No. 3 Florida State Barely Avoids Upset

Kendyll Pope and Jerel Hudson stopped Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace at the goal line on the final play Saturday night, giving No. 3 Florida State a wild 38-31 victory in the Eddie Robinson Classic at Kansas City, Mo.

It was a historic victory for Seminole Coach Bobby Bowden, who passed Bear Bryant on the career victory list with 324. He trails only Penn State’s Joe Paterno (327) on the Division I list.

But the Seminoles, who charged to a 24-0 lead, struggled in the second half and Bowden wasn’t in a celebratory mood.

“I feel like we lost this game,” he said. “That’s how I feel right now.”

Wallace scrambled 20 yards and was driven out of bounds on the Florida State one with four seconds remaining, setting up the final play. Wallace then ran an option play to the short side of the field and was tackled by Pope and Hudson.

“We put the ball with the best player on our team,” Iowa State Coach Dan McCarney said.

If the Cyclones had won, it arguably would have been the biggest victory in the school’s 110-year football history. Iowa State has never beaten a team ranked as high as No. 3 and has lost 30 in a row to ranked teams.

“We wanted to see if he could make something happen. If we had to do it again, we’d still put the ball in his hands,” McCarney said.

Hudson said he recognized the play at once.

“As soon as I saw the fullback go in motion, I knew it was coming. They ran it before and I guess they thought they could run it again on us,” he said. “I just tried to stay behind the ball. I got him inside-out. Kendyll got him outside-in and we got him stopped.”

No. 13 Ohio State 45, Texas Tech 21--Freshman Maurice Clarett, the first freshman to start at tailback in a Buckeye opener, ran for 175 yards and three touchdowns in the Pigskin Classic at Columbus, Ohio.

Clarett scored on runs of 59, 45 and two yards and set up two scoring runs by Lydell Ross as the Buckeyes gained 318 yards on the ground.

Red Raider quarterback Kliff Kingsbury, touted as a Heisman Trophy contender but befuddled by the Ohio State defense, completed 26 of 44 passes for 341 yards and three touchdowns with one interception. Two of his touchdown passes and more than 140 of the passing yards came in the fourth quarter after the Red Raiders fell behind, 38-7. Texas Tech ran for only 31 yards in 20 attempts.

North Carolina State 34, New Mexico 14--Philip Rivers passed for three touchdowns and ran for two more as the Wolfpack cruised to a victory in the Black Coaches Assn. Bowl at Raleigh, N.C.

Rivers was 15 of 24 for 276 yards against the blitzing Lobo defense that was ranked 18th in the nation a season ago. He has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 21 of his 25 starts.

Rivers drove the Wolfpack 80, 96 and 89 yards in the opening half for a 21-0 lead in a game that was delayed 45 minutes because of lightning.

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Doctors focused on a bacterium as the possible cause of a mysterious illness that sent several Fort Hays (Kan.) State football players to the hospital this week. A DNA test from one of four players who had been hospitalized came back positive for the bacterium mycoplasma pneumoniae.