No. 19 South Carolina 35, No. 1 Alabama 21
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — 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.
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.
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.
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.
No. 2 Ohio St. 38, Indiana 10
COLUMBUS, Ohio — 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.
No. 3 Oregon 43, Washington State 23
PULLMAN, Wash. — 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.
No. 5 TCU 45, Wyoming 0
FORT WORTH, Texas — 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.
No. 11 Arkansas 24, Texas A&M 17
ARLINGTON, Texas — Ryan Mallett got off to a great start, looking right at home in an NFL stadium.
He might’ve gone home awfully disappointed, though, if Tramain Thomas hadn’t snatched an interception in the end zone on the game’s final play.
Mallett threw three touchdown passes in the first half, but failed to build on it and No. 11 Arkansas ended up needing to hold on for a 24-17 victory over Texas A&M at Cowboys Stadium on Saturday.
“I tried to knock it down against Georgia and they almost caught it, so I had it in my mindset that I was going up to get the ball,” Thomas said.
He did, and the Razorbacks (4-1) came away with a much-needed win between a home loss to No. 1 Alabama and a trip to No. 8 Auburn.
No. 12 LSU 33, No. 14 Florida 29
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Jarrett Lee tossed a 3-yard touchdown pass to Terrence Tolliver with 6 seconds left after LSU kept its final drive alive with a successful fake field goal, and the 12th-ranked Tigers pulled out another wild victory, 33-29 against No. 14 Florida on Saturday night.
With 35 seconds remaining, LSU (6-0, 4-0) lined up for a game-tying, 52-yard field goal, but holder Drew Alleman threw a no-look pitch over his head to place-kicker Josh Jasper. The ball bounced, Jasper scooped it up on a hop and ran for the first down.
The play was reviewed to determine if it was a forward pass, which would have been incomplete and ended LSU’s hopes, but the ruling on the field stood.
Lett hit Tolliver for a 28-yard gain on the next play to get down to the 3 and on the second fade to the corner, Tolliver grabbed the game-winner.
The TD reception was also reviewed to see if Tolliver had a foot down in bounds with control of the ball. It was upheld and Les Miles and the Tigers handed the Gators (4-2, 2-2) a second straight loss.
No. 17 Michigan State 34,
No. 18 Michigan 17
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan State made Denard Robinson look close to normal for the first time this year, helping the program that has often been overlooked in the mitten-shaped state dominate rival Michigan in a way it hasn’t in generations.
The 17th-ranked Spartans intercepted three of Robinson’s passes — one in the end zone, one just outside of it — and scored 24 unanswered points to break open a close game in a 34-17 rout of the 18th-ranked Wolverines on Saturday.
For the first time since 1965-67, Michigan State has won three straight in the series.
College football’s winningest program has not beaten Michigan State in football or men’s basketball since 2007, when former Wolverines running back Mike Hart referred to the Spartans as Michigan’s little brother.
No. 20 Wisconsin 41, Minnesota 23
MADISON, Wis. — All week Wisconsin talked more about fixing its own problems than about its border rivalry with Minnesota.
John Clay and James White took it upon themselves to run right through the Gophers.
Clay ran for three touchdowns and White added two more to lead No. 20 Wisconsin to a 41-23 win over Minnesota on Saturday, keeping Paul Bunyan’s Axe for the seventh straight year.
Wisconsin believes it is back on track after losing to Michigan State last week.
“After a loss and a bad taste in your mouth, you can’t look back, you’ve got to move forward, and I thought our guys did that,” Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said. “I can’t say enough about our ground game. John Clay and James White and the big guys up front blocking up for them are really special.”
No. 25 Air Force 49, Colorado State 27
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — Air Force aired it out.
Adding a deep passing threat to the nation’s top-ranked running attack, Tim Jefferson threw for 160 yards on 5 of 9 passing and hooked up with Zach Kauth for two scores in the 25th-ranked Falcons’ 49-27 rout of Colorado State on Saturday.
“They’re known for running the ball, and when they come out passing, it throws you off guard,” Rams linebacker Mychal Sisson said. “We really didn’t work that much on their passing game and focused more on their run game, and they came out and beat us passing.”
Jefferson 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 at home.
“You like to thrash a Front Range rival,” said Kauth, who had three catches for 85 yards while filling in for wide receiver Kevin Fogler, who’s out with a knee injury.
