With Warrick watching, Florida State holds off Miami

Peter Warrick's fellow wide receivers were a big reason. Germaine Stringer, a fifth-year senior with just 12 catches before Saturday, had three for 80 yards including a 48-yarder 3:47 into the game.

And Ron Dugans came through with five grabs for 80 yards, including a 54-yarder that set up Travis Minor's clinching 2-yard touchdown with 9:55 left in the game.

"I don't want to talk about Peter at all," said Weinke, who scrambled his way to 23 completions in 34 attempts. "This football team showed up and played and won. They got the job done."

Florida State (6-0) has now beaten Miami (2-3) five years in a row, and in doing so the Seminoles won their 27th straight at Doak Campbell Stadium and 44th without a loss. Both streaks are the longest among major colleges.

"You were never sure how well we would play after all the things we went through," Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden said after gaining career win No. 298. "The only thing that blew my mind was he way they rolled up and down the field against us in the first half."

Miami scored all its points in a 21-21 first half, with Kenny Kelly throwing TD passes of 8 yards to Reggie Wayne and 80 and 14 yards to Santana Moss. The Hurricanes finished with 448 yards, but were held to 166 in the second half by a defense that almost gave away the game in the opening 30 minutes.

No. 5 Virginia Tech 58, Rutgers 20: Virginia Tech's offense doesn't have to take a back seat to its top-ranked defense any more, not with Michael Vick running the show.

Vick threw four touchdown passes and ran for another in a record-setting performance and No. 5 Virginia Tech scored on seven of its eight first-half possessions in defeating winless Rutgers 58-20 on Saturday night.

"He's good enough right now to be in the Heisman Trophy race," said Virginia Tech lineman Corey Moore, the Big East Conference's defensive player of the year in 1998. "In my opinion he'll be a Heisman Trophy winner in the next year or two."

Vick has completed 18 of 21 passes for 470 yards and five touchdowns over the last two games in giving Virginia Tech (1-0, 5-0) its second straight perfect start. The win also set up a great matchup next weekend with No. 18 Syracuse (5-1) at Blacksburg,Va.

Against Rutgers (0-2, 0-5), Vick set a conference record for accuracy in a game, completing 11 of 12 passes for 248 yards. He also rushed for a team-high 68 yards, giving him 316 of Virginia Tech's 511 total yards. He also only played one half.

"Mike is going to be one of the great ones," Hokies offensive tackle Anthony Lambo said. "He's a redshirt freshman and he still has a lot to learn, and he's going to get bigger, stronger and faster, if that's possible."

No. 8 Florida 31, Louisiana State 10: Two years ago, when Tigers fans tore down the goal posts to celebrate the upset of then-No. 1 Florida, Robert Gillespie was on the LSU sideline cheering for the Tigers, the team he expected to play for.

Things never quite worked out as Gillespie planned, and he scored two touchdowns Saturday for the Gators, including one with 45 seconds left in the game that ensured a victory for Florida.

"Some of the guys in the line were questioning why we didn't down the ball," Gillespie said. "(Quarterback) Doug Johnson came in, fired guys up and said we were going to put it in."

A visit to Florida, where winning was a reality, convinced Gillespie he'd rather play there than try to help the Tigers build a winning record.

"At Florida we always expect to win," Gillespie said. "We expected it today."

After last week's upset loss to Alabama, Florida (3-1 Southeastern Conference, 5-1 overall), which has not lost back-to-back games since 1992 and only twice since 1990, could not afford another loss and keep its SEC championship hopes alive

No. 7 Georgia Tech 31, North Carolina 24 (OT): Despite throwing two interceptions and fumbling twice, Joe Hamilton remained upbeat going into overtime.

Hamilton set up the tying field goal by freshman Luke Manget with five seconds left in regulation, then scored on a 6-yard run in overtime to give Georgia Tech a victory over North Carolina.

"You have to forget about the bad plays," Hamilton said.

"I don't win games by myself and I don't lose games by myself."

No. 10 Kansas State 50, Kansas 9

For more than 100 years, they were bitter rivals, competing every autumn for statewide bragging rights.

But now it's getting hard for Kansas State even to take Kansas seriously.

Perhaps lacking full concentration, the 10th-ranked Wildcats set a team record with 18 penalties for 162 yards Saturday but still won 50-9.

"Last week at Texas I think we were a lot more enthusiastic than we were for this game," said defensive end Monty Beisel, a Kansas native. "When you beat a team by 50 every year, it's tough. We knew we had a tough game last week at Austin. This week we knew if we played OK, we'd win."

No. 13 Texas A&M 45, Baylor 13:

Randy McCown revived Texas A&M's dormant offense with three third-quarter touchdown passes Saturday as the Aggies rebounded from their first loss of the season by pounding Baylor.

The Aggies had gone 10 quarters without an offensive score.

"All of us were relieved to finally get some touchdowns," said A&M coach R.C. Slocum. "It had been annoying for us for the last few weeks. We had to live with questions why the offense hadn't been scoring. We had no definitive answer for it until today."

McCown hit fullback Ja'Mar Toombs with a 26-yard swing pass for a touchdown, found Leroy Hodge on a 12-yard scoring strike, and threw a 74-yard touchdown pass to Bethel Johnson in the third quarter as A&M beat Baylor (0-2, 1-5) for the ninth consecutive time.

No. 14 Mississippi State 18, Auburn 16: While the rest of the league grabs all the attention, Mississippi State just keeps winning.

The Bulldogs jump-started their offense with two late touchdowns, moving Mississippi State (3-0 SEC, 6-0 overall) to 6-0 for the first time in 55 years.

Auburn (1-3, 3-3) has now lost three straight.

"Very few teams in the country have the opportunity to go 6-0," Bulldogs coach Jackie Sherrill said. "I think when it comes down to it, you have to put yourself in a position to do that, and we did today."

Even though the Bulldogs represented the West in last year's SEC title game, few expected them to repeat.

Arkansas and Alabama were picked to fight it out for the right to play either Florida or Tennessee.

That left Mississippi State alone to quietly go about its business. It has, using the second-best defense in the country to win its first five games.

Southern Mississippi 39, No. 16 East Carolina 22: Southern Mississippi turned perception into reality against East Carolina.

Known as one of the giant killers in college football, the Golden Eagles had actually gone 22 straight games against ranked opponents this decade without a victory.

That was until Saturday. Jeff Kelly threw three touchdown passes and workhorse Derrick Nix rushed for 171 yards to beat the previously unbeaten Pirates.

Prior to a week off, the Golden Eagles had lost to No. 4 Nebraska and No. 13 Texas A&M in close games.

"There is a lot of speculation from a confidence standpoint," coach Jeff Bower said of playing ranked opponents. "Certainly we have played some tough opponents and it got us ready to play."

Arizona 31, No. 22 Southern Cal 24: What was good for Arizona wasn't necessarily so for the conference.

Arizona gained 550 yards against the Pac-10's best defense and equaled its five-game sack total to knock the Trojans - the last remaining Pac-10 team in the top 25 - from the rankings.

The Wildcats (2-1, 4-2), a preseason No. 4 pick, fell from the rankings after a blowout loss at Penn State and less-than-dazzling wins against Texas Christian and Middle Tennessee.

No. 23 Texas 38, Oklahoma 28: Mack Brown saw something he liked Saturday, and hopes it can help turn his team's season around Major Applewhite passed for three touchdowns and Hodges Mitchell rushed for 204 yards and a TD as the 23rd-ranked Longhorns rallied from a 17-point, first-quarter deficit.

It was the largest come-from-behind victory for Texas (2-1 Big 12, 5-1 overall) since a similar rally to beat Texas A&M 21-17 in 1965.

"We really came through today," said Texas coach Mack Brown. "There's a defining point in every season and this can be it for us."

No. 25 Brigham Young 38, California 28: It's a bruising and bitter tradeoff for Kevin Feterik. Two straight weeks he has thrown for four touchdowns, and two straight weeks he has taken a beating.

Feterik threw for 414 yards and spread his passes to nine receivers the Cougars beat California.

10-11-99