MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — No. 9 West Virginia and the Big 12 looked like a perfect match Saturday.
Geno Smith and the fast moving, high-scoring Mountaineers proved they fit right in with their new conference, outracing No. 25 Baylor 70-63 on Saturday in the Big 12’s highest-scoring game ever.
Smith tied a conference mark with eight touchdown passes and narrowly missed another one with 656 yards passing.
“It did feel like one of those classic Texas shootouts,” said Smith, whose school moved over from the Big East this season. “That’s kind of what the Big 12 is about.”
Smith out dueled Baylor’s Nick Florence, who broke Heisman Trophy-winning predecessor Robert Griffin III’s school record with 581 yards. Florence threw for five touchdowns.
School, conference and FBS marks all were rewritten in this one. The game also set a record for the most points scored in a game involving a team ranked in The Associated Press poll. The previous mark of 124 was set in No. 12 Oklahoma’s 82-42 victory over Colorado in 1980.
How wild was it?
Smith, the early Heisman front-runner, had more TD passes than incompletions (six). He finished 45 of 51 and still doesn’t have an interception this season.
Maybe not on offense, but both defenses have plenty of work to do.
West Virginia (4-0, 1-0) amassed a school-record 807 yards and the teams combined for 1,507 yards of offense and 67 first downs. Six receivers had at least 100 yards receiving.
The Bears’ Terrance Williams set a Big 12 record with 314 yards receiving. The former mark was set minutes earlier by West Virginia’s Stedman Bailey, who had 303 yards and a school-record five touchdowns.
Williams’ 8-yard scoring catch brought Baylor (3-1, 0-1) within 70-63 with 3:08 left. But Dustin Garrison ran for 17 yards on third down and the Mountaineers ran out the clock to snap Baylor’s nine game winning streak.
The combined 19 touchdowns tied an FBS mark, last reached when Navy beat North Texas 74-62 in 2007. That match up set the FBS record for most points in a regulation game at 136.
In other games involving Big 12 teams, Seth Doege tossed three touchdown passes and Texas Tech (4-0, 1-0) held off host Iowa State (3-1, 0-1) 24-13. ... Casey Pachall threw two touchdown passes, Jason Verrett had two interceptions and No. 15 TCU (4-0) extended its FBS-best winning streak to 12 games by beating SMU (1-3) 24-16 in Dallas.
CONFERENCE USA
Tulsa outlasts UAB
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Alex Singleton scored three touchdowns, including the 6-yard game-winner, as Tulsa outlasted winless Alabama-Birmingham 49-42 Saturday.
Cody Green passed for two scores and rushed for another for the Golden Hurricane (4-1, 2-0), who led 42-28 going into the fourth quarter.
The Blazers (0-4, 0-1) then scored twice within two minutes to tie it with 9:26 remaining. After a Tulsa fumble, Darrin Reaves capped a 51-yard drive with a 3-yard TD run with 11:12 left. On UAB’s next possession, Jamarcus Nelson caught a 50-yard pass from Austin Brown.
DeAundre Brown intercepted a Brown pass at the UAB 31 to set up the winning drive. Singleton, who rushed on five of the six plays, scored with 5:16 left.
In other games involving Conference USA teams, Kolton Browning threw three first-half touchdown passes and Louisiana-Monroe (2-2) cruised to a 63-10 victory over Tulane (0-4) on Saturday. ... Charles Sims ran for three touchdowns as Houston (1-3, 1-0) defeated Rice (1-4, 0-2) 35-14. ... Senorise Perry rushed for 118 yards and two touchdowns, Jeremy Wright added 84 rushing yards and No. 19 Louisville (5-0) rallied to beat Southern Miss (0-4) 21-17 in a downpour in Hattiesburg, Miss.
Sports, Pages 35 on 09/30/2012