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Saturday, November 11
 
Wanted: A Big Ten team to play in the Rose Bowl

ESPN.com

AFTER THOUGHTS
Busy day
How's this for a day?

Jamal Robertson ran for 307 yards and scored seven touchdowns -- including a 74-yard kickoff return -- as Ohio Northern beat Marietta 68-27.

Robertson carried 26 times to set school marks for net yards, all-purpose yards (401), single-season rushing (1,664) and touchdowns in a game.

Mister Roberts
Charles Roberts ran for 187 yards and two touchdowns as he broke Ron Dayne's Division I career rushing record in Sacramento State's 28-24 victory over Northern Arizona on Saturday night in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Roberts, who entered the game needed 31 yards to tie Dayne's mark of 6,397 yards, broke the record with a 7-yard run midway through the first quarter. He now has 6,553 yards, more than any other runner in Division I-A and I-AA.

Roberts, who carried 25 times, had scoring runs of 21 and 80 yards for I-AA Sacramento State (7-4, 5-3 Big Sky); Northern Arizona (3-7, 2-6) lost for the seventh time in eight games.


SATURDAY'S STARS
  • Chris Weinke, Florida State: Threw for 324 yards and five touchdowns -- three to Marvin Minnis -- as No. 3 Florida State beat Wake Forest 35-6.
  • Hodges Mitchell, Texas: Ran for a career-high 264 yards rushing and three touchdowns in No. 19 Texas' 51-16 victory over Kansas.
  • Lee Suggs, Virginia Tech: Scored five touchdowns and rushed for 143 yards on 30 carries as the eighth-ranked Hokies defeated UCF 44-21.
  • LaDainian Tomlinson, TCU: Ran for 231 yards and his 50th career touchdown as No. 17 Texas Christian beat Fresno State 24-7.
  • Anthony Thomas, Michigan: Ran 171 yards on 35 carries in his last game at the Big House as No. 21 Michigan beat Penn State 33-11.
  • Tony Fisher, Notre Dame: Ran for a career-high 196 yards and two touchdowns to lead No. 12 Notre Dame to a 28-16 victory over Boston College.
  • Dawayne Woods, Southern Miss: Had 194 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner in overtime, as No. 22 Southern Miss beat UAB 33-30.
  • R.J. Bowers, Grove City: Rushed for 226 yards and two touchdowns, padding his all-division NCAA records for scoring and yards rushing, as Grove City beat Alfred 39-17.
  • Casey Clausen, Tennessee Threw a career high five touchdown passes -- three to Cedrick Wilson -- in the Vols' 63-20 win over Arkansas.
  • Philip Rivers, N.C. State: Was 32-for-50 passes for 413 yards and three touchdowns as North Carolina State beat Duke 35-31.
  • Robert Kent, Jackson State: Was 33-of-55 for 383 yards and scored five touchdowns as Jackson State beat New Haven 38-37.
  • Jeremy Martin, Gardner-Webb: Passed for 403 yards, including two touchdowns, and ran for two more as Gardner-Webb beat New Hampshire 38-35.
  • Maurice Hicks, North Carolina A&T: Ran for 259 yards and two touchdowns as North Carolina A&T beat Hampton 31-28.
  • T.J. Duckett, Michigan State: Ran for 174 yards and a touchdown as Michigan State knocked off No. 9 Purdue 30-10.
  • Travis Henry, Tennessee: Ran for a career-best 214 yards and a TD in Tennessee's 63-20 win over Arkansas.


  • Maybe we're just old school. Maybe we don't get these young kids today.

    We remember when Big Ten teams actually wanted to play in the Rose Bowl, when it was the be-all, end-all bowl for the conference. It used to be teams would rather listen to a Brent Musberger marathon than lose a Big Ten game, but here's Purdue and Northwestern dropping games that could have sent them to Pasadena.

    The ninth-ranked Boilermakers just needed to win one game and faced a Michigan State team that has struggled all season. So what happens? Drew Brees and Purdue go to East Lansing and lay a 30-10 egg.

    "This week we're going to beat the hell out of each other," Purdue's Matt Mitrione said. "Last week we just sat around and got the pub. Today for the most part we were pathetic. There was nothing positive we did today. MSU came out hyped and beat our tail. We're really angry. Nobody said a word in the locker room."

    Nobody should have. There was nothing to talk about. The Boilermakers did little offensively and defensively, allowed a team averaging just 16 points a game to rack up 30.

    Of course, that's not nearly as bad as what Northwestern did. The 18th-ranked Wildcats -- the team that racked up 54 points and 654 yards against Michigan last week and boast the Big Ten's best offense -- were held to 377 yards and just 17 points in the 27-17 loss to Iowa.

    Oh yeah, one little detail we forgot to mention -- Iowa has the 10th-ranked defense in the Big Ten.

    "I think this was as good a job as we've had against our offense," said Northwestern coach Randy Walker. "This was one of those days when we just never really caught our rhythm. Iowa played well and we didn't play as well as we could have."

    What really burns is had the Wildcats won, they would have been in control of their Rose Bowl destiny. Now they need lots and lots of help.

    With Ohio State's win over Illinois to create a four-way tie among Northwestern Purdue, OSU and Michigan, the way it plays out is like this:

  • If Purdue beats Indiana, it's in.

  • If Purdue loses and Northwestern beats Illinois and Ohio State beats Michigan, Ohio State is in based on overall record.

  • If Purdue loses and Northwestern and Michigan win, Northwestern goes because it beat Michigan in that Instant Classic a few weeks ago.

    Hmmm...wonder if the Pac-10 is having this kind of problem finding someone who want to play in the Rose Bowl?

    Oops, guess not
    The Pac-10 has too many teams that want to go to Pasadena apparently. With Oregon State, Oregon and Washington all winning, the biggest game this week out west is the Civil War in Corvallis, Ore. Saturday between Oregon and Oregon State.

    Bottom line: If Oregon wins, the Ducks go to the Rose Bowl.

    If Oregon State beats Oregon and Washington beats Washington State, the Huskies get the Rose Bowl bid. The Pac-10 uses a quirky point system to determine who goes in case of a tie, but in a nutshell, the Huskies go because they basically have a better non-conference record.

    If Washington loses to Washington State and Oregon State wins, the Beavers make the trip.


  • NUMBERS GAME
  • Louisville's Arnold Jackson became the NCAA Division I-A career receptions leader in the Cardinal's 38-17 victory over Army. Jackson had seven catches, increasing his career total to 299, one more than Nevada's Trevor Insley, who set the record last season.
  • Tennessee State had a school-record 800 total yards in a 62-40 win over Murray State. The teams combined for 1,377 total yards in a game that had only three punts.
  • Miami's Santana Moss caught six passes for 100 yards as the second-ranked Hurricanes beat Pittsburgh 35-7. Moss, who has 2,462 career yards receiving, broke Michael Irvin's mark of 2,423 yards set in 1987.
  • Dicenzo Miller and Dontae Walker each ran for 100 yards as No. 16 Mississippi State registered its most lopsided victory ever against Alabama, 29-7. Mississippi State's previous largest margin of victory against Alabama was a 26-7 win in 1955. The Bulldogs have won four of the last five meetings with Alabama. Mississippi State has just 16 wins in 85 meetings with the Crimson Tide, beating them once from 1958-95.
  • Texas Tech, which knocked off Oklahoma State 58-0 Saturday, has three shutouts in a season for the first time since 1949. The Red Raiders beat Louisiana-Lafayette 26-0 and Baylor 28-0.







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