RENO, Nev. — Kellen Moore threw for 414 yards and three touchdowns and No. 9 Boise State kept the nation's best rushing offense in check, beating Nevada 41-34 Saturday to remain undefeated.
Moore threw for 319 yards by halftime, when the Broncos led 24-3.
Ian Johnson broke free for a 66-yard touchdown run in the third quarter for Boise State, which turned back a late Nevada rally to clinch its sixth WAC title in seven years. The Broncos (10-0, 7-0 WAC) close the regular season next Friday at home against Fresno State.
Colin Kaepernick passed for 241 yards and a touchdown and ran for 70 yards for Nevada (6-5, 4-3 WAC), which got the ball back with 1:34 left in the game near midfield and moved to Boise's 26 on Kaepernick's 28-yard pass to Chris Wellington with 28 seconds remaining.
But a delay of game penalty pushed the Wolf Pack back, Kaepernick's next three passes fell incomplete and on fourth-and-13, Brandyn Thompson and Kyle Wilson knocked down his throw to Marko Mitchell in the end zone as time expired.
Trailing by 21, the Wolf Pack intercepted Moore three times in the third quarter and returned two for touchdowns. Jerome Johnson went 28 yards with one and Josh Mauga went 46 yards with another to make it 31-24.
But Wilson returned a punt 39 yards to Nevada's 31 and three plays later Austin Pettis caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Moore to make it 38-24 with 10:11 left to play.
On the next series, Mike Williams sacked Nevada backup Nick Graziano on third down for a 9-yard loss back to his own 4. Brett Jaekle's punt only made it as far as Nevada's 37 and Kyle Brontzman kicked a 50-yard field goal to put Boise State ahead 41-24 with 7:20 remaining.
Dalton's 4 TDs lead TCU over Air Force 44-10
FORT WORTH, Texas — Another 10-win season for TCU.
Andy Dalton threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more scores and the No. 15 Horned Frogs' defense mostly smothered Air Force's usually potent rushing attack to win their regular season finale 44-10 Saturday.
TCU (10-2, 7-1 Mountain West) has its fifth 10-win season in seven years. The senior class won its 40th game, matching the 1932-35 TCU squads for the most in a four-year period, with an undetermined bowl game still to play.
If not for a 13-10 loss at Utah in their last game 16 days earlier, the Horned Frogs would have been in contention for a spot in the Bowl Championship Series. But they rebounded strong.
Colorado St beats Wyoming 31-20
LARAMIE, Wyo. — Billy Farris threw three touchdown passes to Dion Morton as Colorado State came from behind to beat Wyoming 31-20 on Saturday and secure bowl eligibility.
Colorado State (6-6, 4-4 Mountain West) started slow but relied on big plays and Wyoming turnovers to make head coach Steve Fairchild the winningest first-year coach in Rams' history.
Farris was 15-of-25 for 235 yards with one interception and touchdown passes of 31, 43 and 51 yards to Morton, who finished with six catches for 160 yards.
Senior running back Wynel Seldon led the Cowboy rushing attack with 107 yards on 19 carries. Quarterback Chris Stutzriem was 21-of-39 for 201 yards and no interceptions.
Wyoming (4-8, 1-7) continued to be hampered by turnovers, losing three fumbles at key points in the game.
The Cowboys ended their fourth straight losing season under six-year coach Joe Glenn, prompting speculation about his future with Wyoming.
Wolfpack get easy win against No. 25 Tar Heels
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Jamelle Eugene jogged in for a rout-punctuating touchdown to the delight of thousands of red-clad North Carolina State fans crowded into a few sections of Kenan Stadium. Most of North Carolina's crowd had long since departed their home stadium to skip the humbling final minutes.
It was as satisfying a scene as the Wolfpack could have hoped for against their biggest rival.
Russell Wilson threw for two touchdowns and had a key run in the third quarter to set up another score, and N.C. State beat the 25th-ranked Tar Heels 41-10 on Saturday, earning the program's first season sweep of the state's four other major college teams in more than two decades.
Eugene ran for two touchdowns and Andre Brown ran for another for N.C. State (5-6, 3-4 Atlantic Coast Conference), which kept its bowl hopes alive with a surprising domination of a team that entered Saturday with slim hopes of winning the league's muddled Coastal Division race.
Instead, the only title anyone was talking about afterward was the mythical "state championship" the Wolfpack had focused on entering the game. N.C. State has beaten North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest and East Carolina in the same season for the first time since 1986.
"What it speaks to is we're the best football program in the state," Wolfpack coach Tom O'Brien said, "without question."
Certainly not on this day, anyway.
N.C. State scored 21 points in the third quarter to blow it open, earning its biggest win in the series since beating a 40-6 victory in 1989. N.C. State finished with a season-high 466 total yards while holding North Carolina to a season-low 203, handing the Tar Heels (7-4, 3-4) their most lopsided loss under second-year coach Butch Davis.
Five plays give OSU 5th straight over Michigan
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State has never dominated Michigan the way it does right now.
In the rivalry's most lopsided result in 40 years, the Buckeyes won their fifth straight over that hated school up north for the first time, ending a dreadful first season for Wolverines coach Rich Rodriguez.
"I've been here for one of them," Rodriguez said. "That's the only one I can really comment on. They have one in a row on us from what I see."
Ohio State (10-2, 7-1) used five big plays to win by the biggest margin in the rivalry since Woody Hayes was prowling and growling on the sidelines in a 50-14 rout of Michigan in 1968 — the game in which he said he went for a late 2-point conversion "because I couldn't go for three!"
Freshman phenom Terrelle Pryor threw two TD passes, Brian Hartline caught two scoring passes and Dan Herron ran for two more touchdowns to give the Buckeyes a share of their fourth straight Big Ten title.
In Rodriguez's first season since coming over from West Virginia to take over for the retired Lloyd Carr, the Wolverines (3-9, 2-6) lost the most games in school history, missed a bowl trip for the first time in 34 years and had the first losing season in 41 years.
Asked how the season would be remembered, Rodriguez said: "Hopefully (we will) remember it as a blip on the screen, a one-time happening."
On Saturday, Michigan largely held its own on defense — except for five big plays.
"If you watched their films, the teams they played did not run four yards, five yards, four yards, five yards," said Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, now 7-1 against Michigan. "They either ran minus-1 or hit big ones, whether it was run or pass. ... Sometimes they have overcommitted and some people have hit some big ones."
No. 3 Florida swamps Citadel, 70-19
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — If this was Tim Tebow's final game at Florida Field, coach Urban Meyer let him put on a show.
At least for a quarter and a half.
Tebow threw for 201 yards and three touchdowns, Chris Rainey ran for 142 yards and a score, and the third-ranked Gators overwhelmed The Citadel 70-19 on Saturday.
Florida (10-1) scored touchdowns on its first seven possessions, racked up 512 yards in the first half alone and became the first Southeastern Conference team to score at least 42 points in six consecutive games.
The Gators finished with 705 yards and did little wrong against an overmatched opponent from the Football Championship Subdivision. Even when they tried to run out the clock to end the opening half, Rainey broke up the middle for a 46-yard gain.
Another telling sign of the mismatch came early in the third quarter when Meyer gave defensive tackle Javier Estopinan, a fifth-year senior who has undergone three knee operations and isn't even listed on the depth chart, a carry near the goal line. Estopinan scored untouched from a yard out, the first touchdown of his career, to make it 56-6.
Florida's stars had plenty of success, too, against one of the worst defenses in the Southern Conference.
Tebow, a junior who might consider turning pro, finished 9-of-11 passing and ran for 34 yards. He was in for five plays in the second quarter, then turned things over to backup John Brantley.
Percy Harvin ran three times for 49 yards and a touchdown, extending his scoring streak to 13 games, and caught two passes for 76 yards.
Emmanuel Moody ran 13 times for 116 yards and a touchdown. Brantley finished 8-of-11 for 110 yards and score.
Rainey and Riley Cooper had the top two plays in a game filled with Florida highlights. Rainey started left, got spun completely around by linebacker Jordon Gilmore, took a few steps in the wrong direction, cut across the field and ended up with a 73-yard gain.
Gordon leads Harvard over Yale, 10-0
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Gino Gordon ran for 177 yards and a touchdown Saturday to lead Harvard to a 10-0 win over Yale and a share of the Ivy League championship.
Harvard is co-champion with Brown, which beat Columbia on Saturday. It's the 13th time Harvard has won at least a share of the title.
In the 125th edition of "The Game," Harvard ground out 261 yards rushing as temperatures in the 20's, wind gusts up to 35 mph and a wind chill near zero stalled its passing attack. Quarterback Chris Pizzotti threw for just 109 yards, though he added another 83 yards rushing.
Mike McLeod had 65 yards on 21 carries for Yale.
Harvard (9-1, 6-1 Ivy League) scored on a 3-yard run by Gordon in the first quarter after a Harvard punt hit a Yale player and Harvard recovered at the Yale 13. A 23-yard field goal by Patrick Long in the fourth quarter made it 10-0.
Harvard limited Yale (6-4, 4-3) to just five first downs and 90 yards in offense. Yale fumbled three times and missed a 20-yard field goal.
Harvard stopped Yale twice inside the Harvard 5, the second time in the final minutes of the game after Yale picked up a first down at the Harvard 2. Eric Schultz sacked Brook Hart, whose fumble at the Harvard 13 was recovered by Carl Ehrlich.