Harvard was running out of chances and daylight.
The sun had begun to set on the Harvard-Yale game, a triple-overtime contest nearly four hours long, and the ancient Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn., had no lights.
No matter, Clifton Dawson saw all the daylight he needed, and scored from 2 yards out in the third overtime as Harvard beat Yale 30-24 Saturday, rallying from a 21-3 deficit to win “The Game” for an unprecedented fifth straight time.
“It brings up memories of back when you were kids out playing by the streetlights,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “It was great.”
On the first play of the third extra period, Yale quarterback Jeff Mroz was chased out of the pocket and flipped a pass that was intercepted by Harvard nose tackle Michael Berg.
Five plays later, Dawson scored. The junior had 33 carries for 128 yards and a team-high 10 catches for 85 yards.
“I took a lot hard hits, but I have the next eight months to rest my body,” Dawson said.
There was no Ivy League title on the line, but it was a historic day–the first overtime game in 122 meetings and the first triple-overtime game in league history.
Brown clinched its first outright Ivy title with a 52-21 win over Columbia.
Rocky bottom
Vanderbilt ended 22 years of misery and Rocky Top hit “rock bottom.”
Earl Bennett caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Jay Cutler with 1 minute 11 seconds to go and the Commodores beat Tennessee 28-24.
Vanderbilt (5-6, 3-5 SEC) won in Neyland Stadium for the first time since 1975, and its overall losing streak dating to 1982 was the second-longest in Division I-A. Notre Dame’s 42-game winning streak over Navy is the longest.
“You see grown men crying and you realize how long it’s been,” Cutler said.
The Volunteers (4-6, 2-5) will finish without a winning record and not be eligible for a bowl for the first time since 1988, another crushing blow in the worst season in coach Phillip Fulmer’s 14-year tenure.
“Before you start building back anything, you have to hit rock bottom. This is rock bottom,” Fulmer said.
Quotable
“We got our swag back. Everybody was watching. It was more of a statement game to show that we’re not the Tech of old. . . . There’s won’t be any more of those November losses and teams tanking around here.”
–Virginia Tech cornerback Jimmy Williams after a 52-14 pounding of Virginia.
South Florida surprise
South Florida likes being perceived as a team that nobody wants in the BCS.
“We feed off that,” reserve cornerback D’Juan Brown said after returning an interception for a score to help the Bulls beat Cincinnati 31-16 for their third straight Big East win.
If the Bulls (6-3, 4-1) win at Connecticut next Saturday and defeat No. 13 West Virginia at home on Dec. 3, USF would be assured of at least a tie for the conference title and represent the Big East in the BCS.
“That’ll mess up the nation for a little bit,” said Andre Hall, who went over 1,000 yards for the season and scored his 15th touchdown. “That’s what I want to do.”
Oops
Taurean Henderson scored on a 2-yard run as time expired to lift No. 21 Texas Tech over Oklahoma 23-21, breaking the Sooners’ five-game winning streak over the Red Raiders.
After the touchdown, Texas Tech stadium officials took down the goalposts to prevent fans from ripping them down. But game officials made them raise the posts back up for the extra-point try. Tech snapped the ball and never attempted the kick, ending the game.
Snyder out on high note
Bill Snyder closed out his 17-year Kansas State career with a 36-28 defeat of Missouri.
“I’m spent,” said Snyder, who took over the nation’s only 500-loss team in 1989 and led the Wildcats to a 136-68-1.
Following Snyder’s speech to a crowd of 46,039 at the newly renamed Bill Snyder Family Stadium, his players hoisted him to their shoulders.
“He kept telling me to put him down,” tackle Jeromey Clary said, “but I told him, `I’ve been in this program for four years, and I’m carrying you.'”
Quotable too
“I think after we started hitting him a few times he got a little rattled. Every time we hit him and picked him up we told him, `Hey, we’ll be back.'”
–Auburn DT T.J. Jackson on Alabama QB Brodie Croyle, who was sacked 11 times.
Hodgepodge
– Hall of Famer Doug Atkins, 75, was honored by Tennessee with the retirement of his No. 91. The former Bears defensive end was called one of the best “who ever played the game” by coach George Halas.
– Virginia’s Wali Lundy ran for two scores to join North Carolina State’s Ted Brown (1975-78) and North Carolina’s Leon Johnson (1993-96) as the only players in ACC history with 50 career touchdowns.
– Central Florida beat Rice 31-28 to post a huge turnaround after an 0-11 season. The Golden Knights (8-3, 7-1) will play UTEP or Tulsa in the first Conference USA title game Dec. 3.
– Purdue defensive end Ray Edwards, a 6-foot-6-inch, 270-pound junior, announced he will enter the NFL draft. “My grandmother raised me, she’s 63 years old and still working nights,” he said. “So I definitely have to retire her.”
– Brown’s Nick Hartigan ran for three TDs to set an Ivy League record for career TDs with 52, surpassing the record set by Cornell’s Ed Marinaro.
– Temple (0-11) did not win a game on the field for the first time since 1959. Temple went 0-11 in ’86 after forfeiting six for using an ineligible player.
– New Hampshire’s Ricky Santos threw for 354 yards and four TDs and ran for 116 yards and three scores, lifting the Wildcats over Maine 59-47.
