Clemson coach: Virus ‘excuse to cancel game.’
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said his team met the medical standard to play against Florida State and believes the Seminoles called off the game because of reasons other than COVID-19.
“This game was not canceled because of COVID,” an angry Swinney said Sunday night. “COVID was just an excuse to cancel the game.”
The fourth-ranked Tigers had arrived in Tallahassee, Fla., on Friday when they learned a reserve offensive lineman had tested positive in the team’s latest testing. Clemson quickly isolated the unidentified player and sent him back to campus.
“We listened to our medical folks and their assessment of the risk and we decided it wasn’t safe to play today,” Florida State athletic director David Coburn told the AP.
Clemson administrators offered additional testing to satisfy Florida State’s hesitation and playing the game later Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
All suggestions were turned down, and the Atlantic Coast Conference announced Saturday that medical personnel from both sides could not agree the game would be safe to play.
Alabama ranked No. 1 in latest poll
Alabama is now a unanimous No. 1 in the Associated Press college football poll, and Northwestern moved up to No. 11 on Sunday for its best ranking in 24 years.
For the second straight week, the top eight teams in the poll held their spots. The Crimson Tide received all 62 first-place votes after beating Kentucky 63-3, making Alabama the first unanimous No. 1 this season and the first team to do it in the regular season since 2018.
Notre Dame was No. 2, followed by Ohio State, Clemson and Texas A&M. Florida was No. 6, and No. 7 Cincinnati and No. 8 BYU also held their spots.
The rest of the top 10 was No. 9 Oregon and Miami.
Northwestern moved up eight spots after beating Wisconsin 17-7 to improve to 5-0. The Badgers slipped eight spots to 18th.
The Wildcats were last ranked this highly in 1996. The year after their surprising run to the Rose Bowl, coach Gary Barnett’s team reached a high of No. 10.
No. 12 Indiana dropped three spots after putting a scare into Ohio State in the
Big Ten’s other top-25 game Saturday.
The Buckeyes beat the Hoosiers 42-35 after leading 35-7.
Two games off because of virus
The Apple Cup between Washington and Washington State has been canceled.
The game was scheduled for Friday in Pullman.
The Pac-12 said the decision was made under the conference’s football policy because Washington State does not have the minimum number of scholarship players available for the game because of COVID-19.
Fresno State has had its second straight football game canceled because of COVID-19.
The Mountain West says Friday’s scheduled game between the Bulldogs and San Diego State will be declared a no-contest because Fresno State doesn’t have enough available players because of contact
tracing from COVID-19.
The Bulldogs’ game this past week against San Jose State also was canceled.
Rattler stellar in Sooners’ win
Spencer Rattler wanted to show out at Bedlam.
Oklahoma’s freshman quarterback came through. He passed for 301 yards and four touchdowns and ran for another score to help Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State 41-13 on Saturday night in Norman. The Sooners moved up four spots to No. 14 with the win, and Oklahoma State dropped from No. 14 to No. 21.
Iowa State leads the Big 12 with just one conference loss, and Oklahoma State joined Oklahoma and Texas with two conference losses in the race to qualify for the Big 12 championship game.
Rhamondre Stevenson ran for a career-high 141 yards, and Theo Wease caught two touchdown passes for the Sooners in their fifth consecutive victory.
Oklahoma State gained just 246 total yards. Running back Chuba Hubbard was held to 44 yards on eight carries, with most of it coming on a 29-yard run. Tylan Wallace was limited to 68 yards on four catches.
Oklahoma raced to a 21-0 lead in the first nine minutes on the strength of three touchdowns by Rattler — two passing and one rushing.
Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders left the game in the first quarter after Oklahoma defensive end Ronnie Perkins slammed him to the ground.
Shane Illingworth replaced Sanders and threw a touchdown pass to Logan Carter that helped cut Oklahoma’s lead to 27-13 at halftime, but he struggled from there and was replaced by Sanders in the fourth quarter.
Defense paces victory for USC
Kedon Slovis threw for two touchdowns, and
Southern California rode a strong defensive performance to overpower Utah 33-17 on Saturday night in Salt Lake City.
Slovis completed 24 of 35 passes for 264 yards for USC (3-0, 3-0 Pac-12), but the Trojans’ defense took center stage, forcing five turnovers to stay undefeated and move into pole position for the Pac-12 South title. USC moved up one spot to No. 19 in the AP poll after the win.
Jake Bentley, a graduate transfer from South Carolina, replaced Texas transfer Cameron Rising, who was injured, but often was off target. After two negativeyard drives and misfires on his first four passes, Bentley used a 33-yard run to spark the Utes’ offense and capped the half with a 7-yard touchdown strike to Samson Nacua. USC led 24-17 at halftime.
The USC defense, led by Kana’i Mauga’s 11 tackles, harassed Bentley and kept Utah scoreless in the second half.