SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2010
KLMNO
COLLEGE FOOTBALL 83
STAROFTHEDAY Dan Persa, Northwestern
Points forWisconsin in a 63-point win over Indiana, the highest-scoring total by a team in a Big Ten game since Ohio State’s 83-21 victory over Iowa in 1950.
1
Weeks that Central Florida has spent in the top 25 in its 31-year football history. The Knights entered the rankings this week, but likely will exit them after their 31-21 loss to Southern Mississippi.
It was a good-news/bad-news kind of day for Persa, theWildcats’ junior quarterback, against No. 13 Iowa. Persa led Northwestern back from a 17-7 deficit in the fourth quarter, throwing a six-yard pass to Jeremy Ebert with 6:21 to go to bring theWildcats within three and then connecting with Demetrius Fields on a 20-yard touchdown pass with 1:22 left to give Northwestern a 21-17 lead. But as his teammates were celebrating, Persa turned and fell to the ground. He ruptured his Achilles’ tendon, ending his season for the bowl-boundWildcats.
Season
AndrewLuck, QB, Stanford Saturday Season
EZ SU
D7 HEISMANWATCH
Cam Newton had more rushing yards (151) than passing (148), and also rushed for two touchdowns as Auburn clinched the SECWest.
CamNewton, QB, Auburn Saturday Season
LaMichael James, RB, Oregon Saturday Season
Kellen Moore, QB, Boise State Friday
COMP. 19
COMP. Late
COMP. 12
135
ATT. YARDS 15
148 198 2,038 —
196 1,331 ATT. YARDS
26 216
174 242 2,588 ATT. YARDS
— — 175 258 2,219
TD 2
21
ATT. YARDS AVG. Late
— 6.8
TD 3
24 TD
— 22
INT 1 6
TD —
17
INT 0 4
INT — 6
“I just saw the gift lying on the ground and I had to pick the gift up and take it to the house.”
—Jacquies Smith, Missouri defensive end, on his 53-yard fumble return for a touchdown in the third quarter against Kansas State
Yates is nomatch forHokies’ secondary
Virginia Tech intercepts UNC quarterback four times in win
BY MARK GIANNOTTO
chapel hill, n.c. — Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer spent much of his week talking up the play of North Carolina quarter- back T.J. Yates, emphasizing that the senior was playing the best football of his career. It was a similar refrain to the one Beamer used the last time his team came to this state for a game against North Carolina State’s talented signal caller,Russell Wilson. But just like against the Wolf-
pack, Beamer’s talented second- ary made a great quarterback look average as Virginia Tech
VIRGINIA TECH UNC 26 10
scored a pivotal26-10 victory over the TarHeels in front of 60,000 at Kenan Stadium. Early on, Yates was humming
along,movingtheTarHeelsdown the field in large chunks. North Carolina got first downs on its first four plays of the game and jumped out to a 10-6 lead. But then Virginia Tech safety Eddie Whitley turned in the most spec- tacular play of his college career. With Yates and the Tar Heels
inside the Hokies 30-yardline, Whitley snatched a pass into the end zone away fromNorth Caroli- na wide receiver Erik Highsmith in midair, turning a touchdown into a touchback. It was Whitley’s first-ever interception. “When I ripped it away and
rolled over, the receiver tried to put both hishandsonthe ball, but the referee seen it and he knew the call,” said Whitley, a junior from Fayetteville, N.C. “Big-time stage, back in my home town, I can’t dream of anything better than this.” Said Beamer, “When it hap-
pened I said, ‘That’s the one we need right there.’ ” Virginia Tech scored 20 unan-
swered points from that moment, and now only needs to win either of its remaining games — at Mi- ami next Saturday and a home matchup with Virginia onNov. 27 —towintheACCCoastal Division and advance to the conference championship game in Charlotte on Dec. 4. Whitley’s interception wasn’t
Yates’s only turnover, though.The senior, who came into the game with 15 touchdown passes and just four interceptions, threw
STREETER LECKA/GETTY IMAGES
Virginia Tech’s JayronHosley comes up with one of his two interceptions Saturday. Dwight Jones (83) was limited to one catch for four yards. “That was one of our keys to-
three more picks after that. He finished the game 18 of 33 for 197 yards. First it was sophomore Jayron
Hosley, who along with corner- back Rashad Carmichael blanket- ed star wide receiver Dwight Jones (one catch, four yards) all afternoon. On a deep route mid- way through the third quarter, Hosley outmaneuvered Jones for a Yates pass. Hosley got another interception in the waning mo- ments, his seventh of the season. At the start of the fourth quar-
ter, with the Hokies holding a 26-10 advantage, Yates threw an- other deep interception, this time directly into the hands of safety Davon Morgan. It was Morgan’s second interception in as many games. After gaining 217 yards in the
first half, the Tar Heels managed minus-four yards in the first 11 minutes of the third quarter and gained just 97 yards after half- time.
night, not giving up the big play,” defensive coordinator Bud Foster said.
Wide receiver Marcus Davis
did much of the rest for the Hok- ies. The redshirt sophomore, who was replacing injured junior Dyrell Roberts (thigh) in the line- up, caught twotouchdown passes in the third quarter and also had another 46-yard catch. The 6-4, 229-pound Davis has
long been touted by the Virginia Tech coaching staff as a prodi- gious talent whose skills had yet to show in game action.He quick- ly changed that perception in a matter of plays Saturday. “He’s always been a playmaker,
he’s been a playmaker since he steppedoncampus,” saidquarter- back Tyrod Taylor of Davis, who finished with a team-high four catches for 81 yards. Taylor finished with 249 yards
on 13-of-28 passing, while run- ning backs Darren Evans and
Ryan Williams combined for 173 yards.
Place kicker Chris Hazley add-
ed four field goals, including a career-long 52 yarder. As has been Virginia Tech’s
habit this season, the Hokies’ de- fense opened the game by allow- ing North Carolina to march down the field on an 80-yard touchdown drive. The Tar Heels took an early 7-0 lead when run- ning back Anthony Elzy leapt over the pile for a one-yard score. Elzy, a converted fullback who
was only starting because the Tar Heels lost running back Johnny White for the season because of a fractured clavicle last week, had his way with the Hokies’ defense throughout the first half. The se- nior accounted for 113 of North Carolina’s first 150 yards, and finished with 184 yards. But just likeHokies have recov-
ered since starting this season 0-2, so too did its defense — especially the secondary.
Newton, Auburn run over Georgia
Quarterback has big day despite recent allegations
BY PAUL NEWBERRY
auburn,ala.—CamNewton responded to all those allega- tions of wrongdoing with an- other brilliant performance Saturday, passing for two touchdowns and running for another to lead No. 2 Auburn into the Southeastern Confer- ence championship game — and another step closer to playing for thenational title.
AUBURN GEORGIA 49 31 The Tigers (11-0, 7-0 SEC)
pulled away from Georgia in the fourth quarter for a 49-31 victory that, at least for one day, took some of the heat off college football’smost dynam- icplayer. “I’m just very proud of the
way he played,” Coach Gene Chizik said. “He’s a really, real- ly talented, extremely gifted player whomeans a lot to our football team.” Newtoncelebratedwithhis
The Hokies came into Satur-
day’s game ranked first in the country in terms of opposing quarterbacks’ completion per- centage, and now Hosley is tied for first in the country with seven interceptions. The secondary ac- counted for five of the defense’s six takeaways during the game. Even as North Carolina drove
the ball down the field in the fourth quarter with the stands half-empty, the defensive back- field would not let up. As Elzy attempted to dive into
the end zone for a touchdown, he fumbled when whip linebacker Jeron Gouveia-Winslow jarred the ball loose. Carmichael tried to recover it but instead kicked the ball out of the side of the end zone — giving Virginia Tech another touchback. Itseemsonthisday, theHokies’
defensive backs could do wrong. “DB U is back,” Whitley said.
“This is what we do.”
giannottom@washpost.com
Navy hangs on as C.Michigan fails on conversion try 38 37
BY GENEWANG Another home game, another
cardiacfinishfor theNavyfootball team. This time, theMidshipmen needed every last one of their points to outlast Central Michi- gan, 38-37, on Saturday in a thrill- er in which the outcome was in doubtuntil the final seconds. That’s when the Chippewas
went foratwo-point conversionto win, but when quarterback Ryan Radcliff’s pass to wide receiver Kito Poblah sailed high and out of theendzone,Navyfinallywasable toexhale against a teamthat came inhaving lost six of seven. Theonlyformalityleftwithfour
seconds remaining was handling the kickoff and then watching ju- nior quarterback Kriss Proctor kneel to run out clock. Once it hit zero, Proctor was caught in the middle of a raucous celebration that had a lot do with his career- high 201 rushing yards in place of regular starter Ricky Dobbs, who missedthe game after absorbing a minor blow to the helmet in last weekend’swinoverEastCarolina.
“Thatwasaheckofaballgame,”
Navy Coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “Bothteams battled obvious- ly to the end. In a game so hard- fought like that, unfortunately someone had to lose. I give our kids credit. They battled to the end.ReallyproudofKrissProctor. The guy played a great football game, did some nice things out there. . . .FortunatelyfortheNaval Academy, we had onemore point thantheydid.” Navy (7-3) ensured itself of a
winning season for the eighth straight year, its longest such streak since compiling 10 in a row from1952 to ’61 and the third-lon- gest streak in program history. The narrowvictory over an inferi- or opponent, however, under- scored the Midshipmen’s contin- ued travails in the first half of games at Navy-Marine CorpsMe- morial Stadium. The Midshipmen have trailed at halftime in each of their past
NAVY C. MICHIGAN
three home games. On Oct. 30 against Duke (which entered the game 1-6), they trailed 24-0 in an eventual 34-31 loss. They also fell behind SouthernMethodist, 14-0, on Oct. 16 before rallying for a 28-21 victory. On Saturday in front of 34,333,
Navy again found itself facing a deficit. In this instance itwas only threepoints, andtheMidshipmen quickly erased that for good first with a defensive stop and then with amarch of 64 yards in eight plays for a touchdownanda 28-24 lead. Proctor fittingly capped the
drive with a four-yard run with 6 minutes 48 seconds left in the third quarter after starting the serieswith a 14-yard run that gave himmore than 100 yards rushing. The long play of the possession was a 19-yardrunonapitchleft to slotback Bo Snelson to the 12, in whichProctordeliveredtheballat the instanthe gothit. Navy’s defense continued to re-
verse its course by forcing a punt onCentralMichigan’snextposses- sion. Taking over at its 26, Navy neededbarelymorethantwomin-
utes toextendthemarginto35-24. SlotbackJohnHowelldidthehon- orswithasix-yardrun,butProctor didmuch of the heavy lifting on a dazzling 48-yard jaunt that ended at the14withhimrunningintothe Navy goat onthe sideline. Another defensive stand, this
one throwing the Chippewas for a two-yard loss on a fake-punt run, gaveNavytheballat its49,andthe Midshipmen appeared on their way for another touchdown after reaching the 5 to set up first and goal. But a personal foul on an illegalblockassessedtoright tack- leRyanBasfordpushedNavyback to the 18, from where Proctor threw incomplete on third down. TheMidshipmen had to settle for Joe Buckley’s 35-yard field goal with7:27 remaining thatprovided a 14-point advantage. Central Michigan (3-8) then
scored two touchdowns in three minutes. The first was a one-yard run by running back Zurlon Tip- ton with 3:04 left that capped a 72-yard drive. Then wide receiver Cody Wilson (126 yards on 13 re- ceptions) caught a tipped ball in front of cornerback Kevin Ed-
teammates after the game, yukking it up in front of the student section, but that would be the only insight into how he was feeling after per- sistent reports that his father solicitedbigmoney duringthe recruitingprocess. Auburn officials refused to
make Newton available to the media. Chizikwent alongwith that
theme, saying right at the start of his news conference he would only answer questions about what happened on the field. When a reporter asked himabout his feelings toward Cecil Newton, the quarter- back’s father, this was the re- ply: “I’monly taking questions about this football game, thank you.” The Tigers will face South
Carolina for the conference ti- tleonDec.4inAtlanta, though there’s another huge game loomingintwoweeks: theIron Bowl showdown against de- fendingnationalchampionAl- abama inTuscaloosa. “Wehaveanotherhugefoot-
ball game coming up,” Chizik said. “We’vegot toget readyfor that game.” “SEC!SEC!SEC!” thesellout
wards foraseven-yardtouchdown withfoursecondsremainingtoset upthedramatic two-point try. “Thewhole teamwanted to” go
for two, Chippewas Coach Dan Enos said. “I felt we had momen- tum. We only made them punt once the whole day, so I didn’t want to get into a deal where we would have to go from the 25 [in overtime]andbeabletostopthem consistently, and I thought our best chance was to win the game outright.” On the conversion attempt,
Radcliffhadtime tospotPoblahin the back of the end zone, but Ed- wardsandsafetyWyattMiddleton covered him tightly, forcing the errant throw. Thus the defense hadsavedthedaydespiteallowing 495 yards, including 394 passing andthree touchdowns toRadcliff. “That definitely was the key
play of the game, because it deter- minedwhetherwewon or lost the game,” Middleton said. “We kind of knew what was coming. Every- bodydidtheir jobthelastplay,and the results happened to turn in our favor.”
wangg@washpost.com
crowd of 87,451 chanted in the closing minutes, looking for- ward toAuburn’s return to the title game for the first time since its perfect 2004 season. Newton and his teammates ran along the edge of the stands, slapping hands with the fans ina celebration. Auburn survived another
high-scoring, back-and-forth affair, rallying from an early 21-7 deficit to tie it up by half- time. The Tigers kept the mo- mentum going with a daring onside kick to start the third quarter, recovering the ball and driving for the go-ahead touchdown. Georgia (5-6, 3-5) hung
tough behind A.J. Green’s nine-catch, 164-yard perfor- mance, tyingthegameagainat 28 before Auburn went ahead for good on Onterio McCa- lebb’s four-yard touchdown run. Newton finished off the Bulldogswith his second scor- ing pass of the game to tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen, a 13-yarderover themiddlewith 8minutes 5 seconds left. —AssociatedPress
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