COLLEGE FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE NATION : Oklahoma Players Meet, Don’t Practice

Disgruntled Oklahoma football players met with their coaches Wednesday in an effort to clear up some hard feelings over who plays quarterback for the Sooners.

“A group of players got together and wanted to visit with each other about the quarterback situation that developed last week after the Missouri game concerning Steve Collins and Cale Gundy,” Coach Gary Gibbs said.

Gundy played all the way in a 15-15 tie with Oklahoma State last weekend. In the previous two games, Collins, a popular fifth-year senior, had led victories--one by 51-7 over Missouri--while Gundy recovered from a shoulder injury.

It was initially reported that the players had walked out of practice, but Gibbs and several players said that was not the case. They said the length of the meeting precluded any workout. Oklahoma (5-3-2) is off this week, preparing for a Nov. 27 game against Nebraska, which Gibbs said Gundy would start.

Said lineman Joe Correia: “They (the coaches) were saying ‘we want the best players on the field at all times, and that’s our job, to do that.’ It’s a contradiction to me. If you go back and watch the Oklahoma State film. . . . Cale will tell you himself that he wasn’t the best player for that situation.

Temple University ousted Coach Jerry Berndt, just before the end of his fourth year in a five-year contract. . . . A task force evaluating intercollegiate athletics approved the continuance of Southern Methodist’s Division I-A programs and membership in the Southwest Conference. . . . Tom Bell, Coast Guard football coach, was fired four days after the Bears finished their worst season--1-9--in 16 years.