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Slow start, fast finish

No. 1 USC overcomes early deficit, secures win

TEMPE, Ariz. - The strength and speed of LenDale White and Reggie Bush lifted No. 1 USC out of trouble on a sweltering Saturday in the desert.

White rushed for 197 yards in 19 attempts, Bush gained 158 in 17 carries, and the Trojans rallied from 18 points down at the half to beat No. 14 Arizona State 38-28, breaking a Pac-10 and school record with their 26th victory in a row.

The Trojans (4-0, 2-0 Pac-10) outrushed the Sun Devils 373-68 in a matchup of two of the nation's most prolific offenses.

Bush had touchdown runs of 24 and 34 yards, the second one giving the Trojans the lead for good 31-28 with 3:44 to go. White scored on romps of 32 and 46 yard, the latter putting USC up 38-28 with 2:22 left after Arizona State's Sam Keller was intercepted for the fourth time.

Keller completed 26 of 45 for 347 yards and two touchdowns but was intercepted five times, four in the second half after the Sun Devils (3-2, 1-1) took a 21-3 lead at the break. Keller had been intercepted only twice going into the game, both in the season opener.

It was the second week in a row that USC fell behind on the road and rallied. Last week at Oregon, the Trojans trailed 13-0 but scored the next 45 points to win.

Mike Hart ran for 218 yards and a touchdown in his return from an injury, and Garrett Rivas made up for missing a field goal in the final minute of regulation by kicking a 35-yarder in overtime for Michigan.Hart's return from a hamstring injury that caused him to miss two-plus games allowed the Wolverines (3-2, 1-1 Big ten) to avoid their worst start since 1967.Drew Stanton was 20-of-30 for 282 yards with a TD and an interception for the Spartans (4-1, 1-1) who lost their fourth straight game in the rivalry. Michigan State's John Goss narrowly missed a 37-yard field goal in overtime.Last year, Michigan State had a 27-10 lead against Michigan with 8:43 left before losing in triple overtime.The Wolverines began the season ranked fourth but losses to Notre Dame and Wisconsin dropped them out of the Top 25 for 1998, snapping the nation's longest streak of 114-straight poll appearances.Rivas missed a 27-yard field goal to the right with 48 seconds left, but with no timeouts left, the Spartans couldn't get past midfield.

Vince Young ran for 108 yards and a touchdown and threw for two other scores, and Texas converted three turnovers by Missouri quarterback Brad Smith into touchdowns.The Longhorns (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) have now won 11 straight road games and 11 straight games overall. Jamaal Charles had one rushing and one receiving touchdown for Texas, which is 4-0 for the fourth time in five seasons and beat Missouri (2-2, 0-1) for the 14th time in 15 games.The Longhorns had plenty of offense, totaling 585 yards, to offset 135 yards in penalties, a fumble out of the end zone by Charles in the third quarter and a second-quarter drive that stalled at the Missouri 5.Smith scored on a pair of short runs for Missouri, which stayed with Texas for much of the first half but was shut out after the break. The Longhorns led 14-13 after one quarter and then ran off 37 straight points before Smith scored again with 3:54 left.

Marcus Vick threw for two touchdowns and ran for another and Virginia Tech converted two West Virginia turnovers into scores in the finale of a 33-year series between the former Big East rivals.Vick, facing the Mountaineers (4-1) for the first time, ran for a season-high 74 yards and was 15-of-17 passing for 177 yards.The Hokies (5-0) never trailed and kept the Mountaineers offense off the field for most of the second half. Vick efficiently guided long scoring drives on Virginia Tech's first two possessions after halftime. His 23-yard scramble set up Cedric Humes' 4-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter for the final margin.West Virginia failed to score a second-half touchdown for the second straight game and the third time this season.

An efficient JaMarcus Russell threw two touchdown passes to Dwayne Bowe, and LSU bounced back from a bitter defeat by routing Mississippi State.Russell finished 20-of-23 for 197 yards for the Tigers, who were eager to make up for an overtime home loss to No. 10 Tennessee five days earlier in which they blew a three-touchdown lead.LSU (2-1, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) scored on three consecutive first-half possessions and rolled to their 13th victory over Mississippi State in 14 meetings. LSU has outscored the Bulldogs 202-26 during the past five games.Mississippi State (2-3, 0-3) has been outscored 60-17 in back-to-back home losses to Georgia and LSU, both top-10 teams.

Brodie Croyle threw for three TDs, including an 87-yarder to Tyrone Prothro and a 65-yarder to Keith Brown, to help Alabama hand Florida its first loss under coach Urban Meyer.Alabama (5-0, 3-0 SEC), which hadn't beaten a top-five team at Bryant-Denny Stadium in five previous tries, got its biggest win since a 34-7 victory over Florida in the 1999 SEC championship game.Croyle completed 15 of 18 passes for 286 yards. Coming into the game, Croyle hadn't completed a pass longer than 52 yards all season.Chris Leak, meanwhile, was harassed into a 5-of-16 performance in the first half and his first two interceptions of the season, leaving him three passes shy of Danny Wuerffel's school record streak of 121 without a pick.It was the Gators' worst defeat since losing 36-7 to LSU in 2002 and ended Meyer's personal 20-game winning streak at Utah and Florida (4-1, 2-1).

Drew Weatherford passed for 234 yards and three touchdowns, including a 71-yard swing pass to Lorenzo Booker, and Florida State defeated Syracuse (1-3).Weatherford, a redshirt freshman making his fourth collegiate start, also scored a touchdown as the Seminoles rolled up a 24-0 lead.Florida State (4-0), which had nine sacks in its opener against Miami, got Syracuse quarterback Perry Patterson seven times.Syracuse's Damien Rhodes, who came into the game ranked 10th nationally with an average of 120.3 rushing yards, was held to 44 yards on 15 carries, but added 70 more with four catches.Weatherford completed 17 of 26 passes, also throwing touchdown passes covering 43 yards to Willie Reid and 15 yards to Chris Davis.

Tyrone Moss matched a career-high with three touchdowns and Miami ended South Florida's hopes of springing a second straight upset.Moss ran for 89 yards and had scoring runs of 1 and 19 yards in the first quarter, when Miami (3-1) took advantage of three South Florida turnovers to build an early 17-0 lead.Miami scored on four of its first five possessions, then didn't add to the total until Moss' 1-yard, fourth-down plunge with 8:25 left. South Florida avoided the first shutout in its 93-game history with 5:56 left, when Johnny Peyton caught a 14-yard touchdown pass.The teams combined for nine turnovers, five by South Florida.South Florida (3-2), which came in with soaring confidence from its 45-14 win over then-No. 9 Louisville last weekend, finished with a season-low 174 total yards.

Gerald Riggs ran for a touchdown and Jonathan Wade returned an interception for another score in the first quarter, and Tennessee beat Mississippi for the 12th straight time.The Vols (3-1, 2-1 SEC) looked as if they were headed for a rout after going ahead quickly. But the Ole Miss defense stiffened and held Tennessee to three field-goal attempts the rest of the first half. James Wilhoit made a 25-yarder, missed a 44-yarder and had a 51-yarder blocked.Tennessee's defense had another strong effort, and the Rebels (1-3, 0-2) didn't score a touchdown until 10:18 to go in the game.

Marshawn Lynch ran for 107 yards and a touchdown in his first game back from an injury and California shut out Arizona for the second straight year.Joe Ayoob threw for two scores and ran for one for the Golden Bears (5-0, 2-0 Pac-10), who are off to their best start since winning their first five games under coach Steve Mariucci in 1996.Arizona (1-3) lost its conference opener and is off to a rough start in coach Mike Stoops' second season, beating only Division I-AA Northern Arizona so far and with a trip to No. 1 Southern California next week.Ayoob went 14-for-20 for 137 yards and Justin Forsett ran for 74 yards for Cal, which visits No. 20 UCLA next week.

Brady Quinn passed for 440 yards and three touchdowns, two to Jeff Samardzija, and Notre Dame handed Purdue its worst loss in two years.Quinn was 20-for-23 for 283 yards in the first half to lead Notre Dame (4-1) to a 28-0 intermission lead. He finished the game 29-of-36- a career-high 80.5 percent completion rate - and threw a TD pass for a 10th straight game, tying a school record set by Heisman Trophy winner John Huarte in 1964.The loss was the biggest by the (2-2) since losing 31-3 at Michigan in 2003. Purdue fell to 12-27 against ranked opponents under ninth-year coach Joe Tiller.

Cody Hodges threw for 333 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score to lead Texas Tech past Kansas in each team's Big 12 opener.In the Red Raiders' first game against decent competition, Hodges had a few rough spots. He threw an interception and fumbled four times, losing two that the Jayhawks (3-1, 0-1) converted into points.Hodges, though, didn't get much support from his offensive line as he has earlier this season. In Tech's first three games, the line allowed the first-team offense to scored pretty much at will. The Red Raiders (4-0, 1-0) led the nation in scoring coming into the Kansas game, having tallied 56, 80 and 63 points against two Division I-AA opponents and a Sun Belt Conference team.Hodges completed 34 of 52 passes and his yardage was a season low for when he's played in all four quarters. Jarrett Hicks caught nine passes for 112 yards - one of them a 4-yard TD pass.

Brandon Williams caught two touchdown passes and returned a punt 63 yards for a score as Wisconsin defeated previously unbeaten Indiana.The Badgers (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) won for the 10th straight time at Camp Randall Stadium, their longest home winning streak since reeling off 25 straight from 1900-03, when their opponents included the likes of Hyde Park High School, Milwaukee Medical and the Osteopaths.Wisconsin also denied the Hoosiers (3-1, 0-1) their first 4-0 start in 15 years.Williams, who had all six of his receptions for 113 yards by halftime, became the fourth player in school history to top 2,000 career yards receiving and also the fourth to return two punts for TDs in a season. He had a 66-yarder against Temple last month.

Lance Ball ran for 163 yards and scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns, and Maryland amassed 570 yards in offense to hand Virginia its first defeat.Sam Hollenbach went 25-for-33 for 320 yards and two touchdowns, and Danny Melendez had nine catches for 125 yards to lead the Terrapins (3-2, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) to their third straight home win over Virginia (3-1, 1-1).Marques Hagans threw for 270 yards and scored two rushing touchdowns for the Cavaliers, who also got four field goals from Connor Hughes. Chris Cook also returned an interception 30 yards for a touchdown, but it wasn't enough.

Drew Olson threw for a pair of second-half touchdowns and took No. 20 UCLA on a long scoring march in the closing minutes to rally the Bruins over Washington.Maurice Drew dived over from the 1-yard line with 1:08 remaining to give the heavily favored Bruins (4-0, 1-0 Pac-10) their first lead of the game.The Huskies (1-4, 0-2) were 21-point underdogs, but led 17-7 heading into the fourth quarter after holding a 10-0 edge at halftime.Olson threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Marcedes Lewis early in the third quarter, added a 1-yarder to Michael Pitre on the first play of the fourth quarter, then guided the Bruins on a 73-yard drive to the winning score.After struggling and throwing a pair of interceptions in the first half, Olson finished 29-of-44 for 287 yards and the two scores.

Backup quarterback Matthew Ryan ran for a pair of first-half scores and threw a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, leading Boston College over suspension-riddled Ball State.The Cardinals (0-4) had 15 players sidelined after being suspended earlier in the week for violating an NCAA extra-benefits rule involving the use of textbooks.BC (4-1), coming off its first Atlantic Coast Conference win last week at Clemson, scored on its first two possessions to take control.Ryan, starting for the second straight week for Quinton Porter - sidelined with a right ankle injury that occurred two weeks ago in a loss against Florida State - completed 21 of 29 passes for 206 yards with no interceptions.

Zac Taylor finished his record day with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Cory Ross in the second overtime to give Nebraska a victory over Iowa State.The Cornhuskers (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) avoided losing to Iowa State for the first time at home since 1977 and finally found some offensive spark after muddling to wins in their first three games.Taylor completed 36 of 55 passes for 431 yards on a day the Huskers all but abandoned their running game. He set school records for completions and yards. Taylor's most important pass also might have been his easiest, as he found Ross alone in the flat on the winning touchdown with no defenders within 10 yards of him.The Cyclones (3-1, 0-1) picked up 10 yards on their first two plays of their second overtime possession. But Bret Meyer passed incomplete, ran for no gain and was off-target with his final two passes, prompting the players on the Nebraska sideline to storm the field in celebration.

Michael Bush ran for a career-high 204 yards and Louisville spoiled Howard Schnellenberger's homecoming by handing Florida Atlantic the worst loss in its five-year history.The 71-year-old Schnellenberger was born in Louisville and coached the Cardinals from 1985-94. Bush was the first Cardinal to top 200 yards rushing since Anthony Shelman had 220 in Schnellenberger's last game as Louisville's coach, a 34-27 win over Tulsa.Elvis Dumervil had three sacks to push his Big East-leading total to 12 and Louisville (3-1) held the Owls (0-5) to 15 yards rushing to bounce back from last week's 45-14 loss at South Florida.The Cardinals went over 60 points for the fifth time in coach Bobby Petrino's three seasons. They won their eighth straight at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, a $63 million venue Schnellenberger helped raise funds to build.Schnellenberger was inducted into the University of Louisville's athletic hall of fame on Friday night and the school named its football complex after him before Saturday's game.

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