A name meant as much as his numbers

Tim Brown was the star of Rutgers’ 28-24 win over Connecticut, but he wasn’t celebrating much afterward.

He said he wished an old friend had been there to try to catch him on the back end of his 81-yard pass reception for the game-winning touchdown with 22 seconds left.

Brown grew up in Miami with Jasper “Jazz” Howard, the Connecticut cornerback who was stabbed to death Oct. 18 outside an on-campus dance after the Huskies’ homecoming game.

Saturday’s game was Connecticut’s first at home since Howard was slain.

“He was a special guy to me and I just went out there and dedicated that game to him,” said Brown, who had 162 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

“It would have been a great game for me if I’d had my other friend on the other side.”

Rutgers’ freshman quarterback, Tom Savage, said Brown “was down all week, and he was down during the game, but he just made the play and I’m sure Jazz is proud of him.”

There were several tributes to Howard before and during the game. Players from both teams wore Howard’s No. 6 on T-shirts, and Connecticut’s band wore No. 6 jerseys and changed the “o” in “UConn” into a 6 during its pregame program. The Huskies’ helmets carried a sticker with Howard’s initials, and Rutgers’ helmets had a No. 6 sticker.

Who’s counting?

With its 41-17 victory over Georgia, Florida has cut its deficit in the football teams’ series to 46-39-2.

Or, if you’re from Georgia, to 47-39-2 -- because the Bulldogs count a 52-0 win in 1904, two years before Florida officially began playing football.

Finally, a big one

Before its 38-13 win over Michigan, Illinois was the only team from the six Bowl Championship Series conferences that didn’t have a win against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent. The Illini’s other win came against Illinois State, a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) team.

Trivia (l)

The only undefeated teams in the NFL -- the New Orleans Saints, Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts -- all have a Purdue quarterback.

Drew Brees starts for New Orleans, Kyle Orton starts for Denver, and Curtis Painter is an understudy to Peyton Manning with the Colts.

Purdue, a quarterback factory?

Um, maybe not.

In Purdue’s 37-0 loss to Wisconsin on Saturday, Boilermakers quarterbacks were a combined nine for 33 for 81 yards with an interception. It was Purdue’s worst shutout loss since it was blanked 48-0 by Notre Dame in 1992.

What were the odds?

You have to hand it to those Las Vegas oddsmakers.

For example, how would you set a line on a game such as New Mexico State at No. 17 Ohio State -- a game the Aggies, who came in with the worst offense in major-college football, took not because they thought they could win, but for an $850,000 payday?

Ohio State, somehow, was a 44-point favorite.

The Buckeyes won, 45-0.

Whooo’s this?

Temple’s victory over Navy was its sixth straight after it opened with two losses, and the Owls appear headed for their first postseason appearance since the 1979 Garden State Bowl.

Freshman Bernard Pierce ran for 267 yards, including the decisive 41-yard touchdown with 2 minutes 41 seconds left, as Temple wiped away a haunting memory.

The Owls would have been bowl-eligible last season had they not blown a 20-point lead and lost to Navy in overtime.

Pierce has run for more than 200 yards in consecutive games, for more than 100 yards in five of the last six, and has 1,033 this season.

Worth noting

Terrell Hudgins of Elon had 11 catches for 153 yards and three touchdowns against Wofford to establish a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) record with the 24th 100-yard receiving game of his career.

Small-time stuff?

Not really. The previous record was held by Jerry Rice of Mississippi Valley State.

Trick, no treat

After school officials last week denied rumors Tennessee would wear black jerseys against South Carolina on Halloween, and after the team wore its traditional orange home uniforms during warmups, the Volunteers changed into black jerseys with orange numbers and orange pants.

Yeah, that’ll haunt you.

No rush

Fifty-seven seconds from overtime, 77 yards to go. For Houston, no problem. The Cougars scored with 21 seconds to spare in a 50-43 win over Southern Mississippi.

“Our two-minute is really our offense,” Coach Kevin Sumlin explained. “We have to work on slowing the ball down.”

Houston quarterback Case Keenum ended the month the same way he started it: with a Football Bowl Subdivision season high in passing yardage.

Keenum completed 44 of 54 passes for 559 yards and five touchdowns. He passed for 536 yards against Texas El Paso on Oct. 3.

Spike Pike?

Before he suffered an injury to his left (non-throwing) arm that has sidelined him for two games, Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike had played his way into the Heisman Trophy conversation.

In the two games Pike has missed, the play of backup Zach Collaros has ignited a different conversation: Whether the Bearcats are better with him or with Pike.

In his starts, Collaros has completed 37 of 45 passes for 548 yards and seven touchdowns without an interception and run for 74 yards.

Cincinnati’s 28-7 win over Syracuse pushed the No. 5 Bearcats to 8-0 for the first time since 1954.

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mike.hiserman@latimes.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report.