College Football Notes: Week 2

Notre Dame's Brady Quinn just took a big early step in the Heisman Trophy race with his dominating performance in a 41-17 thrashing of Penn State.

The senior signal caller went 25-of-36 for 287 yards and three touchdowns in the game. Quinn has not committed a turnover in his first two games.

This contest proved that Georgia Tech, who lost to the Irish 14-10 in week one, is a decent football team and the Nittany Lions are sure glad they have Temple and Youngstown State on the schedule.

Ohio State made the loudest statement in week two. The Buckeyes showed the world they're a legit national title contender with the 24-7 domination of Texas down in Austin, ending the Longhorns 21-game winning streak.

Troy Smith was 17-for-26 for 269 yards and two touchdowns. Wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez had a breakout game with eight catches for 142 yards and a TD. The Buckeye defense, which many thought would be a weak area, continues to impress.

West Virginia, Auburn and LSU, three schools with national title aspirations as well, cruised to victory on Saturday.

The Mountaineers racked up 591 yards of total offense to down Eastern Washington 52-3, while Auburn crushed Mississippi State 34-0. Auburn QB Brandon Cox was 21-of-31 for 269 yards and two touchdowns. LSU held Arizona to only 156 yards of total offense and JaMarcus Russell threw for two scores in the 45-3 rout.

Georgia scored an impressive victory with an 18-0 shutout of South Carolina. It marked the first time since 1987, a span of 193 games, that a Steve Spurrier team had been goose-egged. And that came when he was at Duke.

Two top 25 teams struggled on the day as Tennessee, impressive winners over Cal last week, had to hang on to defeat Air Force 31-30 and Iowa fought off Syracuse for the 20-13 win in double overtime. The Hawkeye defense stopped the Orange on fourth-and-goal in OT for the victory.

No. 18 Clemson was beaten by a very underrated Boston College squad as the Tigers were the only ranked team to lose this week. The Eagles, led by QB Matt Ryan, came away with a 34-33 victory in double overtime on kicker Ryan Ohliger's PAT. Ryan, who also ran for a score, finished the day 22-of-38 for 212 yards and a touchdown.

The upset of the week was by New Hampshire, ranked second in I-AA, who knocked of Northwestern, 34-17 in Evanston. Ricky Santos threw for 208 yards and two touchdowns, both to his favorite target David Ball, who ended the day with eight grabs for 81 yards.

Last week, Montana State defeated Colorado and Richmond defeated Duke. How's that for parity in college football. Look out for I-AA.

Highlight games for week three include: LSU at Auburn; Michigan at Notre Dame; Miami at Louisville; Oklahoma at Oregon; Nebraska at USC; and Florida at Tennessee. It should be an exciting week with plenty of ranked teams squaring off.


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