Florida State Puts Bowden in Tie at Top

Bobby Bowden isn’t chasing Joe Paterno anymore.

Chris Rix threw a 79-yard touchdown pass to Craphonso Thorpe and Xavier Beitia kicked four field goals Saturday night as No. 7 Florida State gave Bowden his 338th career coaching victory, 19-14, over Virginia in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Charlottesville, Va.

The victory moved Bowden, 73, into a tie with Paterno, 76, for first place on the Division I-A coaching victories list. Bowden is 338-97-4 in 38 seasons, 28 at Florida State. Paterno is 338-105-3 at Penn State, which did not play Saturday.

Florida State, 6-1 overall and 5-0 in the conference, held Virginia (4-3, 3-2) to minus-5 rushing yards on only nine attempts.

*

In other games involving teams from the South: Chris Barclay ran for a career-high 163 yards and three first-half touchdowns to lead Wake Forest (4-3, 2-2) to a 42-13 victory over Duke (2-5, 0-4) in an ACC game at Durham, N.C. It was Duke’s 29th consecutive conference loss.... Michael Brewster Jr. took a shovel pass 17 yards for a touchdown with 3:59 left to give Hawaii (4-3, 3-1) a 44-41 win over Louisiana Tech (3-4, 1-3) in a Western Athletic Conference game at Ruston, La. Hawaii quarterback Timmy Chang passed for 534 yards.

*

EAST

Marvin Townes ran for 184 yards and three touchdowns to lead East Carolina (1-6, 1-2) to a 38-32 victory over Army (0-7, 0-5) in a Conference USA game at West Point, N.Y.... Earl Charles’ second touchdown run with 5:06 left lifted Marshall (4-2, 2-1) to a 26-16 victory over Buffalo (0-8, 0-4) in a Mid-American Conference game at Amherst, N.Y.... Jamaal Branch rushed for four touchdowns to lead Colgate (7-0) to a 52-40 victory over Yale (4-1) at Hamilton, N.Y.... Sam Mathews ran for 190 yards to lead Pennsylvania (5-0, 2-0) to a 31-7 victory over Columbia (2-3, 1-1) in an Ivy League game at New York.... Clinton Wu scored on a 99-yard pass play, the longest in Ivy League history, to lead Princeton (1-4, 1-1) to a 34-14 victory over Brown (1-4, 0-2) at Providence, R.I.

*

MIDWEST

Michael Turner ran for 173 yards and Josh Haldi threw three touchdown passes to lead No. 12 Northern Illinois (7-0, 3-0) to a 37-10 victory over Western Michigan (3-4, 2-2) in a MAC game at Dekalb, Ill. P.J. Fleck had 10 catches for 103 yards receiving, and Haldi finished 19 of 27 for 276 yards as Northern Illinois remained one of five unbeaten teams.... Astin Martin ran for 101 yards and three touchdowns to lead Toledo (5-2, 3-0) to a 31-13 victory over Central Michigan (2-5, 0-4) in a MAC game at Mount Pleasant, Mich.... Ben Roethlisberger threw for 215 yards and two touchdowns to lead Miami of Ohio (6-1, 3-0) to a 49-3 victory over Ball State (3-4, 2-1) in a MAC game at Muncie, Ind.... Josh Harris had 283 total yards and three rushing touchdowns to lead Bowling Green (6-1, 3-0) to a 33-20 victory over Eastern Michigan (1-7, 0-4) in a MAC game at Ypsilanti, Mich.... Charlie Frye completed 27 of 38 passes for 307 yards to lead Akron (5-3, 3-2) to a 38-24 win over Central Florida (2-5, 1-3) in a MAC game at Akron, Ohio.

*

SOUTHWEST

Ryan Dinwiddie passed for 509 yards and four touchdowns to lead Boise State (6-1, 3-0) to a 45-3 win over Southern Methodist (0-7, 0-4) at Dallas for its 13th consecutive WAC victory.... Chance Kretschmer scored on a 30-yard run late in the fourth quarter and had 171 yards rushing to lead Nevada (5-2, 3-0) to a 28-21 victory over Tulsa (3-4, 1-2) in a WAC game at Tulsa, Okla.... Craig Candeto ran for 151 yards and two touchdowns to lead Navy (5-2) to a 38-6 victory over Rice (1-5) at Houston.... Patrick Cobbs rushed for 205 yards and three touchdowns to lead North Texas (4-3, 3-0) to a 37-27 victory over Utah State (1-6, 1-1) in a Sun Belt Conference game at Denton, Texas.... Danny Wimprine passed for three touchdown passes to lead visiting Memphis (4-3, 1-2) to a 45-14 victory over Houston (5-2, 2-1) in a Conference USA game.

*

FAR WEST

Quarterback Alex Smith threw for 204 yards to lead Utah (6-1, 3-0) to a 28-10 victory over Nevada Las Vegas (4-3, 0-2) in a Mountain West Conference game at Las Vegas.... Tyler Gottschalk returned an interception 60 yards for a touchdown to lift Wyoming (3-4, 1-1) to a 13-10 victory over Brigham Young (3-5, 2-3) in a Mountain West game at Laramie, Wyo.... DonTrell Moore ran for two touchdowns to lead visiting New Mexico (4-3, 1-1) to a 30-7 win over San Diego State (3-5, 0-3) in a Mountain West game.

*

SOUTHLAND

Spencer Schomer rushed for 185 yards and three touchdowns to lead visiting Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (4-1, 2-0) to a 42-7 victory over Whittier (0-5, 0-3) in a SCIAC game.... Charlie Brown rushed for 127 yards and two touchdowns to lead visiting Cal Lutheran (3-3, 2-1) to a 62-35 victory over Pomona-Pitzer (5-2, 3-1) in a SCIAC game.... Les Simon rushed for 94 yards and a touchdown to lead Redlands (4-2, 3-0) to a 24-12 victory over visiting La Verne (0-5, 0-4) in a SCIAC game.... Ben Buys rushed for 243 yards to lead Azusa Pacific (5-1) to a 23-14 victory over visiting Southern Oregon (1-4)....Frank Borba passed for 298 yards to lead Menlo (4-1) to a 63-14 victory over Chapman (2-4).... Darrell Jones had a 39-yard touchdown reception and a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown to lead Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (4-3) to a 54-10 over visiting St. Mary’s (0-7).