Steve McNair hobbled into the NCAA I-AA playoffs Friday and saw his Heisman Trophy hopes crippled in a 63-20 first-round loss to top-ranked and defending national champion Youngstown State.
McNair, hurting from a pulled hamstring, still set I-AA records with 52 completions in 82 attempts. But even 514 passing yards and three touchdowns weren't near enough."Hopefully, I'm still in the hunt," McNair said of his Heisman chances. "A lot of things have been held against me all year. I can't worry about it. I have to go on and hope that everything works out for the best. I did all I could do today. I did all any individual could have done this season."
Youngstown State forced seven turnovers as its defense scored or set up four touchdowns. The biggest were a 94-yard interception return by Leon Jones for a touchdown and a 95-yard fumble return by Randy Smith.
McNair's attempts broke the previous I-AA playoff mark of 78 by Rhode Island's Tom Ehrhardt against Furman in 1985. His completions eclipsed the 44 of Mississippi Valley State's Willie Totten against Louisiana Tech in 1984.
The most regular-season completions are 47 by Jamie Martin of Weber State in 1991. The most attempts are 77 by Neil Lomax of Portland State in 1979.
Youngstown State (11-0-1) set school records with its 63 points and nine touchdowns. Next week, the Penguins will be host to the winner of Saturday's Boston University at Eastern Kentucky game.
"They were running four people up the field real hard," Alcorn State coach Cardell Jones said. "There were a lot of running lanes, but Steve could not take advantage of that. If Steve had been fully healthy, we could have taken advantage of it. ... It would have been a totally different football game, I guarantee you that. We would have put a lot more points on the board."
But Youngstown State coach Jim Tressel preferred to believe McNair's problems stemmed more from the defense than the injury McNair sustained in the second quarter of last week's game.
"I don't think the hamstring had anything to do with the interceptions and fumbles and things like that," he said. "Our guys had a lot to do with those."
Alcorn State (8-3-1) ran the Southwestern Athletic Conference record in postseason games to 0-16. It was Alcorn State's third lopsided playoff loss in three trips, following a 78-27 defeat to Northeast Louisiana two years ago and a 44-21 loss to Louisiana Tech in 1986.
Youngstown State's Mark Brungard also threw three touchdown passes - 22 and 19 yards to Don Zwisler and 10 yards to Nathan Toy. Brungard completed 11 of 14 passes for 198 yards with no interceptions.
The Penguins' Shawn Patton rushed for 158 yards and three touchdowns on 22 attempts, while Alcorn State lost 36 yards - mostly on McNair's six sacks - in 15 rushing attempts. McNair made 91 plays on offense.