November 1, 2009 in Sports

Texas rolls on

Defense creates easy opportunities for ’Horns
Associated Press
 
Associated Press photo

Texas wide receiver Malcolm Williams grabs TD pass in front of Oklahoma State’s Terrance Anderson.
(Full-size photo)

Florida gives another Georgia beatdown

 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida receiver David Nelson stared across the field, saw all the Georgia players jumping up and down, hooting and hollering after a touchdown and thought, “Here we go again.”

 “Seeing them do that kind of brought back the memory, just hit us hard,” Nelson said.

 The top-ranked Gators responded the same way they did last season – by pounding the Bulldogs.

 Tim Tebow accounted for four touchdowns, A.J. Jones had two huge interceptions and Florida beat the Bulldogs 41-17 Saturday for its 17th win in the last 20 meetings between the Southeastern Conference rivals.

 The Gators (8-0, 6-0) played its most well-rounded game in weeks, extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 18 games and clinched the SEC East title when Tennessee beat South Carolina 31-13.

 The Bulldogs (4-4, 3-3) lost for the third time in four games.

 This one hurt more than the others. Georgia spent the last 12 months stewing about last year’s 49-10 loss, a game in which Florida coach Urban Meyer called two timeouts in the final 44 seconds to prolong their misery.

 The Dawgs placed pictures of Meyer signaling timeout all around their facility for motivation. Players seemed to get a little extra oomph early Saturday when coach Mark Richt surprised them in the locker room with black pants and black helmets, a different look for a team that usually wears white jerseys, silver pants and red helmets on the road. The Bulldogs had never worn black helmets.

 It didn’t make much difference.

“New helmets and black pants ain’t going to make you win the game,” said linebacker Ryan Stamper, who had one of Florida’s four interceptions.

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A greedy Texas defense is making Colt McCoy’s life so much easier.

Curtis Brown and Earl Thomas each returned interceptions for touchdowns, and Cody Johnson had two short TD runs as the No. 3 Longhorns routed No. 13 Oklahoma State 41-14 Saturday night in Stillwater, Okla., to establish themselves as the clear front-runner in the Big 12 South.

McCoy had an efficient 171-yard performance and threw his 100th career touchdown pass, and the Longhorns avoided the kind of letdown on Halloween weekend that cost them a chance to play for the Big 12 championship a year ago.

Texas (8-0, 5-0) came in with the nation’s toughest defense against the run, then played havoc with Zac Robinson and the Oklahoma State (6-2, 3-1) passing attack. Robinson came in as the conference’s top-rated passer after breaking the Cowboys’ record for accuracy in a game last week, but threw a career-high four picks against the Longhorns.

Texas scored 28 points off of Oklahoma State’s five turnovers, with Brown and Thomas cashing in immediately and Johnson scoring on runs of 2 and 1 yards after two other takeaways.

(5) Cincinnati 28, Syracuse 7: At Syracuse, N.Y., Zach Collaros threw four touchdown passes against the Orangemen (3-5, 0-3 Big East) to get the Bearcats (8-0, 4-0) within a win of the best start in school history.

Collaros hit Armon Binns on scoring passes of 81 and 13 yards, Kazeem Alli for 16 yards off a fake field goal, and Adrien Robinson for 4 yards as Cincinnati won its 14th straight regular-season game.

(8) TCU 41, UNLV 0: At Fort Worth, Texas, Andy Dalton threw three touchdown passes, Ed Wesley scored running and catching the ball and the Horned Frogs’ (8-0, 4-0 Mountain West) defense smothered the Rebels (3-6, 1-4).

(9) LSU 42, Tulane 0: At Baton Rouge, La., Brandon LaFell caught two touchdown passes, moving him into second on LSU’s career list, and the Tigers (7-1) shut out the Green Wave (2-6) for the first time since 1969.

(12) Penn State 34, Northwestern 13: At Evanston, Ill., the Nittany Lions (8-1, 4-1) shut out the Wildcats (5-4, 2-3 Big Ten) in the second half and scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns in less than 4 minutes.

Daryll Clark threw a 53-yard TD pass to Derek Moye and Evan Royster broke off a 69-yard scoring run to highlight the fourth-quarter surge that took 3 minutes, 40 seconds.

(15) Houston 50, Southern Miss 43: At Houston, Case Keenum threw for a career-high 559 yards and had five touchdowns, his last coming with 21 seconds remaining to lift the Cougars (7-1, 3-1 Conference USA).

Keenum broke the tie with a 46-yard pass to Patrick Edwards. The Golden Eagles (5-4, 3-2) had a chance to tie it, but Martevious Young’s heave from midfield was knocked down in the end zone as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

(18) Miami 28, Wake Forest 27: At Winston-Salem, N.C., Jacory Harris threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin with 1:08 left to lift the Hurricanes (6-2, 3-2 ACC) past the Demons (4-5, 2-3).

Harris threw for 330 yards and three touchdowns for the Hurricanes , who trailed 27-14 going into the fourth quarter. Miami took advantage of a muffed punt to score a touchdown, then took its first lead when Harris directed an 82-yard scoring drive in the final minutes that ended with Benjamin’s diving catch near the left pylon.

(19) Utah 22, Wyoming 10: At Salt Lake City, Utah freshman Jordan Wynn passed for 82 yards and a touchdown in his college debut, replacing starter Terrance Cain in the second half, as the Utes defeated the Cowboys.

Eddie Wide tied a school record with his fifth straight 100-yard rushing game and added a late touchdown to seal the win for Utah (7-1, 4-0 Mountain West), which trailed the Cowboys (4-4, 2-2) 10-3 at half.

(22) Oklahoma 42, Kansas State 30: At Norman, Okla., Landry Jones passed for 294 yards and four touchdowns and DeMarco Murray scored three times in the Sooners’ (5-3, 3-1 Big 12) win over the Wildcats (5-4, 3-2).

Jones, a redshirt freshman, completed 26 of 37 passes as Oklahoma jumped to a quick 21-0 lead and hung on while Kansas State twice closed to within five points in the second half.

Auburn 33, (24) Mississippi 20: At Auburn, Ala., Chris Todd passed for 212 yards, Ben Tate ran for 144 yards and Walt McFadden returned an interception for a touchdown to lead the Tigers (6-3, 3-3 SEC) past the Rebels (5-3, 2-3).

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