Alabama
Suffers First Defeat;
Spurrier Gets Win Over Gators
by Mike Mitchell
Update
11/13/05 3:17 am est
Alabama
lost for the first time on Saturday, Steve Spurrier beat his
former team, and Texas was the only team to clinch a division
or conference title as Georgia and Colorado blew their chances.
An 11-yard touchdown pass in overtime provided LSU with a 16-13
win at Alabama to knock the Crimson Tide from the unbeaten ranks.
Coupled with Auburn's 31-30 win at Georgia on a field goal with
6 seconds left, the SEC West is still a three-team dogfight between
Alabama, Auburn and LSU. But LSU has the upper hand with its
overtime wins over both schools.
Alabama (9-1, 6-1) visits Auburn (8-2, 6-1) next week in their
famed Iron Bowl rivalry. The winner of that game will claim the
west division title only if LSU slips up in one of its two remaining
games. LSU (8-1, 5-1) travels to Mississippi next Saturday before
closing the season at home against Arkansas on November 26.
Georgia (7-2, 5-2) could have clinched the SEC East with a win
over Auburn. Despite the loss, the Bulldogs still control their
own destiny and can clinch an SEC Championship berth next week
with a home win over Kentucky.
South Carolina will be rooting for a Georgia loss as the Gamecocks
(7-3, 5-3) leapt into the title picture with a 30-22 upset over
Florida (7-3, 5-3) in Columbia. When Steve Spurrier was coaching
the Gators, Florida never lost to South Carolina. Of course,
Spurrier wasn't coaching against himself. The Gators, in fact,
were 13-0 against the Gamecocks from 1992-2004. Prior to that,
the two teams had not met since 1964 and the Gators won that
meeting also. Before that, their last meeting was in 1939 when
South Carolina won 6-0.
Georgia, Florida and South Carolina were all 1-1 against each
other so, if all three teams wind up 5-3 in the division, the
tiebreaker will fall to each teams' records against divisional
foes. Florida and South Carolina were each 4-1 which tops Georgia's
3-2 mark and locks out the Bulldogs. Florida would be out because
its lone divisional loss was to South Carolina.
Texas took a 52-0 halftime lead on Kansas and went on to demolish
the Jayhawks 66-14. Kansas entered the game boasting the nation's
best defense allowing just 273.9 yards per game. The Longhorns
piled up 617 as they ran their record to 10-0. The Jayhawks (5-5)
will have to win at Iowa State on November 26th to become bowl eligible.
Iowa State, meanwhile, will have bigger things on its mind than
simply beating Kansas. The Cyclones defeated Colorado 30-16 on
Saturday to keep the Buffaloes from clinching the north division
title and giving themselves a faint chance at winning the conference
title berth.
Iowa State (7-3, 4-3) wins the division if it beats Kansas, Colorado
(7-3, 5-2) loses at home to Nebraska on November 25th and Missouri
(6-4, 4-3) loses at Kansas State next week.
Missouri, a 31-16 winner over Baylor, can claim the title if
it beats Kansas State and a three-way tie occurs for first place
in the division.
Florida State, which backed into the ACC's Atlantic Division
title last week, lost its second straight conference game. Tommy
Bowden's Clemson Tigers mauled papa Bobby Bowden's Seminoles
35-14 and left FSU with a pedestrian 7-3 record over-all, 5-3
in the conference. Florida State has lost three of its last five
games and dropped three conference games in one season for the
first time in its 14-year history as an ACC member.
Clemson (6-4, 4-4) became bowl-eligible with the win, Tommy's
second in seven tries against his father.
Just last week, Florida State lost at home to N.C. State, but
North Carolina beat Boston College earlier in the day to hand
FSU the division title.
Miami took another step toward the ACC's Coastal Division title
with a 47-17 win at Wake Forest in the season finale for the
Demon Deacons. The Hurricanes will get a rematch with FSU, the
only team it has lost to this season, if they beat Georgia Tech
and Virginia in their final two games. Both contests will be
played in Miami.
TCU finished the season with a 51-3 win over UNLV to wrap up
an 8-0 league mark in their inaugural year as members of the
Mountain West conference. TCU enters the bowl season with an
over-all record of 10-1. Their only setback was a 21-10 upset
at SMU a week after they opened the season with a 17-10 upset
of Oklahoma to hand the Sooners their first home loss since 2001.
Ohio State stayed in the Big 10 title chase with a 48-7 bruising
of Northwestern. The Buckeyes (8-2, 6-1) will need to win at
Michigan next week and hope for a Penn State loss at Michigan
State to win the title outright and claim the conference's top
bowl spot. Michigan would claim that spot with a win over Ohio
State and a Penn State loss to the Spartans. Northwestern was
eliminated by its loss to Ohio State and Wisconsin was knocked
out of the race by a 20-10 home loss to Iowa. The Nittany Lions
were idle this past week.
Texas Tech was surprised by Oklahoma State, 24-17, giving the
Cowboys a chance to become bowl eligible with season-ending road
wins at Baylor and Oklahoma.
Texas A&M is on the verge of elimination from the bowl season
after a 36-30 loss at Oklahoma. The Aggies final game is next
week against rival Texas in College Station.
Nebraska became bowl eligible, and eliminated Kansas State, with
a 27-25 win over the Wildcats. The Cornhuskers missed the bowl
season last year for the first time since 1968 after suffering
their first losing season (5-6) since 1961. Kansas State will
miss the postseason for the second straight season after making
it to 11 consecutive bowls from 1993-2003.
UCLA kept its PAC-10 title hopes alive. A week after being bombed
at Arizona, the Bruins returned home to defeat Arizona State
45-35. Arizona, meanwhile, was destroyed 38-14 at home by Washington
as the Huskies ended a 14-game conference losing streak. Arizona
State must beat Arizona at home on November 25th to become bowl
eligible.
Oregon's 34-31 win at Washington State improved the Ducks to
6-1 in the conference and a second-place tie with UCLA. The Ducks
would win a share of the PAC-10 title with a win over Oregon
State and a USC loss to UCLA. Even still, Oregon would not earn
the conference's top bowl position by virtue of its home loss
to USC earlier in the year and the fact that the Ducks don't
get a shot at UCLA this season.
Stanford kept its bowl hopes alive, and jeopardized Oregon State's,
with a 20-17 upset of the Beavers in Corvaillis. The Cardinal
is now 5-4 with home games left against California and Notre
Dame. OSU slipped to 5-5 with only the Civil War left to fight
against Oregon on November 26th at Eugene.
Vanderbilt and Mississippi were knocked out of the bowl chase
on Saturday.
The Commodores, who opened the season 0-4, fell 48-43 at home
to Kentucky when their stirring comeback bid fell short. Vanderbilt,
which lost for the sixth straight time, trailed the Wildcats
41-10 at halftime and 48-24 at the start of the fourth quarter.
The Rebels lost 28-17 at home to Arkansas.
Tennessee (4-5) kept its bowl hopes alive but the Vols had to
rally from an early 13-0 deficit to beat Memphis 20-15, even
though the Tigers played without the nation's leading rusher.
DeAngelo Williams hurt his ankle in last week's game against
UAB.
Rice and Buffalo pocketed their first wins of the season as the
Owls added more misery to Tulane's season with a 42-34 home win
over the Green Wave. Buffalo's win came at Kent State, 10-6,
for the Bulls' first conference road win since joining the MAC
in 1999. The school announced the firing of its head coach, Jim
Hofher, this past week but Hofher is finishing the season.
Earlier in the week, Rutgers stomped on Louisville's logo at
the 50-yard line prior to the game, then Louisville stomped Rutgers
56-5.
The Cardinals took a 21-5 halftime lead, then blew the game wide
open with a 28-point fourth quarter to hand Rutgers a horrible
loss that was all-too-similar of many games in recent years.
This had been the season that the Scarlet Knights had made all
those 50-point losses a thing of the past. Just two weeks ago,
they were 6-2 and celebrating the likelihood of a bowl invitation
for the first time since 1978. But this loss slapped Rutgers
down to 6-4, 3-3 in the conference, and possibly in need of a
seventh win to rekindle their bowl aspirations.
Louisville has now outscored their five guests in Papa John's
Stadium by a cumulative count of 291-76, an average score of
58-15. They improved to 7-2 with the win, 3-2 in the conference.
Fresno State thumped Boise State 27-7 Thursday night to end the
Broncos' string of 31 consecutive wins against conference opponents.
In doing so, they held Boise State to its lowest point total
since a 38-7 loss to UCLA at the start of the 1999 season.
Another Bulldog team, Georgia, ended Boise State's 21-game regular
season winning streak in the first game of the year. The Broncos
have never lost a home game to a WAC foe and have a 30-game home
winning streak left intact.
The win was the first for Fresno State over their conference
rival since Boise State became a member of the WAC in 2001.
The Broncos last conference loss occurred on November 3, 2001
when Louisiana Tech beat them in Ruston 48-42. They now have
lost just 3 conference games in their WAC history and are 35-3
all-time against league opponents.
West Virginia came out firing on all cylinders Wednesday night
and cruised to a 38-0 win at Cincinnati to move one step closer
to the Big East title and a BCS bowl berth.
More and more, the Mountaineers are looking nothing like the
team that was expected to have concerns about its youthfulness
in the preseason. In their last two games, they have rolled over
UConn and Cincinnati by a combined score of 83-13.
The Mountaineers are now 8-1 with games remaining against Pitt
at home and a hurricane makeup game at South Florida that, ironically,
will likely wind up serving as the conference championship game.
USF is in 2nd-place in the conference at 3-1 after a 27-0 rout
at Syracuse on Saturday. Pittsburgh is just 5-5 after blanking
UConn 24-0 on Saturday and must beat West Virginia to become
bowl eligible.
West Virginia has to wait 15 days before their Thanksgiving Day
date with the Panthers and will have played just two games in
40 days by the time that gameday arrives. Hurricane Wilma caused
the postponement of their scheduled October 22nd game at USF.
A 34-yard field goal in overtime gave Southern Miss a 27-24 win
over Marshall in a key CUSA game Tuesday night.
The game-winning field goal came after Marshall failed on their
overtime field goal attempt. The Thundering Herd also missed
a chance to win the game in regulation when the Golden Eagles
blocked a field goal attempt as time expired.
The win was huge for Southern Miss which surrendered a 24-10
lead at the end of the third quarter. A loss would have dropped
the Golden Eagles behind Marshall into third place in the east
division and given Central Florida control of its own destiny
to the division title.
Now, Southern Miss (5-3, 4-1) stays in the driver's seat toward
a conference championship berth and UCF will need to keep hoping
for a loss by the Golden Eagles down the stretch. Southern Miss
owns the head-to-head tie-breaker over Central Florida with its
52-31 win on October 15th. The Golden Eagles visit Houston today
in a game that was postponed from September 24th by Hurricane
Rita.
Central Florida (7-3, 6-1) won 27-21 at UAB on Saturday for the
seventh victory in its last eight games.
Still Winning: If USC and Texas do their part,
the BCS officials will be able to breathe a sigh of relief. With
Alabama's loss on Saturday, the Trojans and Longhorns are the
only two remaining undefeated teams and each won convincingly
over the weekend. Texas blasted Kansas 66-14 and USC was never
threatened by California in a 35-10 win at Berkeley.
In case you were wondering - at this point last season, there
were still five undefeated teams - Auburn, Boise State, Oklahoma,
USC and Utah.
Still Losing: Only two teams remain on the ubiquitous
winless list after Rice and Buffalo each ended their losing skids
on Saturday.
Rice beat Tulane 42-34. Buffalo downed Kent State 10-6.
New Mexico State (0-10) lost to lost to Nevada 48-24 while Temple
(0-10) was idle.
The Aggies and Owls inherit a tie for the current longest losing
streak. Each has lost 11 in-a-row.
At this point last year, UCF was the only winless team.
1-AA Schools Strike Out: Two 1-A schools faced
lower-division schools on Saturday and each was victorious. However,
Army had a little trouble with the highly-ranked 1-AA Massachusetts
Minutemen before eventually winning 34-27. The game was tied
until the Black Knights scored the game-winning touchdown with
3:02 to play. The win gave Army its first three-game winning
streak since 1996.
UTEP rolled over Texas Southern 45-0. The 1-AA Tigers fell to
1-8 with the loss while UTEP improved to 8-1.
Fifty-three games have been played this season between 1-A teams
and lower-division foes. The 1-A teams are 51-2. Since the beginning
of the 2003 season, 1-A teams are 163-18 (.901).
Streaks: USC extended the nation's longest winning
streak to 32 with a 35-10 win at California. The Trojans have
now won 43 of their last 44 games. USC also owns streaks of 25
straight home wins and 22 consecutive PAC-10 victories. The 32-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 17 straight after a 66-14 home win over Kansas.
Boise State's nation-leading streak of 31 conference wins came
to an end with the Broncos' 27-7 loss at Fresno State last Thursday
night. But BSU still owns a national-best streak of 30 straight
home wins.
Rice ended its losing streak at 14 games with a 42-34 win over
Tulane.
Buffalo ended a 10 game losing streak with a 10-6 win at Kent
State.
New Mexico State endured its 11th straight loss, 48-24, at home
to Nevada.
Temple has lost 11 straight. The Owls were idle this past week.
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, 8-1 under Les Miles, won at Alabama 16-13 in OT.
Notre Dame, 7-2 under Charlie Weis, beat Navy 42-21.
Florida, 7-3 under Urban Meyer, lost at South Carolina 30-22.
South Carolina, 7-3 under Steve Spurrier, beat Florida 30-22.
Western Michigan, 7-3 under Bill Cubit, beat Central Michigan
31-24.
Miami, O., 6-3 under Shane Montgomery, was idle.
BYU, 6-4 under Bronco Mendenhall, beat Wyoming 35-21
Stanford, 5-4 under Walt Harris, won at Oregon State 20-17.
Pittsburgh, 5-5 under Dave Wannstedt, beat Connecticut 24-0.
Utah, 5-5 under Kyle Wittingham, lost to New Mexico 31-27.
Marshall, 4-5 under Mark Snyder, lost to Southern Miss 27-24
in OT.
Ohio, 4-5 under Frank Solich, was idle.
Oklahoma St, 4-5 under Mike Gundy, beat Texas Tech 24-17.
Indiana, 4-6 under Terry Hoeppner, lost at Michigan 41-14.
East Carolina, 3-6 under Skip Holtz, lost at Tulsa 45-13.
Mississippi, 3-6 under Ed Orgeron, lost to Arkansas 28-17.
Utah State, 2-7 under Brent Guy, lost at Hawaii 50-23.
Illinois, 2-8 under Ron Zook, lost at Purdue 37-3
Nevada-Las Vegas, 2-8 under Mike Sanford, lost at TCU 51-3.
Washington, 2-8 under Ty Willingham, won at Arizona 38-14.
San Jose St., 1-8 under Dick Tomey, was idle.
Syracuse, 1-8 under Greg Robinson, lost to South Florida 27-0.
New Mexico St., 0-10 under Hal Mumme, lost to Nevada 48-24. |