Jason White threw five touchdown passes, including the decisive one with 6:43 left, and second-ranked Oklahoma overcame Texas A&M's explosive offense and special teams trickery for a 42-35 victory Saturday.
Oklahoma handed Texas A&M a loss for the ages last season -- 77-0, the worst in the 108-year history of Aggies football. But the rematch was a battle from start to finish for the Sooners (9-0, 6-0 Big 12).
PHOTO: AFP
White, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, was 19-of-35 for 292 yards, taking control of the offense as the 22nd-ranked Aggies swarmed to star freshman running back Adrian Peterson.
PHOTO: AP
Peterson still managed to run for 101 yards and a touchdown on a tough 29 carries, his ninth straight 100-yard game. He went to the locker room on Oklahoma's go-ahead drive with an apparent arm injury, but returned to help the Sooners run the clock down on their last possession.
The Aggies (6-3, 4-2) finished the game without their best offensive weapon. Reggie McNeal left with an apparent injury in the third quarter after throwing for 213 yards and two touchdowns and running for a score.
PHOTO: AP
No. 6 Texas 56,
No. 19 Oklahoma St. 35
In Austin, Texas, Cedric Benson scored five touchdowns and Vince Young had a strong passing game to help Texas overcame a 35-7 first-half deficit.
Young passed for 278 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score, and Benson's fourth TD gave Texas (8-1, 5-1 Big 12) its first lead at 42-35 early in the fourth quarter. The biggest deficit the Longhorns had ever overcome to win was 19 points three seasons ago in a Holiday Bowl win over Washington.
Benson finished with 141 yards on 23 carries.
No. 1 USC 28, Oregon St. 20
In Corvallis, Oregon, Matt Leinart threw two touchdown passes to Dominique Byrd and Southern California shook off the fog and an early Oregon State threat.
Reggie Bush's 65-yard punt return for a touchdown and LenDale White's 5-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter assured the victory for the defending national champion Trojans (9-0, 6-0 Pacific-10). Southern California has won 18 consecutive games overall, 13 in a row in the Pac-10 and 10 straight on the road.
Leinart completed 17 of 31 passes for 205 yards. Derek Anderson was 22-of-51 for 330 yards and two touchdowns for the Beavers.
No. 4 California 28, Oregon 27
In Berkeley, California, Geoff McArthur caught eight passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns, and Cal stopped Oregon near midfield with 1:39 left. The win solidified the Bears' Bowl Championship Series hopes.
Aaron Rodgers passed for 275 yards and three TDs, and J.J. Arrington ran for 188 yards and a score for the Bears (7-1, 5-1 Pac-10), who barely kept alive their big postseason dreams with a strong second half after falling behind 27-14.
Kellen Clemens threw four touchdown passes in the first half for the Ducks (5-4, 4-2), who seemed headed for an upset after a dominant first 30 minutes.
Notre Dame 17, No. 9 Tennessee 13
In Knoxville, Tennessee, Notre Dame (6-3) capitalized with an interception return for a touchdown to beat Tennessee (7-2) .
Erik Ainge separated his right shoulder on the final play of the first half when he recovered his own fumble and was sacked. He did not return. His injury came a week after Brent Schaeffer broke his collarbone.
Junior Rick Clausen, the younger brother of former Tennessee quarterback Casey Clausen, replaced Ainge in the second half and almost immediately made a big mistake. Clausen was being sacked by Derek Landri when he let the ball go. Notre Dame's Mike Goolsby caught it and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown and a 14-10 lead.
No. 5 Wisconsin 38, Minnesota 14
In Madison, Wisconsin, Anthony Davis ran for 124 yards and two touchdowns, John Stocco threw for a career-high 297 yards and a touchdown, and the Badgers didn't have to rely on their stingy defense.
Stocco also ran for two touchdowns to help the Badgers, 9-0 for the third time in school history, move into a first-place tie with idle Michigan atop the Big Ten at 6-0. They celebrated by rushing to the Golden Gophers' sideline to retrieve Paul Bunyan's Axe, the trophy that goes to the winner in Division I's most-played rivalry.
No. 7 Utah 63, Colorado St. 31
In Salt Lake City, Alex Smith threw for 291 yards and four touchdowns, Morgan Scalley returned a fumble 88 yards for a score for Utah, 9-0 for the first time in school history.
Marty Johnson scored three touchdowns to help the Utes (9-0, 5-0 Mountain West) break the school record for points in a season with 412. That tops the 405 points scored in 1985 and Utah still has two regular-season games to go.
The Utes, who have had two other 8-0 starts, scored more than 50 points for the third straight week and moved a step closer to a perfect season and a possible Bowl Championship Series bid -- the first for a school outside the six BCS conferences.
Colorado State dropped to 3-7 overall in 2-3 in the Mountain West.
No. 8 Georgia 62, Kentucky 17
In Lexington, Kentucky, David Greene passed for 259 yards and set an NCAA Division I-A record for victories by a quarterback.
Greene is 40-9 as a starting quarterback, breaking former Tennessee star Peyton Manning's I-A record for career victories.
Georgia (8-1, 6-1 SEC) prepped for its showdown with No. 3 Auburn by scoring on six consecutive possessions against the Wildcats (1-8, 0-6), who have lost seven straight.
Freshman tailback Thomas Brown ran for a career-high 130 yards and had three short TD runs for Georgia, which had a season-high 589 yards of total offense. The Bulldogs' point total was their highest since a 70-6 rout of Northeast Louisiana in 1994.
Clemson 24, No. 11 Miami 17, OT
In Miami, Reggie Merriweather ran for a career-high 114 yards and three touchdowns, including a 2-yard score in overtime for Clemson,
Clemson needed five plays to score in the extra session, with the Tigers benefiting from a pass-interference penalty against cornerback Kelly Jennings.
On its overtime possession, Miami moved to the Clemson 5, but three straight incompletions by Brock Berlin sealed the Hurricanes' second straight loss. Berlin's final attempt was intended for Lance Leggett in the corner of the end zone, but Clemson's Tye Hill had him well-covered and the ball bounced away.
No. 12 Virginia 16, Maryland 0
In Charlottesville, Virginia, Wali Lundy ran for two touchdowns, giving him 14 this season, and Virginia remained in a first-place tie in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
In a game that has grown into a bitter rivalry, the Cavaliers (7-1, 4-1 ACC) wore down the Terrapins (4-5, 2-4) on the ground, running for 295 yards. Alvin Pearman had 170 yards on 31 carries, and Lundy added 107 yards on 24 attempts.
Virginia's defense also played a huge role, not allowing quarterback Joel Statham to follow up his 333-yard performance in a 20-17 victory against Florida State last week.
No. 13 Florida St. 29, Duke 7
In Tallahassee, Florida, backup quarterback Wyatt Sexton led three long scoring drives in the second half, and Gary Cismesia tied a school record with five field goals in his college debut.
Sexton completed 11 of 15 passes for 220 yards and a touchdown while taking the Seminoles (7-2, 5-2 ACC) on drives of 93, 80 and 70 yards to break open a tight game with 20 straight points. Sexton replaced Chris Rix, who failed to get the Seminoles into the end zone in the first half.
The Blue Devils fell to 1-8 and 0-6 in conference play.
No. 15 West Virginia 42, Temple 21
In Morgantown, West Virginia, Kay-Jay Harris caught two scoring passes and ran for two other touchdowns to lead West Virginia.
West Virginia's Chris Henry, benched for the first half after being ejected last week against Rutgers, caught a 40-yard TD pass from Rasheed Marshall late in the third quarter. Henry, who had two unsportsmanlike penalties last week, flipped the ball around his body after the scoring catch. The ball hit a Temple player, but Henry, motioning that it was meant for the referee, wasn't flagged.
No. 18 Virginia Tech 27,
North Carolina 24
In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Mike Imoh ran for 236 yards and two touchdowns and the Hokies survived a late North Carolina rally, which fell short when the Tar Heels missed a tying 54-yard field goal with about a minute left.
The Tar Heels, who upset Miami last week on a last-play field goal by freshman Connor Barth, seemed poised for more late-game heroics. North Carolina drove to the Tech 26 in the closing minutes, but an 11-yard sack of Darian Durant on third down made Barth's job much tougher. His 54-yard attempt fell short.
No. 20 Iowa 23, Purdue 21
In Iowa City, Iowa, Drew Tate threw two touchdown passes and Iowa 7-2, 5-1 Big Ten forced five turnovers and blocked two field goals to run its home winning streak to 17, the fourth-longest string in the nation.
Brandon Kirsch, starting in place of the injured Kyle Orton, threw three touchdown passes for Purdue. But his miscues in the fourth quarter, one fumble and two interceptions, scuttled Purdue's attempt to rally from a 17-point deficit.
Kirsch was 25-of-42 for 280 yards, including a 10-yard TD pass to Taylor Stubblefield in the final minutes. Stubblefield finished with 15 catches for 153 yards.
Cincinnati 52, S Mississippi 24
In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Gino Guidugli threw three of his Cincinnati-record five touchdown passes to Hannibal Thomas.
Guidugli was 19-of-26 for 308 yards for Cincinnati (5-4, 4-2 Conference USA), which snapped the Golden Eagles' 13-game league winning streak and beat a ranked team for the first time in four years.
No. 23 Arizona St. 34, Stanford 31
In Tempe, Arizona, Andrew Walter threw 4 yards to Matt Miller -- his fourth touchdown pass of the night -- with 9 seconds to play to give Arizona State (7-2, 4-2 Pac-10) a wild victory over Stanford (2-4, 4-5).
Backup quarterback T.C. Ostrander gave the Cardinal a 31-26 lead with a 67-yard TD pass to Alex Smith with 2:02 remaining.
But Walter, who was 28-for-43 for 415 yards and broke John Elway's Pac-10 record for career touchdown passes, was 4-for-8 for 79 yards on a 13-play, 80-yard drive for the winning score. Walter has 80 TD passes, breaking Elway's record at Stanford of 77.
Badminton world No. 3 Anders Antonsen clinched his first Indonesia Open title yesterday after beating Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen, while South Korea’s An Se-young won her second championship in Jakarta. The 28-year-old Dane sank world No. 7 Chou at the Indonesian capital’s Istora Senayan arena, winning 22-20, 21-14 in a 60-minute match to secure the prestigious Super 1000 event. Antonsen came out on top in a tightly contested first game before cruising to victory in the second. In a more closely fought women’s singles final, South Korean ace and world No. 1 An fought back from one game down to beat China’s
Spain starlets Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams dazzled on Thursday as La Roja beat France 5-4 in a thriller in Stuttgart, Germany, to set up a UEFA Nations League final with Portugal. Yamal bagged a brace, while Williams scored and provided an assist as the two wingers cut France’s makeshift defense to ribbons. Mikel Merino and Pedri were also on the score sheet for the UEFA Euro 2024 champions. Kylian Mbappe netted a second-half penalty, but Spain were 5-1 up and cruising, before Les Bleus suddenly woke up as their opponents took their foot off the pedal. France’s three late goals — a
Italy crashed to a 3-0 loss away to Norway, as the four-time FIFA World Cup champions made a disastrous start to their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign on Friday, while Belgium had to settle for a draw in North Macedonia. Alexander Sorloth, Antonio Nusa and Erling Haaland all scored in the first half in pouring rain in Oslo as Norway made it a night to forget for Italy, who missed out on the past two World Cups. “I have no explanation. Our supporters don’t deserve this kind of match. We need to do some soul-searching. It’s unacceptable,” Italy captain and goalkeeper Gianluigi
The Crusaders yesterday produced a clinical performance in difficult conditions to beat the Queensland Reds 32-12 and claim home advantage in next week’s Super Rugby semi-finals. Lock Scott Barrett and prop Tamaiti Williams scored first-half tries to reward an outstanding performance from the Crusaders’ forwards in wet, slippery conditions and bitterly cold temperatures. Scrumhalf Noah Hotham defied the conditions in the second half to score a superb solo try and, after kicking a conversion and penalty to make the score 22-0 at the hour mark, flyhalf Rivez Reihana scored a try which took the game beyond the Reds. “Typical Christchurch weather, cold, wet
RSS