Grossman Sets Record as No. 2 Florida Rolls

Rex Grossman passed for a Florida-record 464 yards and five touchdowns Saturday as the No. 2 Gators defeated No. 18 Louisiana State, 44-15, at Baton Rouge, La.

Grossman broke the mark of 462 yards set by Danny Wuerffel against Arkansas in 1996.

“If Rex can throw the ball around like this, it’s going to be hard for teams to stop us, because we’ve got some good receivers,” Florida Coach Steve Spurrier said.

Grossman passed for 319 yards and four touchdowns in the first half as he topped the 300-yard mark for a school-record fifth consecutive game. He was 22 of 32 when he left with 11:02 remaining.

“I thought he was a serious candidate for the Heisman Trophy before we played them,” Tiger Coach Nick Saban said. “Now I’m convinced of it.”

Florida (5-0, 3-0 Southeastern Conference), which has surpassed 500 yards in each of its first five games, averaged over 10 yards a play in the first half and finished with 632 total yards.

Florida has beaten LSU (2-2, 0-2) 13 of the last 14 meetings and is 6-1 in its last seven trips to Baton Rouge.

No. 13 South Carolina 42, Kentucky 6--Derek Watson ran for 135 yards and fullback Andrew Pinnock scored twice for the Gamecocks at Columbia, S.C.

South Carolina (4-0 in the SEC) got its first 5-0 start since 1988 with plenty of help from Kentucky (1-4, 0-3), which has lost 12 SEC games in a row.

South Carolina had its biggest scoring day since a 52-14 victory against Vanderbilt in 1995. Since the Gamecocks ended their 21-game losing streak last season, they’ve gone 13-4. A victory Saturday at Arkansas would match South Carolina’s best start since 1988.

Alabama 56, Texas El Paso 7--Tyler Watts ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more at Birmingham, Ala., as the Crimson Tide won their first nonconference game in nearly two years.

Alabama (3-2) had lost five nonconference games in a row dating to the 1999 Orange Bowl, a 35-34 loss to Michigan. Its last victory outside the Southeastern Conference was 35-14 over Southern Mississippi on Oct. 30, 1999.

Alabama held the Miners (2-3) to 232 yards, only 133 on the ground.

Auburn 16, Mississippi State 14--Damon Duval kicked a 47-yard field goal with 18 seconds left to give the Tigers the victory over the struggling Bulldogs at Auburn, Ala.

The Tigers (4-1, 3-0) drove 30 yards on eight running plays to set up the field goal, Duval’s third of the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs (1-3, 0-3) got the ball back with 13 seconds left but were unable to avert their first three-game losing streak in five years.

Mississippi 35, Arkansas State 17--Eli Manning completed 14 of his first 17 passes for 175 yards and added a 51-yard touchdown pass as the Rebels (3-1) won a nonconference game against the Indians (0-4) at Jonesboro, Ark.

Arkansas 42, Weber State 19--Lawrence Richardson returned the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown as the Razorbacks (2-3) crushed the Division I-AA Wildcats at Fayetteville, Ark.