San Jose State 40 — first time since 1955
Nick Starkel threw two touchdown passes to Bailey Gaither and San Jose State beat UNLV 3417 at CEFCU Stadium on Saturday night.
SJSU ( 40, 40 Mountain West Conference) is off to its best start since opening the 1955 season with four consecutive wins.
Starkel was 17for28 passing for 274 yards and Gaither finished with six receptions for 94 yards. Nick Nash had 94 yards on eight carries for the Spartans.
Gaither took a pop pass and raced past three defenders for a 41yard touchdown to make it 73 with 6: 11 left in the first quarter and the Spartans led the rest of the way.
“I thought our team kept playing hard throughout and we came up with big plays when we needed them,” head coach Brent Brennan said. “Our defense turned it up a notch in the fourth quarter and the offense put together some good drives to close the door.”
Gaither’s diving 2yard touchdown with 1: 28 left in the first half gave San Jose State a 2410 lead. Isaiah HamDame ilton made a diving catch for a 27yard gain on a 3rdand11 play and two passinterference penalties against the Runnin’ Rebels defense kept the drive alive for the Spartans.
Charles Williams scored on a 4yard run to trim UNLV’s deficit to 2417 with about four minutes left in the third quarter, but San Jose State responded with a fiveplay, 71yard drive capped by Kairee Robinson’s 12yard touchdown run.
The Runnin’ Rebels ( 04, 04) went threeandout five times.
“We’re firing on all cylinders and we are a tight unit,” San Jose State safety Tre Webb said. “It’s just really fun to be out there with all of those guys.”
Tulsa ranked: No. 25 Tulsa is ranked in the Associated Press poll for the first time in 10 years, and No. 9 Indiana is set to play the first top10 matchup in its history.
The AP Top 25 was mostly stagnant after four of the top five teams did not play and only one ranked team lost.
Alabama is No. 1 for the second straight week, with 60 firstplace votes. No. 2 Notre
got one firstplace vote and No. 3 Ohio State got the other. The rest of the top eight was unchanged: Clemson is No. 4, followed by Texas A& M, Florida, Cincinnati and BYU.
Indiana moved up one spot to ninth — the Hoosiers’ best ranking since they were fourth in 1967 — heading into a Saturday matchup with Ohio State.
Tulsa moved into the rankings after beating American Athletic Conference rival SMU, knocking the Mustangs from the Top 25.
The Golden Hurricane were last ranked in the final poll of the 2010 season at No. 24.
Briefly: Arizona State’s game against Colorado on Saturday has been canceled, the second straight game the Sun Devils will miss because of positive virus tests. The total number of games involving FBS teams postponed or canceled by coronavirus issues since schedules were set in late August is 65. ... South Carolina fired head coach Will Muschamp, the second time he has been let go from an SEC program in midseason. Florida fired him in 2014.