Southeast Roundup : Auburn Shuts Out Ole Miss

Auburn Coach Pat Dye called it “a very unusual game.” That was an understatement.

Auburn, ranked 14th, piled up 606 yards of total offense and held Mississippi to nine yards in a 41-0 Southeastern Conference rout Saturday night at Auburn, Ala.

Bo Jackson rushed for 240 yards and two touchdowns. But that was only half the story as the Tigers’ defense prevented the Rebels from getting a first down for the last 59 minutes of the game.

“I don’t have any explanation (for) why it was so lop-sided,” Dye said. “We’re not that good, and they’re not that bad.”

Auburn, which fell from No. 1 last week in a 38-20 loss to Tennessee, rebounded with a vengeance as it scored on its first four possessions and raised its record to 3-1, 1-1 in the SEC.

“I was afraid a sleepy giant would wake up, and they did tonight,” Mississippi Coach Billy Brewer said. “Dye has been dodging bullets.

“They physically manhandled us. I thought we were mentally ready, but they made it difficult to do anything we tried.”

Mississippi, playing without injured quarterback Kent Austin, was crushed by Auburn’s defense, which held the Rebels to eight yards rushing and one yard passing as Ole Miss fell to 2-2-1, 0-1 in the conference.

Jackson, who came into the game as the nation’s leading rusher with an average of 191.7 yards per game, carried the ball a school-record 38 times--including 10 rushes of more than 10 yards--as he passed the 200-yard mark in a game for the third time this season.

Auburn got 39 first downs, including an SEC record 28 by rushing.

Tennessee 31, Wake Forest 29--Tony Robinson scrambled for one touchdown and threw for another as 16th-ranked Tennessee eked out a victory at Knoxville, Tenn.

“You can’t be too hoggish about the way you win football games in this day and time,” Tennessee Coach Johnny Majors said. “Today there was never any flow and go.”

The Volunteers (2-0-1) gave up 455 yards of offense to Wake Forest while compiling but 309 yards of their own.

“We came over here to win. We didn’t come over here to acquit ourselves,” Deacon Coach Al Groh said.

“We did not come with an upset in mind. The press would have called it that, but we would have called it playing exactly as we thought we could,” Groh said.

Robinson hit on 13 of 23 passes for 170 yards but was outshone by Wake Forest’s Foy White, who engineered two scoring drives with less than six minutes remaining.

White connected on 24 of 39 passes for 270 yards, including touchdown passes of 4 yards to Clemons, 9 yards to James Brim and 18 yards to Greg Scales.

Running backs Michael Ramseur and Topper Clemons accounted for 203 yards rushing and scored a touchdown apiece, although the Deacons fell to 3-2.

Tennessee turned to tailbacks Keith Davis for a 22-yard scoring run and Pete Panuska for a 1-yard touchdown plunge. Davis, a redshirt freshman, led Tennessee rushers with 102 yards.

Volunteer kicker Carlos Reveiz converted four extra-point attempts and made his only field goal try, a 52-yarder.

Mississippi St. 31, Memphis St. 28--At Starkville, Miss., Artie Cosby kicked a school-record 54-yard field goal on the game’s final play as Mississippi State rallied with 17 fourth-quarter points to beat Memphis State.

Cosby’s heroics capped a wild fourth quarter in which Memphis State gambled on fourth down at its 37-yard line with 12 seconds to play. A pass play failed and after Mississippi State took time out, Cosby kicked the winner.

Mississippi State (4-1) trailed, 28-14, before quarterback Don Smith hit Louis Clark on a 58-yard scoring play with 9:12 left and then ran three yards for a touchdown and added a two-point conversion run to tie to score at 28-28 with 4:19 to go.

Despite Danny Sparkman’s three touchdown passes, Memphis State fell to 1-2-2.

Vanderbilt 24, Tulane 17--Freshman quarterback John Gromos passed for 142 yards and scored two touchdowns at New Orleans as Vanderbilt improved its record to 2-3.

Gromos’ first touchdown came on a two-yard plunge in the first quarter. His second was on a one-yard plunge in the second quarter.

Alan Herline kicked a 35-yard field goal, and Carl Woods scored a fourth-quarter touchdown on a one-yard dive against winless Tulane (0-5).

Vanderbilt came into the game averaging only 87 yards rushing. Woods finished with 62 yards in 18 carries, and Everett Crawford had 59 yards in 17 carries.

Kentucky 26, Clemson 7--Kevin Dooley, coming off the bench for seriously injured starter Bill Ransdell, threw a touchdown pass and directed a balanced Kentucky offense to carry the Wildcats to a nonconference victory at Lexington, Ky.

Dooley completed 15 of 23 passes for 142 yards, including a five-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

Also, Brian Williams returned a punt 57 yards for a Kentucky touchdown and Joey Worley kicked four field goals.

Ransdell, who passed for 915 yards in the first three games, punctured his lung on the first offensive play for the Wildcats when he was tackled on a keeper play.

The Tigers (1-3) were hampered by untimely penalties and seven turnovers. With their third straight win, the Wildcats improved to 3-1.