Auburn Uses a Simple Plan as Its Guide Against South Carolina

Filed under: Auburn, South Carolina

AUBURN, Ala. -- South Carolina wasn't confused Saturday night.

What happened at Jordan-Hare Stadium wasn't a function of trickery or intellectual profundity or even strategy. Auburn, a team pushed around by Clemson seven days earlier, decided that being dominated along the line of scrimmage is unpleasant.

So the Tigers did something about it.

Their 35-27 win over the Gamecocks became a statement of purpose. Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn eschewed his innovative attack and instead made things surprisingly simple.

Auburn ran. And Malzahn promised to stop only if South Carolina found a way to foil that plan.

How did that go?

"We weren't stopping them, so they kept running," South Carolina defensive end Cliff Matthews said.


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UCLA's Return Conjures Memories of 'Rout 66' in Texas

Filed under: Texas, UCLA, Big 12, Pac 10AUSTIN , Texas -- It was the game most Texas football fans would like to forget, but they can't.

"Rout 66" is what it is commonly referred, the day 13 years ago a winless UCLA squad rolled into Royal-Memorial Stadium and spanked the 11th-ranked Longhorns, 66-3, in what is Texas' most demoralizing loss at home.

The Bruins (1-2) return to the scene of one of their most stunning victories Saturday for the first time since 1997, and they will be facing an undefeated and seventh-ranked Texas team.

The names on the sidelines have changed and the players on both sides of the field were barely in grade school -- if that -- the day the Pac-10 and Big 12 heavyweights met. But be assured UT fans remember, which means Mack Brown remembers.

"I do remember being on the sideline at North Carolina and Cleve Bryant had worked here before," Brown said of his director of football operations. "When the score was 66-3, Cleve Bryant walked over to me and said, `It's not a good night in Austin, Texas.' I do remember that, we were playing Stanford and we were in the fourth quarter."


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Pitching -- Both Giants' and Their Own -- Puts Final Nail in Rockies' Coffin

Filed under: Giants, Padres, Rockies, NL WestDENVER -- Eight days ago, the National League West race was a threesome, with the Giants, Padres and Rockies all close enough that you could throw a Kleenex over them.

And, to hear many of the pundits, the Rockies were still the team to beat, despite being in third. Cargo. Tulo. Rocktober. Coors Field. All that stuff registered in the minds of folks, wary of what Colorado could do.

While the Rockies may have all that going for them, and while they may have best 3-4 combo of any lineup in the majors, they still lack one thing that the Giants and Padres have.

Pitching. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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The Works: Lockout Clock Winds Down; Crittenton Gets a Chance

by Bethlehem Shoals and Tom ZillerFiled under: Bobcats, Heat, Wizards, Sports Business and Media, The WorksIn The Works today: more on LeBron's Q Score and the black community; and Javaris Crittenton benefits from his relative anonymity.

But first, the league inches closer to a devastating lockout.

Labor Lockdown

Players and owners powwowed Wednesday, and the most vague joint statement imaginable revealed that talks were cordial and constructive. Cheers to that; no one wants to see Roger Mason Jr. give Glen Taylor a black eye. (Or do they?) Progress is a positive, no matter how small the movement and no matter how long the process, right?

That's fine ... if you have no deadline, or if your goal can be reached at any time. Players and owners don't have a lot of time, though. Doomsday is about 10 months away. And that pesky 2010-11 NBA season is about to get in the way.

Wednesday's session is believed to be the final such meeting before the season begins October 26. Players and owners obviously can't meet during the regular season, with players strung about 30 cities.

The next bargaining session is during All-Star Weekend in late February. After that? Late June, after the NBA Finals end. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement ends June 30. You see a problem here? Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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Manchester City vs. Chelsea: Live Blog

Filed under: English Premier LeagueAre you a stateside EPL fan who can't watch Saturday's big Manchester City-Chelsea match live on TV? Then follow the action via our live blog.

Courtesy of the fine folks at FanHouse UK, we're happy to present a live, running commentary from the tilt at Eastlands.

Chelsea currently sits on top of the EPL table with 15 points through five matches, while Man City is tied for fourth place with eight points through five matches.

The fun starts at 7:45 a.m. ET Saturday. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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Cincinnati Miscues Help Give Oklahoma Two-Point Win

Filed under: Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Big 12, Big EastCINCINNATI -- Oklahoma and Cincinnati did their best pinball football imitation Saturday night at Paul Brown Stadium.

Boink, doing, boing-boing-boing and the ball just kept on rolling. The two teams kept hitting the flippers and earning the bonus -- to the tune of more than 900 yards in offense.

Until Cincinnati went tilt.

Given the chance to win, the Bearcats botched two fourth-quarter opportunities and saw the Sooners take a 31-29 win back to Norman.

Close as it is, the two-point margin does not do justice to the chances Cincinnati had to win the game, nor does it do justice to the Sooners' run defense, which pretty much seems nonexistent as Cincinnati's Isaiah Pead averaged eight yards per trip on his 21 carries.

The Sooners could have justified being ranked eighth in the nation by completing a fast start that saw them lead 14-3 in the first quarter. Oklahoma plays fast, lines up fast and wants the game fast. But after starting fast, Oklahoma had to hang on to win -- it did thanks to the unintentional teeth-gnashing generosity of Cincinnati, which turned the ball over too often at key times. Put it this way: With 58 seconds left, Cincinnati could have been trying a two-point conversion to tie had it simply made its first extra-point attempt.


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Which McCourt Will Blink First in Dodgers Divorce Case?

by Jon WeinbachFiled under: Dodgers, Sports Business and MediaLOS ANGELES -- It's the most expensive question in baseball right now: can Frank and Jamie McCourt make peace?

On Friday in a closed Los Angeles courtroom, attorneys for the estranged spouses appeared before a mediator in an attempt to negotiate a settlement and end their ownership battle over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The mediation talks came on the heels of another dramatic session in the couple's divorce trial, which has centered on a marital property agreement they signed in 2004, shortly after the McCourts -- or maybe just Frank -- purchased the Dodgers from News Corp. for about $430 million.

Both sides have a lot to lose by leaving a decision up to Judge Scott Gordon, who has given few visible clues regarding his leanings. Gordon could order the couple to sell the club, which would be an undesirable -- and unlikely -- event for the McCourts and for Major League Baseball, since a forced sale could depress the value of the Dodgers, one of the most prized franchises in professional sports.

The sides have had several previous rounds of settlement talks, including pre-trial meetings with a mediator and a pair of out-of-town negotiation sessions -- one in New York and another in Colorado -- that were unsuccessful. (According to one person familiar with the situation, a pre-trial negotiation session in New York was called off because Jamie never showed.) Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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