No. 2 Penn State faces big hurdle
Eastern NM looks for seventh win
Today’s college football action features a Big Ten showdown with major playoff implications as No. 6 Ohio State hosts No. 2 Penn State.
In other action, Notre Dame running back Josh Adams tries to maintain his recent momentum when the ninthranked Fighting Irish host No. 14 North Carolina State and its stingy run defense. Iowa State gets the rare opportunity to host a matchup of Top 25 teams when the 25th-ranked Cyclones face No. 4 TCU.
Best game
No. 2 PENN STATE at No. 6
OHIO STATE: Ohio State (6-1, 4-0 Big Ten) will try to keep its playoff hopes alive by gaining revenge against Penn State (7-0, 4-0), which beat the Buckeyes 24-21 last season. These two teams are tied with No. 16 Michigan State (6-1, 4-0) atop the Big Ten’s East Division.
The Buckeyes have won five straight games by an average margin of 42 points since falling 31-16 at home to No. 10 Oklahoma on Sept. 9. Ohio State has gained at least 500 yards in each of those five games but now faces a Penn State defense allowing just 9.6 points per game to lead all Football Bowl Subdivision programs in scoring defense.
Penn State’s Saquon Barkley has 211.1 all-purpose yards per game to lead all FBS players. He ran for 99 yards on just 12 carries against Ohio State last season.
Heisman Watch
JOSH ADAMS, RB, NOTRE
DAME: He hasn’t garnered as much attention as Barkley or Stanford’s Bryce Love but worked his way into the Heisman conversation last week by rushing for 191 yards and three touchdowns in a 49-14 shellacking of No. 21 Southern California, then ranked 11th.
Adams has run for 967 yards and has averaged 138.1 yards rushing per game to rank sixth nationally and third among Power Five players, behind Love and Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor. Adams is gaining 9.2 yards per carry.
Today the ninth-ranked Fighting Irish host No. 14 North Carolina State, which ranks sixth nationally in run defense.
Numbers To Know
7: The number of games Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor needed to reach the 1,000-yard rushing mark this season. The only other FBS true freshmen ever to run for 1,000 yards by their seventh game were Florida’s Emmitt Smith (1987), San Diego State’s Marshall Faulk (1991), Oklahoma’s Adrian Peterson (2004) and North Texas’ Jamario Thomas (2004).
14: Tennessee’s offense hasn’t scored a touchdown in its last 14 quarters.
313: The number of passes N.C. State’s Ryan Finley has thrown since his last interception. The NCAA record for consecutive passes without an interception is owned by former Wolfpack quarterback Russell Wilson, who threw 379 straight passes without getting picked off from 2008-09.
In state
Eastern New Mexico (6-1, 5-1 Lone Star), nationally ranked (at No. 21 in NCAA Division II) for the first time since 2003, hosts Texas A&MKingsville (3-5, 2-4) in Portales at 7 p.m. ENMU leads Division II in time of possession (37:43) and is third in rushing offense (308.3). Clovis High alumnus Kamal Cass is 16th in the country in rushing (890). ENMU’s defense has allowed the fourth fewest first downs (104).
Western New Mexico (2-6, 1-4 Lone Star) is at Angelo State (3-4, 1-4) today for a 5 p.m. kickoff in San Angelo, Texas. The Mustangs are coming off a 20-17 home win last week over Fort Lewis in which they rallied from a 17-0 halftime deficit. RMAC special teams player of the week Collin Grady kicked a 27-yard field goal with 56 seconds to play for the winning score.
New Mexico Highlands (2-6, 1-6 RMAC) tries to end a five-game losing streak today in a 1 p.m. contest at leagueleading and 15th-ranked Colorado Mesa in Grand Junction.
Friday night
No. 24 MEMPHIS 56,
TULANE 26: In Memphis, Tenn., Riley Ferguson passed for 298 yards and three touchdowns and Darrell Henderson rushed for 112 yards and another score to lead Memphis (7-1, 4-1) to its fourth straight win, which kept the Tigers atop the American Athletic Conference’s West Division. Tulane (3-5, 1-3), which ranked 12th nationally in rushing at 266 yards per game, managed only 16 in the first quarter and 95 in the first half. But the Green Wave scored 19 straight points after trailing 35-0.