Slovis, St. Brown help No. 16 USC rout Washington State
Amon-Ra St. Brown caught four touchdown passes from Kedon Slovis in a spectacular first quarter, and No. 16 USC cruised to a 38-13 victory over Washington State on Sunday night at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Slovis threw five touchdown passes in the first half before finishing with 287 yards as the Trojans (40) returned from a one-week absence caused by a COVID-19 outbreak with a dominant performance on both sides of the ball against the Cougars (1-2), who hadn’t played since Nov. 14.
Talanoa Hufanga and Olaijah Griffin had interceptions in the first half for USC, which led 35- 0 midway through the second quarter of a game moved back two nights to allow the Trojans to clear enough players from coronavirus protocol to play.
St. Brown made college football history with touchdowns on every one of his four catches in the opening quarter, including two dazzling grabs made with backward dives on difficult throws by Slovis.
Along with tying Robert Woods’ USC record for TD catches in a game, the junior receiver tied the FBS record for touchdowns scored in any quarter and joined Duke’s Corey Thomas in 1997 as the only players in FBS history to make four touchdown catches in a quarter.
Tyler Vaughns caught Slovis’ fifth TD pass for USC on its fifth drive. Slovis’ five TD passes in the first half tied the school record held by Mark Sanchez, Matt Barkley and Cody Kessler.
Washington State’s secondary also was missing four of its eight regular rotational players.
Slovis’ first pass was an incompletion, but he completed his next 18 straight passes into the third quarter. BUCKEYES WAIT ON MICHIGAN WITH PLENTY AT STAKE >> No. 3 Ohio State banked some style points during its rout of Michigan State, but the next step toward any kind of championship for the Buckeyes this season could be out of their control.
They must wait this week for COVID-19 tests to determine whether Michigan can travel to Columbus for the finale of the pandemic- delayed regular season on Saturday.
With two games already canceled, the Buckeyes (5- 0) must get in a sixth game under current conference rules to be eligible to play for a fourth consecutive Big Ten championship. But even that might be up in the air.
The Big Ten could decide that Ohio State, even with only five games, will still represent the East Division in the Dec. 19 title game, at least in part because the conference doesn’t want to hurt the Buckeyes’ chances of earning a national playoff berth.
Ohio State is holding on to the fourth spot in the College Football
Playoff rankings but could use a solid win in “The Game,” and a conference championship, to add to its resume and persuade the selection committee to keep it in front of Texas A& M (7-1) and Florida (8-1) despite playing fewer games.
NO. 1 TIDE RUN POLL STREAK TO 210 >>
Alabama is No. 1 for the fifth week in a row and extended its streak of consecutive poll appearances to 210, the third longest in the history of The Associated Press college football poll.
The Crimson Tide were the unanimous No. 1 for the third straight week and the top seven teams were unchanged for a fifth consecutive poll.
Notre Dame is No. 2, followed by Ohio State, Clemson and Texas A&M to round out the top five. No. 6 Florida and No. 7 Cincinnati also held their spots.
Alabama’s poll appearance streak passed Florida’s run of 209 under Steve Spurrier from 1990-2002. Up next is Florida State’s streak of 211 during the Bobby Bowden era from 1989-2001. The record belongs to Nebraska at 348 from 1981-2002.
BYU was the only top-10 team to lose, falling in a thriller at Coastal Carolina on Saturday. The Cougars dropped six spots to No. 14 and the Chanticleers jumped three spots to No. 11.
No. 24 Buffalo is ranked for the first time in school history, breaking into the Top 25 this week without playing a down. The Bulls had their game at Ohio called off on Friday while on their way to Athens because the Bobcats were having COVID-19 issues.
While the top seven teams in the rankings remained the same, the back half got a shake-up with Buf
falo and the Colorado Buffaloes stampeding into poll. Marshall, Oklahoma State, Oregon and Washington fell out.
SOUTH CAROLINA TABS BEAMER AS COACH >> South Carolina made it official, hiring ex-assistant Shane Beamer as its head football coach.
Beamer, 43, came to campus on Sunday alongside athletic director Ray Tanner and was introduced to the team after spending the past three seasons as assistant head coach and tight ends coach at Oklahoma.
The son of longtime Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer takes over for Will Muschamp, who was fired last month with three games left in the season.
The Gamecocks (2-8) finished their season with a sixth consecutive loss, 41-18 at Kentucky on Saturday.
South Carolina has gone 6-16 overall and 5-15 in the Southeastern Conference the past two seasons.
LATE SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS >> Ty Jordan ran for 167 yards and a touchdown to help Utah survive a late rally and beat Oregon State 30-24 for its first win of the season.
• Demetric Felton scored on a 2-yard run with 1:09 left, and UCLA rallied after sputtering for most of the second half to beat Arizona State 25-18. The Bruins (3-2) dominated early to go up 17- 0, struggled as the Sun Devils (0-2) surged into the lead, then came to life at just the right time.
• Carson Strong threw three of his career-high five touchdown passes to Tory Horton, and host Nevada (61) beat Fresno State 37-26. Fresno State’s Jake Haener threw a programhigh 65 passes, completing 41.