Georgia went through all of last season without a 100-yard runner. Of course, the Bulldogs didn’t have Danny Ware.
Ware rushed for 135 yards and three touchdowns in his college debut, leading No. 3 Georgia to a 48-28 victory over Division I-AA Georgia Southern.
“The whole experience has not set in yet,” he said. “I’ll have to go home and watch ESPN.”
Ware was the first freshman running back to start his first game at Georgia since 1943. Not even Herschel Walker could make that claim.
“People have compared me to Herschel Walker,” Ware said. “I can’t fill that man’s shoes.”
With less than a minute left, Ware finished off his big day with a 1-yard dive into the end zone, becoming the first Georgia player since Musa Smith in the 2001 opener to score three TDs in a game.
Newest Longhorn
Texas retired Bevo XIII, the massive steer mascot that has stood on the Horns’ sideline for 16 years. In his place comes Bevo XIV, also known as “Sunrise Studly.”
Perk up, the boss is here
Rutgers’ 19-14 win over Michigan State was coach Greg Schiano’s biggest since taking over in December 2000, and it gave the Scarlet Knights hope for their first winning season since 1992. After running out the clock, hundreds of fans in the stadium-record crowd of 42,612–which included Rutgers alumnus James Gandolfini, star of the HBO series “The Sopranos”–joined the celebration.
Triple threat
Zack Mills ran for a touchdown, caught a TD and threw two scoring passes to lead Penn State to a 48-10 victory over Akron. The Nittany Lions quarterback became the first Penn State player to accomplish the rare triple under Joe Paterno, who started his 39th season as head coach with career victory 340.
Tailgating tragedy
A Marine Corps junior officer was one of two men shot to death while tailgating before North Carolina State’s game against Richmond, Wake County (N.C.) Sheriff Donnie Harrison said.
One victim was dead at the scene and the other died at a hospital, Harrison said. Neither was an N.C. State student, he said.
The victims were identified as Kevin M. McCann, 23, of Chicago, and 2nd Lt. Brett Johnson Harmon, 23, of Park Ridge.
Harrison said he suspected alcohol consumption contributed to the motive behind the shooting. Suspects were being sought and the shooting was under investigation.
Croom era in bloom
Sylvester Croom won his debut at Mississippi State, 28-7 over Tulane. Croom, the first black head football coach in SEC history, jogged off the field to a standing ovation. The Bulldogs have a winning record for the first time since winning their ’01 opener.
New game in town
New Nebraska coach Bill Callahan promised to end the plodding ways of the triple-option offense when he took over, and he delivered. Operating in the West Coast offense, Joe Dailey threw for four touchdowns and ran for two others, and Cory Ross and Tierre Green each rushed for more than 100 yards to lead Nebraska to a 56-17 victory over Western Illinois.
Nebraska broke out to a 35-0 lead and extended the advantage to 42-3 at halftime, but got sloppy after their fast start, committing six turnovers. They also gave up a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by James Norris.
Not durable, eh?
Kay-Jay Harris rushed for a school-record 337 yards and four touchdowns to lead No. 10 West Virginia to a 56-23 victory over East Carolina.
Harris broke the school record of 291 yards set by Kerry Marbury in 1971 against Temple. It also was a Big East record, eclipsing the mark of 299 set by Miami’s Edgerrin James in 1998 against UCLA.
Harris was slowed by various leg injuries during preseason camp and there were doubts about whether he could extend a streak of eight straight seasons of 1,000-yard rushers for West Virginia.
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez had questioned Harris’ durability and had named Jason Colson the starter. But Harris, who entered the game on the third play, answered the challenge and ran for 223 yards by halftime. He set the records in the fourth, going 76 yards for his final TD.
Quotable
“It’s always good to win, but there was no Hokey Pokey going on. Aw, geez, we were able to win. How about that?”
–Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, after the No. 2 Sooners ended their first two-game losing streak since 1999
