Smith outduels Florence, lifts No. 9 Mountaineers
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 12 years, 3 months AGO
No. 9 West Virginia and the Big 12, perfect together.
Geno Smith and the fast-moving, high-scoring Mountaineers (4-0, 1-0) proved they fit right in with their new conference, outracing No. 25 Baylor (3-1, 0-1) 70-63 on Saturday at Morgantown, W.Va., in the Big 12's highest-scoring game in conference history.
Smith tied a conference mark with eight touchdown passes and narrowly missed another one with 656 yards passing.
Smith outdueled Baylor's Nick Florence, who broke Heisman Trophy-winning predecessor Robert Griffin III's school record with 581 yards. Florence threw for five TDs.
School, conference and FBS marks all got rewritten in this one.
The game also set a new record for the most points scored in a game involving a team ranked in The Associated Press poll. The previous mark of 124 was set in No. 12 Oklahoma's 82-42 win over Colorado in 1980.
No. 1 Alabama 33, Mississippi 14: At Tuscaloosa, Ala., Amari Cooper caught two touchdown passes from AJ McCarron and Christion Jones returned a kickoff 99 yards for another score, leading Alabama (5-0, 2-0 SEC) past Mississippi (3-2, 0-1).
No. 3 LSU 38, Towson 22: At Baton Rouge, La., Zach Mettenberger connected with Odell Beckham Jr. five times for 128 yards and two touchdowns, but LSU (5-0) was unable to eliminate nagging offensive sloppiness in a victory over FCS Towson (2-2).
No. 4 Florida State 30, South Florida 17: At Tampa, Fla., EJ Manuel threw for 242 yards and one touchdown, helping Florida State (5-0) beat South Florida (2-3).
No. 5 Georgia 51, Tennessee 44: At Athens, Ga., Todd Gurley ran for three touchdowns and Keith Marshall added two as Georgia (5-0, 3-0) recovered after blowing a 17-point lead to beat Tennessee (3-2, 0-2) in the highest-scoring game ever between the Southeastern Conference rivals.
No. 6, South Carolina 38, Kentucky 17: At Lexington, Ky., Marcus Lattimore ran for two touchdowns and Connor Shaw passed for another in the second half as South Carolina (5-0, 3-0 SEC) scored 31 straight points for a victory against Kentucky (1-4, 0-2).
No. 12 Texas 41, Oklahoma State 36: At Stillwater, Okla., David Ash threw three touchdown passes to Jaxon Shipley and Joe Bergeron scored on a 2-yard run with 29 seconds left to lift Texas (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) past Oklahoma State (2-2, 0-1).
No. 14 Ohio State 17, No. 20 Michigan State 16: At East Lansing, Mich., Braxton Miller threw for 179 yards and ran for 130, and Ohio State (5-0, 1-0) held off Michigan State (3-2, 0-1), giving Urban Meyer a win in his first Big Ten game as Buckeyes coach.
No. 15 TCU 24, SMU 16: At Dallas, Casey Pachall threw two touchdown passes, Jason Verrett had two interceptions and TCU (4-0) extended its FBS-best winning streak to 12 games by beating SMU (1-3).
No. 17 Clemson 45, Boston College 31: At Boston, Tajh Boyd threw for 367 yards and three touchdowns and ran in another himself as Clemson (4-1, 1-1) beat Boston College (1-3, 0-2 ACC).
No. 19 Louisville 21, Southern Miss 17: At Hattiesburg, Miss., Senorise Perry rushed for 118 yards and two touchdowns, Jeremy Wright added 84 rushing yards and Louisville (5-0) rallied to beat Southern Miss (0-4) in a downpour.
No. 22 Nebraska 30, Wisconsin 27: At Lincoln, Neb., Taylor Martinez guided four straight scoring drives in the second half and Nebraska (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) rallied past Wisconsin (3-2, 0-1).
Morris sets passing record: Stephen Morris threw for a school- and Atlantic Coast Conference-record 566 yards and five touchdowns, the last of those a 62-yard strike to Phillip Dorsett with 19 seconds left, and Miami (4-1, 3-0 ACC) beat North Carolina State (3-2, 0-1) 44-37 at Miami for the Hurricanes' first three-game winning streak since 2009.
Penn State wins Big Ten opener: Matt McGloin threw for 211 yards and a touchdown and ran for two more scores to lead Penn State (3-2) to a 35-7 win over Illinois (2-3) at Champaign, Ill., in the Big Ten opener for both.