cotton Bowl Classic, and on November 12, was still fifth in the poll. Though on probation since 1955 for recruiting violations, the Aggies had appealed to the NCAA to allow them to play postseason. The next day, however, the NCAA announced that Texas A&M was still banned, because of an additional recruiting violation of a basketball player. The poll: 1.Tennessee 2.Oklahoma 3.Michigan State 4.Georgia Tech 5.Texas A&M.
November 17 #1 Tennessee beat visiting #19 Ole Miss, 27-7, while #2 Oklahoma showed off its offense in beating Missouri 67-14, sufficiently enough to regain the top spot in the next poll. #3, Michigan State traveled to Minnesota, which had been #6 a week before, but dropped to #17. The MSU visitors lost, 14-13, and dropped to 10th place in the next poll. #4 Georgia Tech beat Alabama 27-0. #5 Texas A&M beat visiting Rice, 21-7. #7 Iowa, which had beaten #6 Ohio State 6-0, took Michigan State's place in the poll that followed. The Top 5 was 1.Oklahoma 2.Tennessee 3.Iowa 4.Texas A&M 5.Georgia Tech.
November 24 #1 Oklahoma gained 656 net yards in a defeat of visiting Nebraska 54-6. #2 Tennessee beat Kentucky 20-7. #3 Iowa, which had captured the Big Ten title with a 5-1-0 conference record, finished its season with a 48-8 non-league win over Notre Dame, then accepted a bid to the Rose Bowl, where it would face Oregon State. #4 Texas A&M was idle as it prepared for its Thanksgiving Day game with Texas (which it would win 34-21). In Jacksonville, #5 Georgia Tech beat #13 Florida 28-0, and traded places with A&M. Tech would be invited back to the city for the Gator Bowl at season's end. The poll: 1.Oklahoma 2.Tennessee 3.Iowa 4.Georgia Tech 5.Texas A&M.
December 1 #1 Oklahoma closed its season with a 53-0 win over Oklahoma State, finishing 10-0-0, and with a 466-51 finish in points. Only one of its ten opponents (Colorado) finished 1956 with a winning record. In Nashville, #2 Tennessee beat Vanderbilt 27-7 to close with a 10-0 record and a spot in the Sugar Bowl, where it would face 9-1-0 Baylor. #4 Georgia Tech closed with a 35-0 win at Georgia. Unbeaten and once-tied (9-0-1), #5 Texas A&M did win the Southwest Conference title, but the ban against post-season play sent the SWC runner-up, TCU, to the Cotton Bowl Classic instead.
Read more about this topic: 1956 College Football Season
Famous quotes containing the word november:
“In that November off Tehuantepec,
The slopping of the sea grew still one night
And in the morning summer hued the deck
And made one think of rosy chocolate
And gilt umbrellas.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“During my administration the most unpleasant and perhaps most dramatic negotiations in which we participated were with the various leaders of Iran after the seizure of American hostages in November 1979. The Algerians were finally chosen as the only intermediaries who were considered trustworthy both by me and the Ayatollah Khomeini. After many aborted efforts, final success was achieved during my last few hours in the White House.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Necessity makes women very weak or very strong, and pent-up rivers are sometimes dangerous. Look to it!”
—Mary Worthington, U.S. women’s magazine contributor. The Lily, p. 183 ( November 1856)