College Football / Spotlight

HURRICANES LOSE STEAM, AGGIES NEW KINGS AT HOME

Washington stormed into Miami and ended the Hurricanes’ NCAA record 58-game home winning streak.

While Miami is forced to start over, Texas A&M; becomes the new owner of the nation’s longest home winning streak.

The Aggies defeated Southern Mississippi, 41-17, winning their 22nd in a row at College Station, Tex.

MCNAIR TAKES TO AIR AGAIN, BUT HE MIGHT BE GROUNDED

Alcorn State’s Steve (Air) McNair lived up to his nickname again on Saturday, completing 33 of 56 passes for 395 yards and two touchdowns in a 48-23 loss to Sam Houston State.

But McNair’s bid to become the first Division I-AA player to win the Heisman Trophy might have suffered a blow.

The quarterback suffered a slightly separated shoulder during Saturday’s game and left with his throwing arm in a sling with about 10 minutes to play.

“I don’t know exactly when it happened,” McNair said. “I took a lot of hits . . . some that I thought were unnecessary shots.”

It was not immediately known if or for for how long McNair might be sidelined.

THE FIX WAS DEFINITELY IN--THREE TIMES IN FIRST HALF

Aaron Fix returned three punts for touchdowns in the first half, setting an NCAA Division I record and helping Canisius to a 28-7 victory over Siena.

The three returns broke the Division I-A and I-AA records of two set by many players. The last time it was accomplished at the I-AA level was in 1985 by Sebron Spivey of Southern Illinois in a game against Southeast Missouri State.

Fix finished with 200 yards in punt returns, an interception for 18 yards and a kickoff return for 27 yards.

He also set a Division I-AA mark for average yards per punt return with 40. The old record of 30.9 yards was set by Gary Harrell of Howard University against Morgan State in 1990.

EVEN WITH WATER BOY, THEY COULD HAVE POURED IT ON

Nebraska’s goal was not to run up the score against Pacific, but to play as many people as possible.

The Cornhuskers accomplished that goal. Included were backup quarterbacks Adam Kucera, who started fall camp as a team trainer, and Ryan Held, a freshman split end who was switched to quarterback about 10 days ago.

“I think we got them all in today,” Osborne said. “Should be about 110 players. We’ll never have more play than we did today.”

All of them--notably backup quarterback Brook Berringer, who threw for three touchdowns and ran for another--helped overwhelm Pacific.

The Cornhuskers scored the first seven times they touched the ball and cruised to a 70-21 victory.

TESTING THE WATERS, THEY WERE IN OVER THEIR HEADS

Alabama Birmingham, having played as a club sport as recently as 1989, is trying to make the transition to major college football.

The Division I-AA Blazers are scheduled to join Division I-A in 1996, and they tested their team against Kansas on Saturday. The Blazers were routed, 72-0, and shut out for the first time in 32 games. Kansas put up its biggest margin since beating South Dakota State, 86-6, in 1947.

COUGARS VERY MUCH WORSE FOR WARE

How times have changed at Houston.

The Cougars, who five years ago averaged 54 points a game with Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware at quarterback, have scored 20 or fewer points in four losses this season while giving up 135 points.

Ohio State got more than one-third of those points Saturday while routing the Cougars, 52-0.

Houston was shut out for the second game in a row for the first time since 1965. It was the most lopsided shutout by Ohio State since a 63-0 victory over Northwestern in 1980.

“Houston is not the best team we’re going to play this year,” Buckeye quarterback Bob Hoying said.

FRY AS HE MIGHT, HE CAN’T ESCAPE THE PAC-10 HEAT

Iowa Coach Hayden Fry was sure his Hawkeyes would finally get the best of the Pacific 10.

“We’ll be more in our class against Oregon,” Fry had said.

Hardly. The Ducks took advantage of several Iowa mistakes and won, 40-18.

Since coming to Iowa in 1979, Fry is 3-7 against the Pac-10.

Among the losses was a 44-6 setback to the Ducks, in Iowa, five years ago. His most recent Pac-10 foe was California, which beat Iowa, 37-3, in last season’s Alamo Bowl.

WE’LL PUT NEW REPLAY UP AGAINST OLD REPLAY

Kordell Stewart’s last-second desperation pass in Colorado’s victory over Michigan brought back memories of Doug Flutie’s bomb that beat Miami 10 years ago.

What did Flutie think of Stewart’s performance?

“I haven’t seen it, but that’s sweet,” Flutie said Saturday night after his four touchdown passes helped Calgary beat Sacramento, 39-25, in the Canadian Football League. “I’ll have to go and see all the replays tomorrow.”

HAVING TAKEN A WAC, THEY’RE BACK IN THE PAC

After opening-season losses against Hawaii and San Diego State, California began play in the Pacific 10 Conference and came out a winner.

The Golden Bears edged Arizona State, 25-21.

“This win means everything,” Cal quarterback Dave Barr said. “I can’t imagine what another week would have been like if we would have lost.”

NOTEWORTHY

Tennessee freshman Peyton Manning, son of former NFL star Archie Manning, came off the bench to throw two touchdown passes in a 24-21 loss to Mississippi State. . . . Brigham Young Coach LaVell Edwards won his 200th game. With the 49-47 victory over New Mexico, Edwards improves to 200-74-3 in his 23rd season with BYU. . . . Tyrone Wheatley of Michigan scored his 41st career touchdown, breaking Anthony Carter’s school record in a 27-26 loss to Colorado. . . . Maryland put together its first winning streak since 1990 by beating Wake Forest, 31-7. The Terrapins, who beat West Virginia last week, hadn’t won two in a row since defeating Wake Forest and Duke in October 1990. . . . Freshman Kyle Bryant’s 61-yard field goal for Texas A&M; was the second-longest since the NCAA banned the use of kicking tees in 1989. Jason Hansen of Washington State had a 62-yarder against Nevada-Las Vegas in 1991.

Penn State’s Bobby Engram caught eight passes for 200 yards in a 55-27 victory over Rutgers. . . . Robert Morris, playing its first season of football, improved to 4-0 with a 28-0 victory over Gannon. The Colonials are coached by Joe Walton, former head coach of the New York Jets. . . . Dick Tomey became the second-winningest coach at Arizona, with 49 victories. Pop McKale had 60 as coach of the Wildcats from 1914-30. . . . Stanford’s Steve Stenstrom threw a touchdown pass to Tony Cline with 4:16 left in the first half against Arizona, giving him 61 touchdown passes, second in Pac-10 history to John Elway’s 77. Stenstrom had been tied with former Oregon quarterback Bill Musgrave with 60 touchdown passes. . . . Air Force racked up a school-record 700 yards while defeated Texas-El Paso, 47-7.

NEWSWORTHY

A former Texas A&M; band member collapsed during a performance of the alumni band at halftime of Saturday’s game between the Aggies and Southern Mississippi.

Jack W. Jernigan, 59, was listed in critical condition at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bryan, Tex. He collapsed near the end of the performance as the former band members played on the field with the current marching band.

NO HAIL MARY FOR ABC

Not only did ABC give Los Angeles a dog of a game in Arizona-Stanford, the network also deprived this market of seeing the incredible finish of Colorado’s 27-26 victory over Michigan.

Nothing prevented ABC from switching off Arizona-Stanford to either Colorado-Michigan or Washington-Miami, according to ABC spokesman Mark Mandell. But ABC stuck with Arizona-Stanford until it ended at about 4 p.m.

“It’s a judgment call,” Mandell said. “We’ve had success with our regional coverage, and we try not to leave a game in progress. When the Arizona-Stanford game ended, Michigan had a 12-point lead, so we went to local programming.”

Colorado’s Hail Mary pass came about 15 minutes later. About half the country saw it live, and 36% of the country watching the end of the Washington-Miami game got a replay within seconds.

QUOTEWORTHY

“I didn’t think he could throw that far.”

--Colorado Coach Bill McCartney, on Stewart’s 64-yard Hail Mary pass on the final play, giving the Buffaloes a 27-26 victory over Michigan.

“That was a nightmare to say the least. We just got ourselves beat good. We got a rump-kicking.”

--Indiana Coach Bill Mallory, after the Hoosiers’ 62-13 loss to Wisconsin.

“It’s tough when they’re breathing down in your face.”

--Stanford quarterback Steve Stenstrom, who was sacked seven times by Arizona during a 34-10 loss to the Wildcats.

“We didn’t come in thinking we couldn’t win, but I think we were realistic about it.”

--East Tennessee State Coach Mike Cavan, on his Division I-AA Buccaneers’ game against Auburn. The Tigers won, 38-0, extending the nation’s longest Division I winning streak to 15 games.