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College spotlight: If you slept in, sorry about that

Maryland defensive back Alvin Hill, left, breaks up a pass intended for West Virginia wide receiver Kevin White during the Mountaineers' 40-37 victory on Saturday.
(Nick Wass / Associated Press)
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Oh, what a beautiful … morning?

Saturday’s early games appeared to be, at one TV viewers’ guide paper, a good reason to sleep until noon.

The action turned out to be so compelling, though, that even Mother Nature was determined to watch by weather-delaying the 12:30 PDT start of Georgia at South Carolina.

A few teams missed their wake-up calls.

—East Carolina 28, Virginia Tech 21.

We’ve seen this student union movie before. Last week, Virginia Tech scored a big upset win at Ohio State. Virginia Tech players returned home to hear, for a week, how great they were.

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East Carolina didn’t care one hoot or two Hokies, jumping out to a 21-0 first-half lead. By the time Virginia Tech woke up, it was too late. The Hokies rallied to tie the score in final two minutes, but East Carolina won it in the final seconds.

—Virginia 23, Louisville 21

Remember that lousy, lackluster game UCLA played at Virginia to open the season? UCLA’s preseason credentials were called into question after the Bruins stumbled out of Charlottesville with a 28-20 win.

Some of us in attendance that day thought Virginia might be better than last year’s 2-10 record might have suggested.

Virginia proved it Saturday by defeating No. 21 Louisville.

Then again, that raises the question: How good is Louisville, or anybody?

—Vanderbilt 34, Massachusetts 31

Could you imagine the SEC embarrassment of having to explain Vanderbilt losing, at home, to Temple and Massachusetts before Sept. 15?

Vanderbilt avoided an epic defeat by scoring 14 fourth-quarter points on a blocked punt return for a touchdown and Ralph Webb’s four-yard run with 1:08 left.

Afterward, players ran over to the student section to sing the reworked alma mater that started with “Whew!”

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—Bowling Green 45, Indiana 42

The Big Ten’s Misery Index continued to soar as a two-yard scoring pass from James Knapke to Roger Lewis, with nine seconds left, lifted Bowling Green to a big upset win at home.

—West Virginia 40, Maryland 37

Newcomer Maryland tried valiantly to lift Big Ten spirits, but lost on Josh Lambert’s 47-yard field goal as time expired.

The Big Ten “I’s” also all lost — Iowa, Illinois Indiana — while Minnesota already has its fans excited about the upcoming ice-fishing season.

Somewhere, deep in his Big Ten bunker, Commissioner Jim Delany must have said: “You have got to be kidding me.”

—Georgia Tech 42, Georgia Southern 38.

Georgia Tech tried to give this one away, blowing all of its 35-10 halftime lead. The Yellow Jackets ultimately avoided a horrid home loss when Justin Thomas hit Deon Hill with the game-winning touchdown pass with 23 seconds left.

Deja Duck

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Twitter loves jumping to 140-character conclusions and was all over Wyoming jumping to an early 7-0 against No. 2 Oregon in Eugene.

A little history lesson, though, could have offered some context.

Last year in Eugene, visiting Tennessee jumped to an early 7-0 lead. For a minute, it appeared the Vols might be on the verge of a major upset.

SEC rules!

Final score: Oregon 59, Tennessee 14.

Final score Saturday: Oregon 48, Wyoming 14.

It’s rarely panic time when you have Marcus Mariota. Oregon’s brilliant quarterback maintained his Heisman Trophy front-runner status by leading the Ducks to an easy win. Mariota passed for two touchdowns and rushed for two scores, the second a highlight-reel run that ended with a dive over the end-zone pylon.

Power versus Tempo

Maybe coaches who think up-tempo offenses are dangerous need to call a reverse.

Maybe methodical offenses need to be sped up for the good of player safety.

Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema, who favored a rule change to slow down hurry-up offenses like Oregon, Texas A&M and Baylor, unleased a punishing ground attack Saturday against up-tempo Texas Tech.

In a 49-28 win, Arkansas rushed for 438 yards and seven touchdowns against the defenseless Red Raiders.

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Alex Collins led Arkansas with 211 yards and two scores, averaging 7.8 yards a carry, while Jonathan Williams added 146 yards and four rushing scores.

Trickett’s Charge

West Virginia quarterback Clint Trickett passed for 511 yards in the Mountaineers’ win over Maryland. You figured it might have approached some sort of record.

Think about it: the NFL record of 554 yards, set by former Los Angeles Rams (and Oregon Ducks) star Norm Van Brocklin, has stood since 1951.

Trickett, though, fell a healthy 206 yards short of eclipsing Houston quarterback David Klingler’s FBS record of 716 (1990 against Arizona State).

Trickett didn’t even get a sniff of West Virginia’s school record. That’s held by Geno Smith, who threw for 656 yards and eight touchdowns in a 2012 shootout against Baylor.

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Trickett’s 511 put him solidly at No. 2, sandwiched around the school’s record-holding hog. Smith also threw for 463 and 450 yards in a game, good now for third and fourth in West Virginia lore.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

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