No. 8 Georgia Is Dominant

Georgia’s offense finally reached the end zone against South Carolina, only to find a yellow flag resting on the grass. No touchdown.

“I was thinking, ‘Man, we’ve got some terrible luck,’ ” quarterback David Greene moaned.

Not to worry. The No. 8 Bulldogs overcame that early mistake and brought an emphatic end to their three-year drought without an offensive touchdown against South Carolina, routing the 25th-ranked Gamecocks, 31-7, Saturday at Athens, Ga.

Reggie Brown caught two short touchdown passes from Greene and set up another score with a longer reception. Damien Gary finished things off with the easiest score of all, scooping up an on-side kick and racing 44 yards without being touched.

“Obviously, we had a little extra incentive this year,” Greene said. “For an offense, it’s kind of embarrassing not to score a touchdown. We had a lot to prove today.”

Led by junior safety Sean Jones, Georgia, 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference, dominated on defense for the third game in a row. The Bulldogs have given up only 17 points and just missed their second shutout of the season.

Jones had two interceptions and stuffed another South Carolina drive with a bone-rattling hit on fourth down.

“Our goal is to shut ‘em down,” said David Pollack, who didn’t have a big stats day but created all sorts of havoc from his defensive end position. “We were trying to get the shutout.”

The Gamecocks (2-1, 0-1) stumbled badly after a 31-7 upset of Virginia the previous week. The only consolation: Demetris Summers scored on a 37-yard screen pass from third-string quarterback Bennett Swygert with 52 seconds remaining.

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No. 12 Louisiana State 35, Western Illinois 7 -- Matt Mauck set career highs with 305 yards passing and four touchdowns at Baton Rouge, La., to lead the Tigers (3-0) over the Leathernecks, the top-ranked team in Division I-AA.

Mauck, 8-1 as a starter, also had a career-high 23 completions in 33 attempts to help the Tigers to their first 3-0 start since 1998.

Since taking over as the starter, Mauck has rushed or passed for 20 of LSU’s 37 offensive touchdowns.

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No. 19 Florida 63, Florida A&M; 3 -- Tailback DeShawn Wynn tied a school record with four touchdowns to help the Gators (2-1) to an easy victory over the Division I-AA Rattlers (1-2) at Gainesville, Fla.

Ingle Martin threw for 139 yards and one touchdown. Chris Leak threw for 79 yards and another score. Wynn, a redshirt freshman, ran for 95 yards and joined Jesse Palmer, Fred Taylor and four others with the single-game touchdown record.

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Alabama 27, Kentucky 17 -- Shaud Williams ran for 174 yards and three touchdowns in 30 carries to lead the Crimson Tide (2-1, 1-0) over the Wildcats (1-2, 0-1) at Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Alabama quarterback Brodie Croyle completed 14 of 27 passes for 198 yards, including a key 21-yarder to Brandon Greer on fourth and six late in the game.

Alabama rushed for 266 yards in 53 carries. Kentucky had only 26 yards in 23 rushes. Alabama also led, 464-195, in total yards.

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Auburn 45, Vanderbilt 7 -- The Tigers (1-2, 1-0) ended their touchdown drought and two-game losing streak with Jason Campbell throwing two touchdown passes to Jeris McIntyre in a victory over Vanderbilt (1-2, 0-2) at Nashville.

Auburn rolled up 483 yards total offense, more than its first two games combined -- losses to USC and Georgia Tech. The Tiger defense had three turnovers and four sacks.

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Mississippi 59, Louisiana Monroe 14 -- Eli Manning completed 22 of 26 passes for 353 yards and three touchdowns and the Rebels (2-0) scored 45 consecutive points to beat the Indians (0-3) at Oxford, Miss.

Ole Miss finished with 612 yards, short of the school record of 623 set against Auburn in 1951.

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Tulane 31, Mississippi State 28 -- J.P. Losman threw for 349 yards and four touchdowns as the Green Wave (2-1) overcame a 14-point, fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Bulldogs (0-2) at New Orleans.

Barrett Pepper, who had missed a short field-goal attempt earlier, drilled a 32-yarder with six seconds left to win it. It is the first time Tulane has defeated Mississippi State (0-2) since 1988 and also ended its 24-game losing streak against SEC teams.