Alabama grad helps end Auburn’s 17-game winning streak

Having your nation’s-longest winning streak snapped is one thing, but if you’re Auburn you had to endure an additional indignity: losing it to an Alabama man.

Dabo Swinney, coach of the Clemson team that ended Auburn’s 17-game winning streak, 38-24 Saturday, played on archrival Alabama’s 1992 national championship team. And he just couldn’t resist a postgame dig.

“It’s only fitting that an Alabama grad would be in charge of the team that ended the winning streak,” Swinney said.

Clemson is now 3-0 at home against defending national champions. In 1981, it defeated Georgia, 13-3, and in 1991 it defeated Georgia Tech, 9-7. That bit of history wasn’t lost on Swinney, either.

“They made a decision to be great today,” he said of his team as seven state troopers tried to hold back a swarm of Clemson fans that stormed the field. Then, pumping his fist, he added, “And I can’t think of a better place to end a streak than Death Valley, South Carolina, baby!”

Wrecking crew

Georgia Tech made a rambled-on wreck of Kansas, gaining a school-record 768 yards in a 66-24 victory Saturday.

The Yellow Jackets scored 42 points in the final two quarters — their largest single-half outburst since Georgia Tech scored 96 points in the second half of its infamous 222-0 rout of Cumberland in 1916.

“When we’re making our blocks, it’s like a video game,” said Embry Peeples, who contributed a 63-yard touchdown run and finished with 110 yards in five carries. “It’s score after score after score.”

He wasn’t exaggerating. Three of Georgia Tech’s scoring possessions lasted one play, and its runners established an NCAA record by averaging 12.1 yards per carry in going for 604 yards.

The tone was set on the Georgia Tech offense’s first play, a school-record 95-yard touchdown run by Orwin Smith.

Smith became the first Yellow Jackets player since at least 1978 to gain more than 100 yards in a game both rushing and receiving. He ran for 157 yards in five carries and caught two passes for 108 yards, including a 67-yard touchdown.

Streak lives on

Temple just can’t seem to beat Penn State and Coach Joe Paterno. Penn State is 37-3-1 in its intrastate series against Temple, and after a 14-10 win Saturday, Paterno is 28-0.

The 84-year-old coach has been calling the shots from the press box since sustaining shoulder and hip injuries when he was run over on the sidelines during an August practice, but make no mistake: he is calling the shots.

With three minutes left in the game, Temple leading, 10-7, and Penn State facing fourth-down-and-one from just outside the Owls’ three-yard line, the Nittany Lions had their field-goal unit on the field. But Paterno ordered a timeout, then made the gutsy call to go for the win.

Brandon Beachum ran up the middle for a first down, and on the next play Michael Zordich slashed into the end zone from a yard out.

“Coach [Paterno] makes big money to make those calls. Not me,” said Tom Bradley, the Nittany Lions’ defensive coordinator who was in charge on the sidelines.

As for Temple, it’s led Penn State the last two years at halftime, yet hasn’t held an edge at the final gun against the Nittany Lions since 1941.

Final word

Tennessee’s Da’Rick Rogers and Florida’s Matt Elam did plenty of woofing at each other over Twitter last week, leading up to their teams’ Southeastern Conference opener. And Rogers continued his barking after beating Elam for a third-quarter touchdown.

Elam’s response? A point to the scoreboard.

Florida still led, 30-13, on its way to a 33-23 victory — its seventh straight over Tennessee.

mike.hiserman@latimes.com

Associated Press contributed to this report.