College Football Today

STARS

— Georgia Tech receiver Demaryius Thomas caught nine passes for 230 yards, the second-most in school history, to help the Yellow Jackets beat Duke 27-0. One of the catches was an 88-yard score, the third-longest in Tech history.

— Kansas’ Todd Reesing threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns and the 16th-ranked Jayhawks rallied to beat Iowa State 35-33.

— Minnesota receiver Eric Decker tied a school record with 13 catches for 190 yards in the Golden Gophers’ 16-7 win over Indiana 16-7.

— Cornell’s Nathan Ford threw a 20-yard touchdown pass on the last play of the game to lead the Big Red to a 25-24 win over Lehigh. Ford, who finished with 438 yards passing, threw for two touchdowns and ran for a third.

— Navy’s Matt Harmon tied a school record with four field goals in the Midshipmen’s 33-27 victory over Air Force. Harmon hit field goals of 35, 48, 44 and 32 yards to tie a school mark held by five other kickers.

JUICED UP

Illinois quarterback Juice Williams threw for 310 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 121 yards and two scores to lead the Fighting Illini to a 45-20 win over Michigan in Ann Arbor. The quarterback’s 431 yards of total offense were the most any player has had at Michigan Stadium and it matched an opponent record against the Wolverines.

The Illini set a school record for points against Michigan, surpassing the 39 points Red Grange helped them score in 1924 as Memorial Stadium was dedicated, and they scored the most any team has at the Big House since Florida State had 51 in 1991.

Michigan is 2-3 under new coach Rich Rodriguez, who is in the first year of a six-year deal worth $2.5 annually. It’s the Wolverines’ worst record after five games since they started 1-5 in 1967, two years before Bo Schembechler arrived.

BOUNCING BACK, BIG-TIME

Coming off a loss that cost them the No. 1 ranking, the No. 9 USC Trojans dominated Oregon 44-10 behind a revived defense. USC allowed Oregon State’s Jacquizz Rodgers to run for 186 yards and two scores in a 27-21 loss at Corvallis, but held the Ducks’ tandem of Jeremiah Johnson and LaGarrette Blount to a combined 45 yards—all by Johnson. Blount was held to 0 yards on nine carries. Oregon was leading the Pac-10 in rushing coming in.

FABULOUS FROSH

Terrelle Pryor passed his first big test for No. 14 Ohio State. The freshman quarterback ran 11 yards for a touchdown with 1:08 left and helped No. 14 Ohio State win at No. 18 Wisconsin 20-17.

ROCK CHALK

No. 16 Kansas’ rally from a 20-point deficit to beat Iowa State 35-33 was its biggest comeback since 1992, when the Jayhawks came back from a 26-point deficit to beat—you guessed it—Iowa State 50-47.

With the Jayhawks trailing 20-0 at halftime, Kansas coach Mark Mangino figured his team was bound to start playing better. It would be hard for them to play worse.

“‘We’ve played very poorly,”’ Mangino said he told his team. “‘But we can win this game, and we will win this game, if you keep your poise, you stay calm.”’

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, GINO TORRETTA?

Once upon a time, Florida State-Miami mattered. No longer.

The Seminoles beat the Hurricanes 41-39, dropping once-mighty Miami to 0-2 and last place in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Coastal Division.

The ‘Canes could use Torretta, the 1992 Heisman Trophy winner. Miami had 31 yards in penalties and 38 passing yards at halftime. Hurricanes quarterback Robert Marve finished 17-of-41 for 121 yards and threw two interceptions.

PIGSTY

After opening the Bobby Petrino era with narrow victories over Western Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe, the Arkansas Razorbacks have been outscored 139-31 in three straight losses to then-No. 9 Alabama, then-No. 7 Texas and No. 12 Florida.

IN MEMORIAM

Craig Fertig, the record-setting quarterback for Southern California who later became the Trojans’ TV voice, died Saturday of kidney failure at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, USC athletic director Mike Garrett said. Fertig was 66.

Fertig was a teammate of Garrett’s in 1963 and 1964, when the quarterback set eight USC passing records. Fertig was also a member of USC’s 1962 national championship team.

Fertig will always be remembered for throwing the winning touchdown pass in the final two minutes to upset unbeaten, top-ranked Notre Dame in 1964. The Trojans trailed by 17 at halftime.

BY THE NUMBERS

Arizona State won its first eight games under Dennis Erickson. Since then, the Sun Devils are 4-6 with a visit to USC next week. … Florida quarterback Tim Tebow threw an interception in the Gators’ 38-7 victory at Arkansas, ending a string of 203 passes without an interception. … Duke’s 27-0 loss at Georgia Tech was its 17th straight Atlantic Coast Conference road defeat and came one week after the Blue Devils snapped a 25-game ACC losing streak. The Blue Devils had averaged 30.8 points in their first four games before being shut out. … Don’t look now, but Columbia has dropped 11 in a row—a quarter of the way to matching its 44-game skid from 1983-88, second-longest in college football history. The Lions fell to Princeton 27-24 in the Ivy League opener for both squads. … Notre Dame has won five straight games in South Bend, where it dropped a school-record six in a row last year. … Michigan has 16 turnovers and 14 touchdowns this season. … San Diego extended its home win streak to 27 games, the longest in the nation, with a 42-14 win over Valparaiso.

QUOTE, UNQUOTE

“I’m not letting anybody get near me with a knife.”—Penn State coach Joe Paterno, whose lingering right hip injury has forced him to coach from the press box. The sixth-ranked Nittany Lions beat Purdue 20-6.

“I’d use the word awful.”—Florida coach Urban Meyer, describing the Gators’ offense.

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