Mobile Downtown, ALMore AP Top 25 voters are buying into Boise State as the No. 1 team in the country.
Boise State gained seven first-place votes and closed in on No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Ohio State as the top three teams in the first regular-season Associated Press football poll held their spots from the preseason.
The Broncos remained third after a thrilling 33-30 victory against Virginia Tech on Monday night, receiving eight first-place votes and 1,399 points from the media panel, 13 points behind the Buckeyes.
Ohio State received four first-place votes and 1,412 points.
Alabama had 47 first-place votes, down seven from the preseason poll, and 1,484 points in the rankings released Tuesday.
TCU from the Mountain West Conference moved up two spots to No. 4, marking the first time since the Bowl Championship Series was implemented in 1998 that two teams from conferences without automatic BCS bids have been in the top five. Boise State is the defending Western Athletic Conference champion.
Texas remained No. 5 and received one first-place vote.
In the USA Today coaches’ poll, only Alabama (55) and Ohio State (four) received first-place votes.
via Boise State Broncos pick up 7 first-place votes in AP poll – ESPN.
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Mississippi State’s two-headed quarterback may be here to stay.
The Bulldogs opened with junior Chris Relf Saturday in a 49-7 thumping of Memphis. But highly regarded redshirt freshman Tyler Russell came in early and played late, throwing for 256 yards and a school-record four TDs.
Russell completed 13 of 16 passes overall and six straight at one point. On his first collegiate series, he directed the Bulldogs 91 yards, going 3-for-3 through the air.
“I feel like I have the confidence now where, in tight game situations, if you’re one of the best players you want the ball in your hand,” Russell said.
State coach Dan Mullen wouldn’t tip his hand this week which quarterback will get the nod against Auburn — be shocked if it’s not Relf.
But prepare to see a lot of Russell again.
“We’ll see how practice goes,” Mullen said. “I plan on us playing both quarterbacks and they’re doing a nice job. When you’re on the sidelines with the headphones on and you hear the play called, you might see some of the things that you don’t always see while you’re standing out there with a 300-pound guy coming at you trying to hit you.”
via Mississippi State likes 2-QB system enough to stick with it against Auburn | al.com.
The Heisman Trophy Trust is expected to strip former USC running back Reggie Bush of his 2005 Heisman Trophy and leave the award vacant, Yahoo Sports reported.
Two sources close to the trust said the organization is completing its investigation and will agree with the NCAA’s finding that Bush accepted improper benefits while at USC and was ineligible during the 2005 season, according to the report. The NCAA cited USC for “lack of institutional control” and handed the Trojans four years’ probation, a two-year bowl ban and a reduction in football scholarships.
The Heisman Trophy Trust will reportedly strip Reggie Bush of the Heisman Trophy he won in a landslide in 2005.However, ESPN’s Chris Fowler said the report was “completely false” and “premature.”
Fowler told “SportsCenter” that although members of the eight-person trust have had informal conversations among themselves about what to do about Bush’s Heisman, “they certainly have not made any decision” about rescinding it.
“They haven’t made a decision. No announcement is imminent,” Fowler said Tuesday. “They have not had any formal meetings about this.”
The trust does have a regularly-scheduled meeting in September, Fowler said.
via Report: Reggie Bush to be stripped of 2005 Heisman Trophy – ESPN Los Angeles.
Typically, the best thing about preseason football games is that the losses don’t carry over to the regular season.
The New Orleans Saints aren’t so fortunate.
Although the 27-24 setback against the Tennessee Titans in the exhibition finale on Thursday means nothing today, the foot injury that starting weakside linebacker Jonathan Casillas experienced in that game is of greater consequence, as it will force Casillas to miss the entire season.
On the same day the defending Super Bowl champions revealed their 53-man roster and announced that All-Pro safety Darren Sharper will begin the season on the resrve/physically-unable-to-perform list, the team also placed Casillas on injured reserve.
The move to place Sharper on the PUP list, which will make him inactive for the first six weeks of the season, was expected, but the news of Casillas was a surprise.
The Saints revealed little about his injury, and few knew of the seriousness of the ailment until Casillas’ name was listed among the 22 transactions the team needed to make by 3 p.m. Saturday to reach the NFL-mandated roster limit. To reach that number, the Saints cut 19 players and also placed vetera
Ole Miss fans more than likely figured that 3 1/2 hours after kickoff, they’d be in The Grove celebrating an easy victory over Jacksonville State.
Instead, they were still in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, standing and pleading with their defense to come up with a stop.
The defense – the one that was supposed to be the team’s strength – couldn’t deliver.
Jacksonville State’s Calvin Middleton reeled in a two-point conversion pass from Coty Blanchard, capping off an amazing comeback and shocking Ole Miss 49-48 in double overtime in the season opener.
While the visiting Gamecocks players celebrated in front of their band, there was a far quieter scene in the home dressing room.
“Nothing was being said,” coach Houston Nutt said. “It was a disappointing locker room, which it should be. Just sad.”
Down and depleted, North Carolina was overmatched from the start, but had enough resources to make it interesting down the stretch.
Missing 13 players — many of them starters — because of NCAA and school investigations, the Tar Heels made a furious late comeback effort, but were held off by LSU in the Tigers’ 30-24 victory at the Georgia Dome.
After trailing 30-10 in the fourth quarter, North Carolina recovered an onside kick with about two minutes left, down 30-24 with a shot to score the winning touchdown. But a T.J. Yates fumble while scrambling gave the ball back to the Tigers, ending what looked like it would be Carolina’s last shot.
But LSU’s Stevan Ridley fumbled on the ensuing possession, and North Carolina had one more chance with 1:08 left.
Yates quickly moved the Tar Heels down the field, completing short passes at first and then a couple of longer ones to Jheranie Boyd and Joshua Adams.
AUBURN — Cam Newton has arrived.
Auburn’s new quarterback, perhaps the program’s most anticipated player in a generation, erased all doubts about his ability Saturday with a powerful performance against Arkansas State.
He set a school record with 171 rushing yards for a quarterback, exhibited remarkable accuracy with his deep throws and made few mistakes.He was the best player on the field during Auburn’s 52-26 win.
Newton’s most important contribution? Providing a light so bright that it masked the Tigers’ numerous and consistent defensive lapses.
“I’m excited that we got the win for us to be satisfied? We’re far from that,” Newton said. “We had opportunities to do better things that we did. We’re not nearly as happy as we should be.”
Auburn didn’t know Newton could be this good.Quarterbacks are a coddled demographic when it comes to pre-season preparation. Simple tackles can yield career-changing shoulder injuries, so most coaches insist on keeping their most prized investments off-limits to tacklers until game time.
Auburn coach Gene Chizik operates that way, too.When Newton decides to run during scrimmages, the whistle blows immediately.
Those whistles were nowhere to be found Saturday night.
TUSCALOOSA | Figure the University of Alabama was going to keep it simple in its opener against San Jose State? Thought Nick Saban didn’t want to give anything away to JoePa and the Penn State Nittany Lions?
Turned out the top-ranked Crimson Tide’s approach to its season opener was just the opposite: Alabama’s offense showed enough wrinkles and twists to keep legendary Penn State coach Joe Paterno and his staff busy dissecting the Tide attack to get ready for next weekend’s showdown.
Some of it was brand new. Some of it wasn’t, but was tweaked in a different way. Almost all of it was effective in UA’s 48-3 victory as Alabama rolled to 591 yards in total offense.
“We were playing football out there,” said wideout Darius Hanks. “You’ve got to throw the ball. You can’t just run the ball every play. We’ve got to open it up for the running game.
“Teams know what we’re going to do. They’ve all watched our films from last year.”via Tide adds a few twists to the offense | TideSports.com.
Join me and co-host Lee Shirvanian from 6 to 9 a.m. on Friday on 105.5 FM WNSP.
Scheduled for the show:
Bill Cole of the Winston-Salem Journal joins us at 7:20 a.m. to preview the LSU-North Carolina game and also give us the latest on Marvin Austin.
Also on the show:
At 7:05 a.m., South Alabama coach Joey Jones.
Laura Megginson of Two Chicks and Lee at 7:45 a.m. for our Auburn report.
We’ll also qualify you to win in our weekly football picks.
To join the show, call 251-694-1055 or listen live at www.wnsp.com.
By PETE IACOBELLI û
AP Sports Writer û
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Steve Spurrier’s starting to like his offense at South Carolina.
It’s not his old, Florida “Fun-n-Gun” — yet. But Spurrier thought enough of his attack on Thursday night, he was shooting to hang half-a-hundred on Southern Miss.
“I was thinking for the first time ever here we might score 50,” Spurrier said.
Instead, the Gamecocks coach had to settle for a 41-13 victory that was his 18th straight win in college openers.
Quarterback Stephen Garcia and freshman runner Marcus Lattimore had two touchdowns each as South Carolina posted its most points since winning the 2006 Liberty Bowl 44-36 over Houston.
Back then, Spurrier thought he and the Gamecocks were close to big-time success. After all, they had won their final three games and backed that up by starting 2007 with a 6-1 record.
South Carolina had gone 14-17 since and left Spurrier shaking his head at times about his mission to turn the Gamecocks into Southeastern Conference champions.
After this one, Spurrier has to like some of the offensive weapons he’s got.
Lattimore, considered the top high school rusher last winter, had a terrific college debut with scoring runs of 3 and 7 yards.
Sophomore receiver Alshon Jeffery had seven catches for 106 yards and speedy freshman Ace Sanders had a 53-yard run, the Gamecocks’ longest in four years.
At the center of it all was Garcia, who shook off months of Spurrier touting first-year backup Connor Shaw with a solid showing against the Golden Eagles.
Garcia got things started with a gritty, 22-yard scoring run. He also had a 3-yard touchdown carry where he crashed hard into a defender but reached to get the ball over the line.
Did Garcia grab the starting job for good? Not even he’d jump to that conclusion given the head ball coach’s whims.
“We’re going to come in and watch film tomorrow,” Garcia said. “I hope I played pretty well. I think I did.”
The victory also brought South Carolina something to cheer about after a restless summer.
Spurrier and the Gamecocks have been dogged by the NCAA the past two months. Standout tight end Weslye Saunders, a central figure in the probe for possible contact with agents, did not play because of an unrelated team suspension.
Then South Carolina scratched two starters — left tackle Jarriel King and cornerback Chris Culliver — right before kickoff, although the athletic department would not say why.
Spurrier said it was a relief to have only King and Culliver gone because earlier Thursday it looked like several more players might have had to be held out. While Spurrier hoped the missing players would be back in time for next week’s Southeastern Conference opener with Georgia, the Gamecocks were not clear of the NCAA yet.
Spurrier said there are issues with “a couple of guys and we’ll see how that turns out in the next couple of days.”
Southern Miss kept the Gamecocks offstride early on, forcing a punt on South Carolina’s opening series and quickly driving to the Gamecocks 22.
That’s when momentum changed for good.
Akeem Auguste broke up a third-down pass that settled into the hands of safety DaVonte Holloman and South Carolina followed with a solid drive of its own led by Garcia.
The junior was 4-for-4 passing for 51 yards on the series and finished things with a gritty, 22-yard TD run.
Then South Carolina’s youngest guns took control.
Speedy Sanders had his back-breaking end around to the Southern Miss 9. Two plays later, Lattimore bounced through for his first college score from 3 yards out.
Lattimore, considered the country’s top tailback prospect last February, got the call a series later. This time, he picked his way through Southern Miss defenders for a 7-yard scoring run as South Carolina led 24-6 — its most points by halftime since the 2006 Liberty Bowl.
Garcia, who ended 16 of 23 for 193 yards, has always seemed to be on the wrong side of Spurrier. The Gamecocks coach touted the competition between fourth-year junior Garcia and first-year player Shaw throughout the offseason.
Garcia may have put such talk to rest temporarily with his play against Southern Miss.
Golden Eagles coach Larry Fedora followed Spurrier as Florida’s playcaller in 2002 and tried to out-scheme him with a no-huddle, flood-the-field attack.
But Southern Miss twice bogged down in the red zone after the early pick, settling for two field goals.
Playmaking receiver DeAndre Brown was covered up most of the night by South Carolina’s secondary. The junior, who caught 114 passes his first two seasons, didn’t catch one against the Gamecocks until the final period when Southern Miss trailed 41-6.
Brown had the Golden Eagles’ only touchdown, a 29-yard scoring catch with 1:33 left.
“Early in the game I felt very confident, very calm,” Southern Miss quarterback Austin Davis said. “Our tempo, our communication was good. We made a few mistakes in the red zone and the score got away from us.”
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