College football roundup — Rivalry Week edition

Oregon caputures wild ‘Civil War’ shootout

CORVALLIS, Ore.—Jeremiah Masoli threw for 274 yards and three touchdowns and Oregon all but crushed Oregon State’s hopes of going to the Rose Bowl with a 65-38 victory Saturday in the annual Civil War rivalry game.

A win would have sent the No. 17 Beavers (8-4, 7-2 Pacific-10 Conference) to Pasadena on New Year’s Day for the first time since after the 1964 season.

Instead, Oregon State will have to wait to see if UCLA can upset No. 5 USC on Dec. 6. Should the Bruins win, the Beavers would share a three-way tie for the conference title with the Trojans and the Ducks, and Oregon State would have the tiebreaker for the Rose Bowl.

The No. 19 Ducks (9-3, 7-2) foiled the Beavers and their six-game overall winning streak as they avenged a Civil War loss last year at Oregon.

Oregon State was without freshman running back Jacquizz Rodgers, who leads the conference in rushing (averaging 113.9 yards a game) and is 12th in the nation.

Trojans dominate Fighting Irish 38-3

LOS ANGELES—The outcome of Saturday night’s Notre Dame-Southern California game was decided early. What remains in doubt is Charlie Weis’ job security with the Fighting Irish.

Mark Sanchez passed for 267 yards and two touchdowns, USC ‘s hard-hitting defense thoroughly dominated Notre Dame, and the fifth-ranked Trojans rolled to a 38-3 victory over the Irish and their beleaguered coach.

Notre Dame didn’t get a first down until the last play of the third quarter on a 15-yard run by James Aldridge. The Irish had run 30 plays for 23 yards before Aldridge broke loose, drawing a derisive cheer from the partisan crowd of 90,689 at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

USC finished with 22 first downs and 449 yards of total offense while Notre Dame had four first downs and 91 yards. The Trojans have allowed 10 touchdowns and an NCAA low 7.8 points per game this season.

No. 3 Sooners make BCS case

STILLWATER, Okla.—Now it’s up to voters and computers.

Sam Bradford threw for 370 yards and four touchdowns, and No. 3 Oklahoma based its case for a BCS bump on its high-powered offense, outscoring No. 11 Oklahoma State 61-41 Saturday night in the highest-scoring Bedlam rivalry game in the century-old series.

Needing to make up a minuscule eight-thousandths of a point to second-place Texas in the Bowl Championship Series standings to earn a spot in next week’s Big 12 championship game, the Sooners (11-1, 7-1) relied on the Heisman-caliber arm of Bradford.

He completed 30 of 44 passes and also scored on a 1-yard touchdown run, leading Oklahoma to its fourth straight 60-point game.

The Sooners’ defense, which had been improving and made a statement in last week’s 65-21 rout of then-No. 2 Texas Tech had few answers for quarterback Zac Robinson and the Cowboys — but it was enough.

‘Bama reclaims state with easy win

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—Already No. 1 in the nation, Alabama emphatically reclaimed the top spot in the state.

Glen Coffee rushed for 144 yards and a touchdown and Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide snapped a six-year Iron Bowl losing streak with a 36-0 win over bitter rival Auburn on Saturday, the biggest margin in the series in 46 years.

The dominant win set the stage for Alabama (12-0, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) to face No. 2 Florida in the league championship game with a berth in the BCS national title game on the line.

The loss left Auburn (5-7, 2-6) shut out of a bowl game for the first time in nine years and cast another shadow on the decade-long tenure of coach Tommy Tuberville. Auburn, which had been 7-2 under Tuberville in the rivalry, has lost six of the last seven games after starting the season ranked in the top 10.

No. 2 Gators hammer rival FSU

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Tim Tebow’s white uniform was stained with grass, mud and some garnet-colored paint.

Maybe Tebow should have thrown a little of that Florida State gold on there for good measure. After all, that would have been a better indication of how he played against the Seminoles.

Tebow threw three touchdown passes, ran for 80 yards and another score, and the second-ranked Gators thumped No. 23 Florida State 45-15 in sloppy conditions Saturday.

Florida (11-1) extended its winning streak to eight games, continued its dominance in the intrastate rivalry and set up a 1-2 showdown with Alabama in next week’s Southeastern Conference title game.

Florida scored on five of its first seven possessions, held the Seminoles (8-4) without a touchdown for the first 2 quarters and again proved that the gap between the two programs is as wide as ever.

Ga. Tech storms past Georgia 45-42

ATHENS, Ga.—The Georgia Tech players gathered in front of their small contingent of fans in a corner of Sanford Stadium. They sang the “Ramblin’ Wreck” fight song. They bounced up and down. Then pinched off pieces of the famous hedge that surrounds the field.

This was a celebration eight years in the making.

The Yellow Jackets unleashed their triple-option offense on Georgia with devastating results Saturday. Roddy Jones rushed for a career-best 214 yards and a couple of touchdowns. Jonathan Dwyer ran for 144 and two scores of his own. When it was done, No. 18 Georgia Tech had overcome a 16-point halftime deficit to stun the 13th-ranked Bulldogs 45-42, its first win in the series since 2000.

Reesing, Kansas rally to beat Tigers

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Todd Reesing could barely lift his arm above his shoulder early in the week, forced to watch backup Kerry Meier take snaps because he was in so much pain.

He got hit so hard during the game that his eyes rolled up in his head, making his coach think he had been knocked out. He spent the postgame in the training room getting stitches for a gash in his hand.

Didn’t matter. Reesing wasn’t about to give up and neither were the rest of his injured teammates.

Reesing threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Meier with 27 seconds left, helping Kansas rally twice in the fourth quarter to beat No. 12 Missouri on Saturday.

The Jayhawks (7-5, 4-4 Big 12) led by 16 early in the third quarter, let Missouri back in it, then traded touchdowns with the Tigers in the fourth quarter before Reesing hit Meier on fourth-and-7.