Georgia
Loss Trims List Of
Undefeated Teams To Five
by Mike Mitchell
10/30/05
12:36 am est
Texas and UCLA avoided the upset bug but Florida's win over Georgia
reduced the unbeaten ranks to five teams on Saturday.
Without quarterback D.J. Shockley, Georgia didn't have the offensive
firepower to take out Florida. The Bulldogs lost the game 14-10
but remain in first place in the SEC east, a game ahead of the
Gators.
Texas endured a first-half onslaught from Oklahoma State. But
after trailing 28-9 in the second quarter, the Longhorns reeled
off 37 unanswered points for a 47-28 win. It was the third consecutive
year that the Cowboys took a first-half lead only to be skunked
and routed after intermission. OSU has won the first halves of
the last three meetings by a combined score of 79-33, but lost
the second halves by a total of 118-0.
Unlike "Bullwinkle", UCLA is superb at pulling a rabbit
out of their hat. "Rocky the Flying Squirrel" had to
constantly remind the moose "that trick never works".
For UCLA, it worked for the fourth time as the Bruins overcame
a 24-3 deficit with under 8 minutes left in the game to force
Stanford to overtime. UCLA won 30-27 in the extra stanza.
The Bruins have rallied from double-digit deficits in the fourth
quarter of four ballgames and each gets a little trickier than
the next. The first occasion was a 10-point comeback against
Washington. They trailed California by 14 the next week and Washington
State by 17 the week after that. UCLA got a reprieve last week
by routing Oregon State but went back to the same magic act this
week.
Meanwhile, that other school in Los Angeles went about their
business in a matter-of-fact way. USC kept their record clean
with a 55-13 stomping of Washington State. It was 28-3 at the
end of the first quarter and Matt Leinart had thrown for over
300 yards by halftime. The Cougars trailed 7-6 after a missed
PAT but didn't register a second touchdown until the fourth quarter.
On Thursday night, Boston College briefly held a 7-6 lead in
the second quarter but a dominating ball-control performance
helped the Hokies improve to 8-0 over-all, 5-0 in the ACC Coastal
division. The 30-10 win included the 100th touchdown registered
by defense or special teams in head coach Frank Beamer's tenure.
Virginia Tech hosts Miami (6-1, 3-1) next week.
On Friday night, Colorado State spotted New Mexico 25-12 first-half
advantage, then roared from behind for a 35-25 win in Albuquerque
in a key Mountain West Conference game. The Rams never allowed
New Mexico past their own 41-yard line in the second half while
outscoring the Lobos 23-0. Colorado State (5-3, 4-1) visits conference-leader
TCU (7-1, 5-0) next week.
One Year Ago: A year ago on this very same weekend,
the "Big 3" in the Sunshine State lost on the same
day for the first time in 26 years. Florida State, Miami and
Florida fell to Maryland, North Carolina and Georgia.
They all faced the same schools on Saturday and exacted their
revenge, but it wasn't easy.
UNC led Miami 16-7 in the first half before the Hurricanes recovered
for a 34-16 win.
Maryland owned a 24-14 second half advantage over Florida State
but the 'Noles rallied to a 35-27 victory.
Florida, as noted above, beat Georgia 14-10.
Fulmer Spurned By Spurrier - Again:
The last time a Tennessee team lost to South Carolina, Johnny
Majors was fired six days later. Philip Fulmer was 12-0 against
the Gamecocks but that was before Steve Spurrier was on board.
South Carolina's 16-15 win on Saturday night was their first
ever in Knoxville and only their 3rd win over the Vols in 24
meetings (3-19-2). Spurrier improved his record against Fulmer
to 8-2. Spurrier is 10-5 all-time versus Tennessee. He was 8-4
with Florida, 1-1 with Duke and now 1-0 with South Carolina.
Zips Get Zapped, Then Zoom: Figure this one out.
Last week, Akron got zapped by Army as the Black Knights ended
their 11-game losing streak with a 20-0 win. This past Saturday,
that same Akron team zoomed past an Omar Jacob-less Bowling Green
team 24-14 and now finds itself zipping into the MAC east title
hunt. The Zips are essentially in a 4-way tie for first with
Miami, Bowling Green and Ohio. All are 3-2 in the conference.
Akron, BGSU and Ohio are each 4-4 over-all. Miami is 5-3 in over-all
and has already beaten Akron. The RedHawks have upcoming games
against Bowling Green (home) and Ohio (away).
"Toledo, We Have A Problem": The Rockets
exploded on impact at Central Michigan on Saturday. The Chippewas
took over first in the MAC west with a 21-17 win over Toledo.
Each team is now 4-1 in the conference but CMU owns the tie-breaker
thanks to their first win over the Rockets since 1994, breaking
a 10-game losing streak to Toledo.
Rice
Is Nice On Any Day: The
Owls almost blew it. Rice had the ball with a chance to tie UTEP
late in the game but the Owls hung on for a 38-31 loss. Rice
has registered a nation-leading 13 straight losses. From November
25th, 2003 (when Buffalo ended an 18-game losing streak) to October
22nd, 2005 (when Army blanked Akron 20-0) that streak had continuously
belonged to either Army or UCF.
Derailed: Purdue has fallen off the tracks. The
Boilermakers lost their sixth consecutive game, falling at Penn
State 33-15. Purdue was the preseason favorite of many to win
the Big 10 title and the computer forecasted the Boilermakers
to go 11-0.
Bowl-Bound Rutgers?: Rutgers may be going bowling
for the first time since 1978 when they lost to Arizona State
in the short-lived and long-defunct Garden State Bowl at the
Meadowlands. A 31-21 win over Navy on Saturday improved Rutgers
to 6-2 over-all and 3-1 in the Big East. The Scarlet Knights
are on a 3-game winning streak for the first time since 1992.
It is only their second such streak since 1982.
Still Winning: Georgia has been kicked out of the
club but five members still remain undefeated: USC, Texas, Virginia
Tech, Alabama and UCLA.
In case you were wondering - at this point last season, there
were still six undefeated teams - Auburn,
Boise State, Oklahoma, USC, Utah and Wisconsin.
Still
Losing: Four
teams stayed on the ubiquitous winless list; Buffalo, New Mexico
State, Rice and Temple.
New Mexico State had several chances to taste victory but, instead,
opted to spit it out. In their 38-37 double-overtime loss to
mighty Idaho (2-6), the Aggies had a wide receiver drop a perfectly
thrown bomb that would have been the game-winning touchdown with
8 seconds left in regulation. In the first overtime, NMSU picked
off an Idaho pass and had a long return before being forced out
of bounds. On the Aggies first overtime possession, they fumbled
the ball at the goal line. But wait, there's more! New Mexico
State took a 37-30 lead in the 2nd overtime only to give up a
TD to the Vandals, too. Idaho opted to go for two points and
end the suspense - but - the pass to the endzone fell incomplete.
True to form, NMSU was offsides on the snap and the Vandals made
good on the second chance.
At this point last year, UCF was the only winless team.
1-AA Schools Strike Out: For the third consecutive
week, no games were played between 1-AA schools and their higher-classified
brethren over the weekend. For the season, fifty such games have
taken place and the 1-A teams are 48-2. Since the beginning of
the 2003 season, 1-A teams have won 160-of-178 such games or
89.99 percent.
Streaks: USC extended the nation's longest winning
streak to 30 with the 55-13 win over Washington State. They have
now won 41 of their last 42 games. USC also owns streaks of 24
straight home wins and 20 consecutive PAC-10 victories. The 30-game
over-all winning streak is the longest in PAC-10 history, breaking
their own record of 25 games set in 1931-1933.
Texas has won 15 straight games after its 47-28 win at Oklahoma
St.
Virginia Tech has 16 consecutive regular season wins and 11 straight
conference victories after beating Boston College 30-10.
Boise State owns nation-leading streaks of 29 straight home wins
and 30 straight conference victories after their 49-14 win over
Nevada.
Rice extended its losing streak to 13 games with a 38-31 home
loss to UTEP.
New Coaches: The 2005 season began with 23 coaching changes.
San Jose State has not beaten a 1-A team yet. New Mexico State
is still looking for its first win over anybody under Hal Mumme.
Here is how each has fared for the season, by order of success,
and how they performed this past week:
LSU, 6-1 under Les Miles, beat North Texas 56-3.
Florida, 6-2 under Urban Meyer, beat Georgia in Jacksonville
14-10.
Notre Dame, 5-2 under Charlie Weis, was idle.
Miami, O., 5-3 under Shane Montgomery, beat Temple 41-14.
South Carolina, 5-3 under Steve Spurrier, won at Tennessee 16-15.
Western Michigan, 5-3 under Bill Cubit, beat Kent State 44-14.
Indiana, 4-3 under Terry Hoeppner, lost at Michigan State 46-15.
Stanford, 4-3 under Walt Harris, lost to UCLA in OT 30-27.
BYU, 4-4 under Bronco Mendenhall, beat Air Force 62-41.
Marshall, 4-4 under Mark Snyder, beat Tulane in Mobile 27-26.
Ohio, 4-4 under Frank Solich, won at Buffalo 34-20.
Pittsburgh, 4-4 under Dave Wannstedt, was idle.
Utah, 4-4 under Kyle Wittingham, was idle.
East Carolina, 3-5 under Skip Holtz, lost to UCF 30-20.
Mississippi, 3-5 under Ed Orgeron, lost at Auburn 27-3.
Oklahoma St, 3-5 under Mike Gundy, lost to Texas 47-28.
Utah State, 2-5 under Brent Guy, lost 35-3 at Alabama.
Illinois, 2-6 under Ron Zook, lost 41-24 to Wisconsin.
Nevada-Las Vegas, 2-6 under Mike Sanford, was idle.
San Jose St., 1-7 under Dick Tomey, lost at Louisiana Tech 31-14.
Syracuse, 1-7 under Greg Robinson, lost to Cincinnati 22-16.
Washington, 1-7 under Ty Willingham, lost at Arizona State 44-20.
New Mexico St., 0-8 under Hal Mumme, lost to Idaho in 2 OT's
38-37. |