AUBURN, Ala. – Brandon Cox passed for two first-half touchdowns and Auburn sacked Brodie Croyle 11 times in a 28-18 victory over Alabama, the Tigers’ fourth consecutive win in this bitter rivalry.
Auburn (9-2, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) clinched at least a share of the Western Division title for the fifth time in six seasons with their second straight win over a top-10 team. LSU would play for the SEC title with wins over Mississippi and Arkansas.
With an anemic offense, Alabama (9-2, 6-2) continued a season-ending tumble with its second loss in a row after riding the nation’s top scoring defense into national title contention earlier in the year.
The Tigers sacked Croyle seven times for minus-51 yards in the first half and cashed in on three short touchdown drives in the opening 11 minutes en route to a 28-7 halftime lead. Alabama’s offense couldn’t muster even the hint of a comeback.
Georgia Tech 14, (3) Miami 10
MIAMI – Georgia Tech sacked Kyle Wright seven times, took advantage of key penalties on two touchdown drives and made a pair of late defensive stands to upset the third-ranked Miami Hurricanes 14-10 Saturday night.
The Yellow Jackets blitzed on virtually every play to stymie Wright. After throwing touchdown passes to five receivers a week ago against Wake Forest, he managed only one scoring pass and went 14-for-31 for 207 yards.
(4) LSU 40, Mississippi 7
OXFORD, Miss. – JaMarcus Russell threw two touchdown passes and LSU’s defense smothered Mississippi in a 40-7 victory Saturday night to move the fourth-ranked Tigers one step closer to the SEC championship game.
LSU (9-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) held Ole Miss to 7 yards rushing and gave the Rebels their worst loss in Oxford in 56 years.
(5) Penn State 31, Michigan State 22
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Joe Paterno and Penn State locked up their first Bowl Championship Series bid after the Nittany Lions defeated Michigan State to win their first Big Ten title in 11 years.
Michael Robinson ran for 90 yards and a touchdown and passed for another, and Alan Zemaitis had three interceptions for Penn State (10-1, 6-1).
(6) Notre Dame 34, Syracuse 10
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -Brady Quinn threw two touchdown passes and Leo Ferrine returned an interception for a touchdown, giving Notre Dame a victory over Syracuse.
(7) Virginia Tech 52, Virginia 14
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia Tech dominated archrival Virginia to keep alive its hopes of gaining a spot in the Bowl Championship Series.
Two long weeks after getting beaten convincingly by No. 3 Miami, Cedric Humes ran for 113 yards and three touchdowns and Marcus Vick threw for two more scores as the Hokies beat Virginia for the sixth time in the last seven meetings.
(9) Ohio State 25, (17) Michigan 21
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Antonio Pittman’s 3-yard run with 24 seconds left capped an 88-yard drive and gave ninth-ranked Ohio State a 25-21 win over No. 17 Michigan on Saturday, clinching a share of the Big Ten title.
Ohio State (9-2, 7-1) closed the regular season with six straight wins and gave coach Jim Tressel his fourth win in five games against Michigan (7-4, 5-3).
The Buckeyes shared the conference title with the Penn State Nittany Lions, who beat them in October. Because of that win, Penn State will get the Big Ten’s BCS bid.
(10) Oregon 56, Oregon State 14
EUGENE, Ore. – Freshman Jonathan Stewart had a pair of touchdowns, including a 97-yard kickoff return to open the second half, and 10th-ranked Oregon dominated rival Oregon State 56-14 in a foggy edition of the Civil War on Saturday night.
Stewart also ran for a 1-yard touchdown in the first half as Oregon (10-1, 7-1) won its seventh straight game and kept hopes for an at-large BCS bowl invitation alive.
(14) Georgia 45, Kentucky 13
ATHENS, Ga. – D.J. Shockley threw four touchdown passes, Danny Ware scored on a 52-yard run and Georgia wrapped up the SEC East with a rout of Kentucky.
Georgia squandered a pair of chances to wrap up the division title, losing to Florida and Auburn for only the second two-game losing streak since Mark Richt took over as coach in 2001.
Clemson 13, (19) South Carolina 9
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Apparently, it’ll take more than Steve Spurrier to end Clemson’s dominance over South Carolina.
James Davis rushed for 145 yards and his 2-yard touchdown run lifted the Tigers to their eighth victory in the last nine tries against the Gamecocks, 13-9 on Saturday night.
(21) Texas Tech 23, Oklahoma 21
LUBBOCK, Texas – Taurean Henderson scored on a 2-yard run as time expired to lift Texas Tech over Oklahoma (6-4, 5-2 Big 12), breaking the Sooners’ five-game winning streak over the Red Raiders.
Henderson took the handoff with 2 seconds remaining and went up the middle. As he was going down, he stretched out his arms and got the ball across the goal line.
(23) Boston College 31, Maryland 16
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Jolonn Dunbar scored on a 94-yard fumble return and Ray Henderson took an interception 35 yards for a touchdown, leading Boston College past Maryland.
Andre Callender had 121 yards rushing and a score for the Eagles, who never trailed in their regular-season finale. Both teams had four turnovers.
UAB 35, (24) UTEP 23
EL PASO, Texas – Darrell Hackney threw four touchdown passes to support teammate Sam Williamson’s midweek guarantee of a road victory, and Alabama-Birmingham beat No. 24 UTEP 35-23.
Reggie Lindsey caught three of Hackney’s TD passes and UAB (5-5, 3-4 Conference USA) snapped UTEP’s nine-game home winning streak, denying the Miners (8-2, 5-2) a chance to clinch the league’s Western Division title.
Hackney, the top passer in Conference USA with 2,718 yards coming in, completed 11 of 17 passes for 184 yards.
His biggest mistake was an interception that Quintin Demps returned 43 yards, setting up a 4-yard TD pass from Jordan Palmer.
to Aaron Givens to pull UTEP within 35-23 with 6:11 remaining.
Corey White ran for 106 yards on 21 carries with a touchdown for UAB and Lindsey finished with seven catches for 146 yards.
This matchup was slippery for UTEP. The Blazers had five losses by a combined 24 points, including a 17-10 defeat in their season opener at Tennessee and a pair of one-point setbacks on consecutive weekends last month to SMU and Marshall.
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