There will be new a No. 1 team in the country. The Heisman Trophy race got a shake-up, too.
Stephen Garcia threw three touchdown passes, two to Alshon Jeffrey, and Marcus Lattimore scored three times as 19th-ranked South Carolina stunned top-ranked Alabama 35-21 on Saturday.
In Ann Arbor, Michigan State intercepted three of Denard Robinson’s passes and the 17th-ranked Spartans beat No. 18 Michigan 34-17.
The defending national champion Crimson Tide had won 19 straight games – including last week’s 31-6 rout of Florida – since losing the Sugar Bowl after the 2008 season to Utah. The Gamecocks (4-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) had never beaten a No. 1 team in four previous tries.
“We played some ball today,” Spurrier said. “We played until the end, looked up and we’d beaten number one by a couple of touchdowns. Hopefully, it was something we can build on.”
The Head Ball Coach, in his sixth season at South Carolina, had the players to beat Alabama using the Tide’s own formula.
Garcia and the Gamecocks cashed in on chances when they got close to the goal line and shut down the best tailback duo in the country, making themselves a factor in the SEC title chase. They could run into the Tide again at the SEC championship game in Atlanta.
“I actually talked to (Greg) McElroy after the game and he said, ‘We’ll see you all again,”’ said Garcia, who was pulled from South Carolina’s last game, a 35-27 loss at Auburn, after fumbling twice.
Playing at home, South Carolina shredded the country’s top-rated scoring defense, putting up the most points on Alabama (5-1, 2-1) since a 41-34 loss to LSU in 2007. The Gamecocks scored four touchdowns when they got inside the ‘Bama 20 – double what the Crimson Tide had allowed coming in.
Alabama’s Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson were held to 64 yards on the ground as the Crimson Tide tried to rally back, just as it had in beating Arkansas 24-20 two games ago.
Up in Ann Arbor, Michigan State scored 24 unanswered points to break open a close game at the big House. Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio made the trip nearly three weeks after having a mild heart attack.
The Spartans (6-0, 2-0 Big Ten) trailed midway through the second quarter before their scoring binge, which allowed them to beat their rivals for the third straight time. It’s their longest winning streak over the Wolverines since 1965-67.
As expected, Michigan (5-1, 1-1) struggled to stop Michigan State, but both teams had to be stunned by Robinson’s inability to make many plays with his arm or his feet.
Michigan State’s Kirk Cousins threw for a touchdown and Edwin Baker, Le’Veon Bell and Larry Caper ran for one each, giving Dantonio a reason to smile. He was back coaching from a box high above the field.
The Spartans seemed to rattle Robinson, intercepting a pass in the end zone on the opening drive of the game and picking off a third pass after he scored to pull Michigan within two TDs on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Robinson accounted for nearly 2,000 yards of total offense in his first five games, with only one interception, but wilted in his first true test against a good defense.
He was 17 of 29 for 215 yards and accounted for two touchdowns, but ran for a season-low 86 yards – with a long of 16 – on 21 carries.
Cousins threw for 284 yards.
Baker ran for 147 yards and Bell had 78 yards rushing.
Michigan State earned its most-lopsided victory in the series since beating the Wolverines 34-0 in 1967.
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No. 2 Ohio St. 38, Indiana 10
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Terrelle Pryor is healthy, all right.
A week after leaving a win at Illinois with a strained muscle in his left thigh, he threw for a career-best 334 yards and three touchdowns to lead Ohio State.
The junior’s big day gave coach Jim Tressel his 100th victory on the Buckeyes sideline.
Pryor’s health had been a major topic of discussion around the Buckeye state all week, particularly since only minimal updates came out of practice from Ohio State’s coaches.
Pryor hit on scoring passes covering 22 yards to Dane Sanzenbacher, 60 yards to Brandon Saine and 17 yards to DeVier Posey as the Buckeyes (6-0, 2-0 Big Ten) rolled to their 12th consecutive win – and 16th in a row over the Hoosiers (3-2, 0-2).
Indiana came in averaging 40 points and almost 350 passing yards a game, but quarterback Ben Chappell was harassed all day, completing 16 of 26 for 106 yards with two interceptions.
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No. 3 Oregon 42, Washington State 23
PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) – LaMichael James scored three touchdowns, including an 84-yard scoring reception, and Oregon shook Washington State in the second half.
Coming off a big home win over Stanford that flew the Ducks past Boise State in the AP Top 25, Oregon struggled to make just enough plays to hold off the pesky Cougars. But whether it was enough for the Ducks to hold their spot in the polls remains to be seen. Oregon (6-0, 3-0) was a 36-point favorite, yet led just 36-23 late in the third quarter.
Backup quarterback Nate Costa played the final three quarters for Oregon after Darron Thomas left with an apparent shoulder injury. Costa led three scoring drives and ran for an 18-yard touchdown.
The Ducks were also without backup running back Kenjon Barner for most of the game after he got the worst of a scary collision on a first-quarter kickoff return.
Cliff Harris added a 67-yard punt return for a touchdown, his third punt return for a score this season.
Jeff Tuel threw for 245 yards and a touchdown and James Montgomery added a 26-yard TD run in the first half for Washington State (1-5, 0-3).
James finished with 136 yards on 25 carries and Costa added 84 yards.
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No. 5 TCU 45, Wyoming 0
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Andy Dalton threw for a season-high 270 yards and three touchdowns a week after his worst game of the season and TCU recorded consecutive shutouts for the first time in 55 years.
Dalton was 14 of 17 and surpassed last week’s passing total on the first play of the second quarter, a 31-yard strike to Bart Johnson that put the Horned Frogs (6-0, 2-0 Mountain West) ahead 21-0.
Wyoming (2-4, 0-2 Mountain West) had to go with backup quarterback Dax Crum because the injured Austyn Carta-Samuels didn’t make the trip. Crum completed a 40-yard pass on a handoff-reverse-throwback trick play to start the game but the Cowboys generated just 151 total yards after that.
TCU led 31-0 at halftime a week after going to the break up just 6-0 against Colorado State, where Dalton finished 11 of 24 with a late TD pass in a 27-0 win.
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No. 11 Arkansas 24, Texas A&M 17
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) – Ryan Mallett threw three touchdown passes in the first half for Arkansas and Tramain Thomas sealed the victory at Cowboys Stadium with an interception in the end zone on the final play.
The Razorbacks (4-1) failed to take advantage of three fumbles recovered inside the Aggies’ 40. They got just one field goal out of the turnovers.
Mallett threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Joe Adams on his first series and hit Cobi Hamilton on a pinpoint 71-yard touchdown pass for another score later in the first quarter. When he stretched the lead to 21-7 with 53 seconds left.
But Jarrod Johnson led A&M (3-2) for a quick touchdown before the half, then a field goal in the third quarter to get within 21-17. Meanwhile, the Aggies’ defense took away the deep routes and pretty much everything else for Mallett.
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No. 20 Wisconsin 41, Minnesota 23
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – John Clay ran for three touchdowns and freshman James White added two more to help Wisconsin to keep Paul Bunyan’s Axe for the seventh straight year.
Clay ran for 111 yards and White had 118 in another lopsided victory for Wisconsin (5-1, 1-1 Big Ten) in the most played rivalry in major college football, a series dating to 1890.
Clay has scored seven touchdowns in his three matchups with the Gophers and White has been hot recently with eight TDs in his last three games.
Minnesota (1-5, 0-2) wore white helmets and uniforms on an unseasonably hot day, but that didn’t help the Gophers break their skid against Wisconsin or overcome an early 14-0 deficit.
Adam Weber, who started his 44th game, went 11 of 25 with 249 yards and three touchdown passes – one to MarQueis Gray in the second quarter and two to Da’Jon McKnight in the fourth, when the Gophers were already on their way to their fifth straight loss.
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No. 25 Air Force 49, Colorado State 27
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) – Air Force added some air to the nation’s top-ranked running attack and Jonathan Warzeka returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown.
Tim Jefferson threw for 160 yards on 5 of 9 passing and hooked up with Zach Kauth for two scores. He also set up the Falcons’ first two touchdowns with completions of 51 and 39 yards as Air Force (5-1, 3-0 Mountain West) celebrated its first game as a ranked team in seven seasons with a big win.
Ben Cochran added a 25-yard TD toss for the Falcons on a fake field goal in the second half.
The Falcons’ first three touchdown drives averaged just over a minute thanks to Jefferson’s big throws and two takeaways by defensive back Reggie Rembert that set up the short field against the Rams (1-5, 0-2).
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