COLLEGE FOOTBALL ROUNDUP : Terry Bowden Wins Auburn Debut, 16-12

The Terry Bowden era got off to good start at Auburn as James Bostic rushed for 138 yards and a touchdown, Scott Etheridge kicked three field goals and the Tigers survived a fourth-quarter rally to defeat Mississippi, 16-12, Thursday night in a Southeastern Conference game at Auburn, Ala.

Auburn, which lost to the Rebels, 45-21, in the season opener last year, redeemed itself in the debut of the 37-year-old Bowden, who took over when Pat Dye was forced to resign because of NCAA violations.

With his father, Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden, looking on, the younger Bowden’s team built a 16-0 lead and held on when the Rebels came back in the fourth quarter with two big plays.

“I’m not pretending to be Bobby Bowden,” said the younger Bowden, who coached the last six years at Division I-AA Samford.

Lawrence Adams threw a 47-yard touchdown pass to LeMay Thomas, and Ta’Boris Fisher broke a 77-yard punt return. But the Rebels twice missed two-point conversions, and an onside kick with less than two minutes left was recovered by the Tigers, who ran out the clock.

“With about five minutes to go in the game, I started to feel the first victory, but their punt return got me,” Bowden said. “It’s a great win for us and very important for our team because they beat us last year.”

Pittsburgh 14, Southern Mississippi 10--Johnny Majors made his second successful debut at Pitt, with Curtis Martin scoring twice and Tom Tumulty making two key defensive plays to preserve the victory at Hattiesburg, Miss.

Majors, forced out last December after 16 seasons at Tennessee, returned to Pitt to rebuild a program that had a 13-20-1 record the last three seasons, including 3-9 last year.

Martin, one of just four returning offensive starters, ran for one touchdown and caught a touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback John Ryan, who replaced four-year starter Alex Van Pelt.

Ryan hooked up with Martin for a nine-yard touchdown with 5:27 left in the third quarter for what proved to be the winning score, but it took a few breaks and a couple of big defensive plays for the Panthers to win their seventh straight season opener.

Tommy Waters drove Southern Miss to the Pitt 34 by completing six of eight passes in a 55-yard march, only to have Tumulty intercept a sideline pass with 43 seconds left.

Iowa State 54, Northern Illinois 10--Bob Utter threw three long touchdown passes and scored on a 50-yard run as the Cyclones opened the season with a nonconference victory over the Huskies at Ames, Iowa.

Utter, who has missed much of the last two seasons because of injuries, completed seven of nine passes for 206 yards, including scoring passes of 53 and 77 yards to James Brooks and 46 yards to Mickal Horacek.

The three touchdown passes were the most by an Iowa State quarterback since Bret Oberg threw four in a 43-40 loss to Oklahoma in 1989. And it was the most points for Iowa State since a 64-9 victory over Indiana State in 1986.

Northern Illinois’ LeShon Johnson, the nation’s No. 2 returning rusher behind San Diego State’s Marshall Faulk, rushed for 103 yards in 23 carries. He had a 78-yard run nullified by a penalty.