A Texas halfback who doesn't even know the team's plays, Eldon Moritz, ranks fourth in Southwest Conference scoring after three games.

Time stands still every time Moritz, a 26 -- year old Army Signal Corps veteran, goes into the field. Although he never gets to play while the clock is running, he gets a big kick -- several every Saturday, in fact -- out of football.

Moritz doesn't even have a nose guard or hip pads but he's one of the most valuable members of the Longhorn team that will be heavily favored Saturday over Oklahoma in the cotton bowl.

That's because he already has kicked 14 extra points in 15 tries. He ran his string of successful conversions this season to 13 straight before one went astray last Saturday night in the 41 -- 8 slaughter of Washington State.

Moritz is listed on the Longhorn roster as a right halfback, the position at which he lettered on the 1956 team. But ask coach Darrell Royal what position he plays and you'll get the quick response, ``place kicker.''

A 208 -- pound, 6 -- foot 1 -- inch senior from Stamford, Moritz practices nothing but place-kicking. Last year, when he worked out at halfback all season, he didn't get into a single game.

``This year, coach Royal told me if I'd work on my place-kicking he thought he could use me,'' said Moritz. ``So I started practicing on it in spring training.

Moritz was bothered during the first two games this year by a pulled muscle in the thigh of his right (kicking) leg and, as a result, several of his successful conversions have gone barely far enough.