Noted Following Ivan's Arrival

Arrivin' Ivan may have caused a few teams to scramble their schedules this past weekend, but the visiting blowhard couldn't becalm all the division 1-A action. Here's some of what may have blown right by you.

WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN? USC offensive coordinator, Norm Chow, spent 27 years on the sidelines in Provo for the BYU Cougars. It must have seemed a bit strange for him last night as the Trojans paid a visit and trounced his former team, 42-10. USC, a co-defending national champion, raised its all time record against teams currently in the Mountain West Conference to 13-3-1 with all three losses coming against Utah. USC ran and threw the ball for in excess of 200 yards as the Cougs' defenders had no answers for the riddles provided by QB Matt Leinart and RBs LenDale White and Reggie Bush.

 

HOME COOKIN'. Most teams would become apoplectic after losing running back Kejuan Jones to an injury on any particular Saturday. But the Oklahoma Sooners are decidedly not most teams. Freshman sensation Adrian Peterson stepped into OU's backfield, ran for 183 yards and a pair of scores as Oklahoma brushed aside the Oregon Ducks, 31-7, in Norman. Coach Bob Stoops' troops raised their record to 33-1 at home in his tenure, 19-0 in September during that same span and posted their 16th straight win at Owen Field on Saturday.

 

STAYING THE COURSE. David Greene has started every game at QB for Georgia since Mark Richt became the head Bulldog. Georgia held Marshall's Thundering Herd to 160 yards of offense and used Michael Cooper's first quarter TD to post the 35th win of Richt's SEC career, in winning 13-3. Georgia's triumph was its 16th in a row at home.

 

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. The LSU Tigers dodged a bullet on opening day when Oregon State's placekicker, Alexis Serna, missed two PAT attempts in regulation time and a third in overtime to allow the Bayou Bengals to escape with a win it didn't deserve. Yesterday, the Auburn Tigers took advantage of Ryan Gaudet's missed extra PAT to defeat LSU, 10-9. The home field Tigers roared to victory in the 59th minute of play when Jason Campbell found Courtney Taylor on a 16 TD pass. LSU's 10 game winning streak--third longest in the nation behind Boise State and USC, both winners yesterday--was halted.
 
 Auburn continued a month long impressive performance on defense as it has now yielded just 23 points in three games.

 

STORM WARNING. The Miami Hurricanes blew past Louisiana Tech, 48-0, on the strength of two punt returns for TDs by Devin Hester.  The 'Canes registered their 117th consecutive victory in a row when scoring thirty or more points in a game.  Notre Dame was the last team to beat  Miami when the Hurricanes scored at least 30, by downing them, 31-30, back in 1998. The victory yesterday raised Larry Coker's record at Miami to 37-3.

 

THAT'S OFFENSIVE. The Ohio State Buckeyes' anemic offense managed just 137 yards against North Carolina State, but found a way to win, 22-14, despite the power outage. The Tarheels made it easier for the visiting Big Ten squad by committing 121 yards in penalties. Entering the contest, OSU had not forced a turnover all season. NC State helped out Jim Tressel's squad with three interceptions and two fumbles. The Buckeyes improved to 13-1 in the month of September under Tressel's guidance.

 

WORTH THE WAIT. The West Virginia Mountaineers had lost four straight to the Maryland Terrapins--including a pair of decisions last year--with one of them a loss in the Gator Bowl. Rasheed Marshall hit Chris Henry with a 7 yard scoring pass in overtime to end the Terps' recent dominance in the series. WVU helped its cause by picking off three passes and recovering two fumbles.

 

NO SURPRISE HERE. In the wake of its latest loss to Miami, Bobby Bowden's Florida State Seminoles began the rest of their season by dispatching the Alabama Birmingham Bulls, 34-7. The 'Noles held UAB to minus twenty-four yards rushing in raising their record to 50-6-1 against current members of Conference USA.

 

MIRAGE. The Iowa Hawkeyes only appeared to be the twelfth ranked team in the nation because they certainly didn't play like it against the Arizona State Sun Devils. ASU outgained the Hawkeyes 511-100 in thoroughly embarrassing Iowa, 44-7. QB Andrew Walter threw for 428 yards and 5 TDs as the Sun Devils raced to a, 44-0, lead. Iowa had defeated ASU, 21-2, last year, but has now dropped 4 of its past 5 games to Pac 10 teams.

 

ROCKY TOP. Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer had compiled a brilliant 114-28 record in 12 years as the Vols' coach entering the current season. The lone thorn in his side had been 8 losses to Florida in that time. The Vols used a 50 yard field goal from James Wilhoit with six seconds to play to sneak past the Gators yesterday by a, 30-28, count. The victory raised Tennessee's home record under Fulmer to 70-9 and the Vols' all time record against Florida to 19-15.

 

STUNG. The battle for supremacy in the Beehive State hardly proved to be a hornet's nest for Urban Meyer's Utah Utes as they swarmed to a, 41-0, halftime lead before coasting to a, 48-6, win against in-state rival Utah State. The Utes' balanced attack used 237 yards on the ground and 204 through the air to overwhelm the Aggies. Utah opens MWC play next week at home against the Air Force Falcons.

 

KICKING A BAD HABIT. The Virginia Cavaliers entered their game with the Akron Zips averaging 26.75 yards net punting--a figure that placed them 115th out 117 teams in division 1-A. The Cavs' average of 34 yards didn't help boost that desultory figure much, but then again it didn't matter in the least. Virginia toyed with Akron, scored 51 points and held the Ohioans to an appropriate zip on the scoreboard. Virginia dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage in limiting Akron to 84 yards of offense while amassing 522 itself.

 

EXTINCT BUT STILL KICKING. Okay, so maybe the namesake Aztecs of the San Diego State team are extinct, but the Mountain West Conference team was full of life in challenging the Michigan Wolverines in the Big House in Ann Arbor. In almost defeating Ohio State in Columbus last year, the Aztecs showed they were a solid defensive unit. Yesterday the team displayed Air-Craft warnings in the first half by riding 214 yards from QB Matt Dlugolecki to a 21-17 lead and placing coach Tom Craft's team in a position to spring an upset.
 

Coach Lloyd Carr's team held the visitors scoreless in the second half to avoid beginning the season 1-2. The Wolverines entered the game leading the nation with eight interceptions and picked off one more.  A third quarter TD pass from Chad Henne to Braylon Edwards gave Michigan its margin of victory as it posted a, 24-21, win.

 

GOLDEN. They may have escaped your notice thus far, but the Minnesota Golden Gophers are scoring points at an alarming rate. Glen Mason's crew has stormed to 134 points and a 3-0 record after devastating the Colorado State Rams in Fort Collins. Annually among the best teams in the MWC under coach Sonny Lubick, the Rams fell to 0-3 for the first time in Lubick twelve year's as CSU's head coach.

 

 The Gophers' Marion Barber sheared the Rams for 201 yards running and Laurence Moroney added 132 as Minnesota produced 504 yards on offense, a figure which won't hurt its nation's best mark of 606 yards a game entering the contest, too much.

 

NUMBER CRUNCHING. Maurice Drew ran for a UCLA record 322 yards and added five TDs for the Bruins as they beat Washington, 37-31.'Utah's Jonathan Fanene, all six feet three inches two hundred eighty pounds of him, lumbered 76 yards with an interception return for a TD against Utah State'Wisconsin held Arizona to 199 yards and used 9 fourth quarter points to earn a 9-7 win over the Wildcats in Tempe'Boise State extended its nation's best winning streak to 14 games with a less than impressive outing against UTEP in beating the Miners 47-31.'.Notre Dame completed a Michigan sweep by defeating the MSU Spartans, 31-24, a week after toppling the Wolverines from Ann Arbor's Hawaii QB Tommy Chang's 363 passing yards went for naught as the Rice Owls countered with 405 yards on the ground to steal the Rainbows' pot of gold, 41-29.'Seeming to have cast aside the turmoil enveloping it during the off-season, the Colorado Buffs are off to a 3-0 start. The Buffs surrendered 507 yards to North Texas, but still topped the Mean Green, 52-21.'.Fisher DeBerry's Air Force Falcons seized early control of the MWC race in 2004 by virtue of their, 27-10, victory against UNLV in Las Vegas. For the second consecutive week AFA fullbacks combined for well over 100 yards on the ground to lead the AFA attack.