More College Football Capsules: Luck throws 4 TD passes in Stanford's 52-17 win
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Andrew Luck stood up for his running backs. He also stood up and found his wide receivers — a lot.
Luck threw a career-high four touchdown passes in helping Stanford win its first game without Heisman Trophy runner-up Toby Gerhart, beating Sacramento State 52-17 Saturday in the season opener for both teams.
Jeremy Stewart, Tyler Gaffney and Anthony Wilkerson each scored a touchdown for the Cardinal. They were among several running backs used by Stanford, which gained 213 yards, 82 in the first half, on the ground.
"The running backs played a heck of a game," Luck said. "We have been through a spring, a summer and a training camp with them, and as much as we love Toby, these are the guys now."
Luck completed 17 of 23 passes for 316 yards, including an 81-yard scoring toss to Doug Baldwin and a 59-yard touchdown to Stepfan Taylor. Luck also threw TD passes of 15 yards to Baldwin and 5 yards to Zach Ertz.
"We were running the 'fresh legs program,'" Luck said. "Doug had the fresh legs, ran a great post route, ran underneath the ball and finished."
Baldwin caught four passes for 111 yards.
Kyle Monson returned a punt 70 yards for a score, and Curtis Shaw rushed for a touchdown for the Hornets. Chris Diniz matched his career-best with a 52-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.
Luck more than made up through the air what Gerhart once provided on the ground. He was 14 of 18 for 301 yards in the first half, and that was without wide receiver Chris Owusu, who missed the game with an apparent right foot injury.
"I think we came out strong," Luck said. "We made some mistakes, but we were on the screws for the most part."
The 316 yards was Luck's second-highest game total, behind his 423 yards last year at Arizona.
"He's athletic, he's big, he's fast, he makes good decisions," Hornets coach Marshall Sperbeck said. "He's the real deal."
The Cardinal scored on their first two possessions to open a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
Stanford needed seven plays to march 75 yards after taking the opening kickoff. Stewart went the final yard.
The Cardinal took over on their own 15-yard line on its next possession. After Luck ran for 4 yards, he connected with Baldwin on an 81-yard scoring toss, the longest Stanford TD pass in 10 years and the eighth-longest in school history.
"We've been working on that play all week, so it felt like another routine play," Baldwin said. "As long as I beat him off the ball, I knew Andrew was throwing to me. I tried my best to get open, and he did the rest."
Monson had Sacramento State's first punt return for a touchdown in seven years.
UCLA transfer McLeod Bethel-Thompson, who opened at quarterback for the Hornets, completed 9 of 15 passes for 69 yards before hurting his ankle just before halftime. Jeff Fleming replaced him in the second half, adding 44 yards on 6-of-12 passing.
Fleming, a transfer from New Mexico State, arrived at Sacramento State on Sunday and was cleared to play on Thursday.
"I was in New Mexico packing my bags last Saturday," Fleming said. "Coach told me he needed someone in the backup position, and I was ready to step in. It was good to get back on my feet."
Alex Loukas, who replaced Luck at quarterback late in the third quarter, finished as Stanford's top rusher (57 yards) thanks to a 48-yard gain on a broken play.
"I saw the hole, and it was wide open," said Loukas, who missed last year with a torn ACL. "I got excited and thought I was going to fall over. It was kind of a blur."
Bryan Hillard made his first appearance in two years. The Hornets' leading rusher in 2008 missed last season with a shoulder injury.
QB Riley and California open with rout of UC Davis
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Freshman Keenan Allen celebrated his second touchdown by slapping a high-five with someone in the stands. That earned California a celebration penalty.
He quickly apologized to coach Jeff Tedford for the mistake. Aside from that tiny hiccup, Allen was otherwise brilliant in his collegiate debut.
Allen ran 18 yards for a second-quarter touchdown, then caught a 48-yard TD pass from Kevin Riley to start Cal's second-half scoring in a 52-3 rout of UC Davis on Saturday. Allen made four receptions for 120 yards.
"I just came out here and played my game, and all things went well. I was real nervous, but I tried to get the guys to keep me calm," he said. "I've been waiting for this day for a long time. I got caught up in the moment (on the penalty). I didn't know we couldn't do that until after the play."
Riley threw for 258 yards and three touchdowns in just more than a half of work, helping Tedford become California's winningest coach in the modern era as the Golden Bears won for a sixth time in their last seven season openers.
Tedford talked to Allen about his celebration and believes he got the message across.
"He made some big plays. He can do almost anything, I think. He's a great athlete," Tedford said. "I would assume he's going to be able to compete on any stage. He's kind of unflappable. I don't think he's caught up on the big stage at all. He has a lot of confidence in his ability, but he's very low key about it."
Shane Vereen ran for two scores and caught a touchdown pass, all in the first half. Marvin Jones made a 13-yard TD reception for Cal, which jumped out to a big lead early to avoid becoming an upset victim by the Aggies, the way Stanford did five years ago during Davis' last visit to a Pac-10 school.
Riley, a senior, completed his first nine passes and 14 of 20 overall — including Jones' career-best 51-yard reception on which he made the play despite pass interference that was declined.
As excited as everybody is about Allen's potential, it gets a lot harder from here. Colorado comes to town on Sept. 11.
"He's going to make plays, but you've got to think we're going to be playing better competition and it's not going to be as easy," Riley said. "You can tell he's a football player. We had good moments and bad moments. We'd like to be more consistent on some things."
Still, Cal came out and played a heads-up game against a lower-tier opponent. Tedford thought his team was tight during Friday's practice.
"He's going to be pretty amazing," Vereen said of Allen.
UC Davis avoided being shut out when it got a 43-yard field goal from Sean Kelley at the 10:24 mark of the third quarter. Not much went right for the Aggies, who shocked Stanford 20-17 on The Farm in 2005.
Moments after a timeout on Cal's opening series of the game, Riley fumbled the snap and Davis' Bobby Erskine recovered. That gave the Aggies first-and-10 at the Bears' 43, but they went three and out.
Cal capitalized on its next drive, when Riley hit a wide-open Vereen on a 23-yard scoring pass in the right corner of the end zone with 4:11 left in the first quarter to make it 7-0. Isi Sofele ran for a nifty 17-yard gain on the previous play to put Cal in good position.
Riley's day was done early in the third quarter, as he gave way to backup Beau Sweeney.
UC Davis redshirt freshman quarterback Randy Wright completed 8 of 22 passes for 57 yards in his first career start. He became the first freshman to start an opener for the Aggies since Ryan Flanigan in 2000.
Wright completed a 14-yard pass to Dean Rogers on the Aggies' first play from scrimmage and completed his second attempt before missing on third down under blitzing pressure. After that first completion, reigning Great West Conference champion UC Davis managed just 17 more yards and didn't have another first down in the first half.
"It was their speed and size — we can't duplicate that in practice," Wright said. "It was frustrating at times."
The Aggies are in their fourth season in Division I. They played without senior Joe Trombetta, the team's leading returning rusher and second-most productive receiver in 2009, because of a hamstring injury sustained during camp. The Aggies held him out as a precaution and hope he will return next week when they host Portland State.
Cal is seventh in the preseason Pac-10 media poll and begins the year unranked for only the fourth time in Tedford's nine seasons. The Bears are 6-0 in openers at home under Tedford.
Tedford passed Pappy Waldorf for the most coaching victories at Cal in the modern era with 68. Waldorf went 67-32-4 from 1947-56.
"You hear so many stories about Pappy Waldorf and Pappy's boys and the tradition they set for Cal football," Tedford said. "It's a lot of hard work by everyone. It's an honor, it really is, because of the company you keep there."
Davis is 2-18 overall against current Pac-10 teams, including a win against Arizona in 1923.
This marked the teams' first meeting since 1939. They played every year from 1932-39, all in Berkeley. Cal is 9-0 in the series.
"I've been in games where I've been disappointed about how we played, but it wasn't one of those kind of games," Davis coach Bob Biggs said. "They were better."
-- Janie McCauley
Daniels leads South Florida past Stony Brook 59-14
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — South Florida launched the Skip Holtz era with an unexpected star sharing the spotlight.
Joel Miller, the reserve who was involved in a locker room incident that led to the firing of former coach Jim Leavitt after last season, scored the first touchdown of his college career in Saturday night's 59-14 season-opening rout of Stony Brook.
"It's all in the past," Miller said, shrugging off a question about how it felt to contribute in the Bulls' first game since Leavitt's ouster. "I'm just glad to be with my team. They're great support, and we're just looking forward to the season."
B.J. Daniels threw for 264 yards and two touchdowns. He teamed with Dontavia Bogan on a 59-yard score on the Bulls' first offensive play and later threw a 19-yard TD pass to Miller, who recently shifted to receiver and was put on scholarship.
"I couldn't believe it. ... B.J. made a great throw," Miller said.
Holtz replaced Leavitt in January after five seasons at East Carolina. The son of former Notre Dame and South Carolina coach Lou Holtz is only the second coach to guide a program that Leavitt built from scratch over the past 13 years.
Michael Coulter threw a first-quarter touchdown pass that gave Stony Brook a brief 14-7 lead, but he also threw four interceptions and had one of them returned for a touchdown that put USF up 52-14 late in the third quarter.
"I think they were a little shocked early. The research I've done is most of these games are fairly close in the first quarter and a half," Stony Brook coach Chuck Priore said. "You put a little scare in them and you wake up the sleeping giant."
Daniels completed 15 of 22 passes before leaving the game after leading a five-play, 80-yard touchdown drive to start the second half.
Miller, a junior who played exclusively on special teams the past two seasons, was thrust into the spotlight late last year. School officials initiated an investigation after AOL FanHouse reported Leavitt struck Miller during halftime of a game because the former coach was upset about a mistake the player made on special teams.
Holtz, who led East Carolina to each of the past two Conference USA championships, replaced Leavitt in January after USF's probe concluded the former coach grabbed the player by the throat, slapped him in the face and then lied about it.
"Joel is doing a lot of solid things. ... I didn't give him that scholarship; he earned it," Holtz said. "He's on every special team. He made a couple of nice catches. ... If you go out and ask Joel, all he wants to do is contribute to this team, and he did."
The game was Stony Brook's first against a Football Subdivision opponent, and the Seawolves have already signed contracts to play three more FBS schools — Buffalo, Army and Boston College — in the next three years.
Miller did not have a career reception before Saturday night. Daniels found him slanting into the end zone with six seconds remaining in the opening half, finishing a nine-play, 61-yard drive that put USF up 31-14.
USF mistakes on special teams led to both of Stony Brook's touchdowns, with Faron Hornes fumbling on a punt return at his 35 and Bulls punter Justin Brockhaus-Kann being ruled down at the USF 27 for a 15-yard loss after going down on one knee to field a bad snap.
Coulter threw 31 yards to Jordan Gush to set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Edwin Gowins. The junior's 27-yard scoring pass to Brock Jackolski, a transfer from Hofstra, gave Stony Brook a 14-7 lead less than 10 minutes into the game.
Coulter completed 9 of 21 passes for 112 yards and one touchdown. Miguel Maysonet led Stony Brook in rushing with 72 yards on 11 carries.
-- Fred Goodall
QB Calabrese leads UCF over South Dakota 38-7
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Rob Calabrese strengthened his hold on Central Florida 's starting quarterback job, completing his first nine passes and throwing for 176 yards and a touchdown in a 38-7 over South Dakota on Saturday.
Calabrese, who held off true freshman Jeff Godfrey in a preseason quarterback competition, completed all nine of his passes for 140 yards and a score in a flawless first half.
Calabrese led drives of 75, 84 and 80 yards in the first half to help UCF to a 24-7 lead at halftime in the season opener for both teams.
Calabrese threw incomplete on his first attempt of the second half. The junior, who was a part-time starter each of the past two seasons, completed 12 of 15 passes for the game. He also flattened South Dakota cornerback Aaron Swift on a third quarter scramble.
UCF did mostly as it pleased offensively, grinding out 472 total yards and 27 first downs.
UCF drove into South Dakota territory on each of its first eight drives and didn't punt for the first time until late in the third quarter. The 38 points were UCF's most in a season opener since 1998 when it beat Louisiana Tech 64-30.
Godfrey, the all-time leading passer in Miami-Dade County history, entered the game early in the second quarter to a loud ovation from the crowd at Bright House Networks Stadium. The Miami native threw for 11 yards on his first collegiate pass and later had a third-down conversion wiped out by a motion penalty. He re-entered the game in the fourth quarter and had a 21-yard completion and his first-ever touchdown pass on a six-yard strike to Quincy McDuffie.
Sophomore tailback Jonathan Davis ran for a career-best 107 yards and a touchdown for the Knights (1-0). Davis made his second career start in place of injured starter Brynn Harvey, who tore a knee ligament in the spring and is hoping to return by mid-September.
UCF junior wide out A.J. Guyton also had a career night with eight catches for 127 yards and a score.
South Dakota (0-1) trailed 14-0 early in the game, but got back within 14-7 when Chris Ganious scored from 1-yard out over the right end. The Coyotes then caught a bad break when a fumble recovery on the ensuing kickoff was wiped out by an offsides penalty.
Ganious, a junior from Houston, ran for 89 yards on 19 carries. Quarterback Dante Warren threw for 104 yards, but struggled in the second half after a fast start.
South Dakota junior linebacker Shane Potter had a career-high 16 tackles, topping his previous mark of 11. Ten of the tackles were solo stops.
Syracuse heeds Hall of Famer, beats Akron 29-3
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Drawing motivation from Pro Football Hall of Famer Floyd Little, Syracuse beat Akron 29-3 for its biggest win in five years.
Mike Holmes returned a blocked field goal 57 yards for one touchdown and Ryan Nassib passed for 229 yards and two more Saturday night as the Orange won their season opener for the first time since 2003.
"We're starting a new tradition," running back Delone Carter said after Syracuse's largest margin of victory since beating Buffalo 31-0 in 2005.
"It was nice to see so many happy faces in the locker room," Carter said. "We were so inspired by a Hall of Famer. Floyd Little is one reason I came to Syracuse."
Carter gained 91 yards on 26 carries. His 1-yard touchdown run made it 29-3 midway through the fourth quarter.
Syracuse had a 22-10 record behind Little's running in 1964-66. He went on to excel for the Denver Broncos, was enshrined in the Pro Hall last month and spoke to the team Friday night.
"Floyd's speech was very moving," said second-year coach Doug Marrone. "I can't see how anyone would not be ready to play after that."
Marrone believes a strong defense, which limited the Zips to 48 yards in the first half, can get the Orange rolling again.
"We have room to grow on offense," Marrone said. "Three turnovers, we have to correct that, but we made big plays on defense all night."
Chandler Jones blocked Igor Iveljic's attempt at the Syracuse 39 and Holmes picked it up at the 43, going untouched to make it 23-3 in the third quarter.
"We practice that all the time and Mike always scoops them up and scores," Jones said. "I got some good penetration, threw my arms up and the ball hit my elbow. He did the rest."
Nassib connected with Aaron Weaver for a 23-yard score on the game's first series and found Van Chew for a 26-yard touchdown five seconds before halftime for a 17-3 lead.
Akron's Rob Ianello, who took over for J.D. Brookhart, lost his head coaching debut after five years as a Notre Dame assistant. Brookhart went 30-42 in six seasons with the Zips.
"Obviously, we're bitterly disappointed," Ianello said, "not only in the outcome, but that we didn't do the things a good football team should do. We never seemed quite on schedule on offense."
Chew had two impressive catches in the first half, including a 45-yarder to the Akron 25 on the first play of the second quarter. The Orange settled for a 47-yard field goal by Ross Krautman to go up 10-0.
Chew then scored on a diving catch in the right corner of the end zone on the sixth play of a 65-yard drive.
"We worked on that play all summer," Chew said. "We finally perfected it. He threw it right where it should be."
That came after Iveljic's 40-yard field goal got Akron within 10-3.
The Zips' score was set up by defensive end Shawn Lemon, who scooped up a fumble by Nassib and went 29 yards to the Syracuse 18 with 1:39 left in the first half. Bryan Wagner forced the fumble.
Patrick Nicely threw three incompletions including a low, errant toss to a wide-open Gary Pride in the end zone. Nicely finished with 111 yards on 12-for-35 passing.
Air Force pulls away from Demons, 65-21
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) — Maybe it was the FCS opponent. Maybe the Air Force Falcons got caught looking ahead to BYU next week.
Or maybe they were stunned by the sight of one of their leaders being carted off the field with a neck injury in the first quarter. Whatever the reason, it took a few strong words at halftime to get their heads back in the game.
Once that happened, the Falcons found their footing and scored 41 unanswered points in the second half to pull away from pesky Northwestern State 65-21 on Saturday.
"I think we looked at the name of the team we were playing and said, 'It's going to be a cakewalk,'" said quarterback Tim Jefferson, who threw two TD passes and ran for two more. "When you do that, you don't have the mental maturity and that's what happens."
The game was marred by three players being carted off on stretchers with neck injuries. Anxious teammates paced nearby.
Northwestern State safety Lance Lacoste hurt his neck covering a punt in the third quarter, while Demons offensive guard Josh Cunningham and Air Force cornerback Reggie Rembert were taken off in the opening quarter.
The Demons said Lacoste felt a severe pain in his neck and that Cunningham had a possible stinger, along with a concussion. Both were taken to a hospital as a precaution. It was unclear how Cunningham was injured.
Both, though, are heading home with the team.
Rembert had feeling in all extremities after hurting his neck on a tackle.
His presence was missed.
"When it happened, the whole team, their hearts went down in their stomachs," fullback Jared Tew said. "To see him down there that long and also the stretcher come out, it got us a little nervous."
The Demons know the feeling.
"There were a bunch of them tonight, and hopefully they're going to be very short-lived and these kids are going to be healthy again real soon," said coach Bradley Dale Peveto, who's still searching for his first win after going 0-11 last season in his inaugural year.
For a half, the Demons threw a scare at the Falcons. For a half, they believed they could actually spring an upset.
Maybe that had something to do with quarterback Paul Harris' impassioned speech Monday after practice. He told his teammates he was sick of walking across campus and being asked when they were finally going to win.
The next day, there was a spike in players showing up for voluntary film review.
On Saturday, they trailed 24-21 heading into halftime. But then it unraveled.
Still, the Demons departed feeling they're on the right path.
"We had many positives," said Harris, who threw for a touchdown and ran in another. "I know I'm 0-12 as a college player, but that doesn't hurt my confidence at all."
Although Harris picked apart the Falcons defense in the first half, it changed after halftime as Air Force made the necessary adjustments, allowing allowed just 54 yards of offense the rest of the way.
"We played like the turf was hot and we wanted to get our feet moving," said Calhoun, whose team compiled 616 yards of offense, the 11th most in team history.
So, what exactly did Falcons coach Troy Calhoun do to his team at halftime?
"We had Lasik (surgery)," Calhoun joked, referring to his team's better focus. "Just sight-wise."
This game was supposed to be the breather for Air Force. The Falcons play a four-game stretch against teams that all played in bowls last season, starting next weekend with BYU.
While Jefferson thought the team may have overlooked Northwestern State, senior defensive lineman Rick Ricketts doesn't see it that way.
But he conceded the Falcons have a lot of work left to do before conference power BYU arrives in town.
"Last year, we had some trouble with their passing game, and if we had trouble with Northwestern State's passing game, that's a big eye-opener," Ricketts said. "We've got to pick it up for BYU."
Calhoun didn't know if Rembert would be available.
"We've got to see," Calhoun said. "You don't mess with something like that. All three of those kids, anytime you get a guy at all, even if it's a little bit of a twinge, if it means everyone stands out there 15 more minutes, my goodness, it's what we're going to do."
-- Pat Graham
Late TD gives Army 31-27 win against E. Michigan
YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) — Jared Hassin's much-anticipated debut was worth the wait for Army.
Hassin scored three touchdowns, including a 7-yarder with 38 seconds left, to lead Army to a 31-27 win over Eastern Michigan on Saturday night.
The sophomore fullback, who for 68 yards on 12 carries, hadn't played football in two years. He originally went to the Air Force Academy but left after participating in preseason drills and attending one week of classes in 2008, before deciding to transfer to Army.
The Black Knights tried to get Hassin an exemption from the NCAA transfer rule in order for him to be eligible last season but were denied.
"The greatest part of tonight was it was a win for our team," said Hassin, who grew up dreaming of attending West Point. His father graduated from there in 1971.
Hassin committed to Army as a high school junior but changed his mind when he visited the Air Force campus.
Army coach Rich Ellerson expects even bigger things from Hassin.
"This was his debut. He'll be a lot better than however he is now," Ellerson said.
Alex Gillett's 11-yard TD pass to Ben Thayer gave Eastern Michigan a 27-24 lead with 2:59 left and it looked as if coach Ron English would get his first win. The Eagles were 0-12 in 2009, English's first year.
"I was thinking about that coming over here. I like winning, I like winning and this is humbling me," he said.
But the Black Knights drove 72 yards in eight plays and Hassin went in off left tackle to give Army the lead.
"It was the same counter that I scored on both times before," Hassin said. "... The offensive line did such a great job, it made it easy. Real easy."
Gillett's last ditch pass from Army 32, which was set up by a Black Knight's interference penalty with 3 seconds left, sailed harmlessly out of the end zone.
Dwayne Priest (26 carries for 142 yards) and Gillett (18 for 126) topped 100 yards rushing for EMU. Priest ran for two touchdowns and Gillett for one score.
It is the second consecutive season that Army has opened with a win over Eastern Michigan at Rynearson Stadium. The Black Knights won 27-14 last year.
Army scored 10 points in a little over two minutes in the third quarter to break a tie and take a 24-14 lead.
Patrick Mealy's 11-yard TD run with 10:33 left in the quarter put the Black Knights up 21-14. Army took the second-half opening kickoff and marched 75 yards in nine plays.
Eastern Michigan's Kelip Goodwin fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Black Knights' Bill Prosko recovered it on the Eagles' 32. Army turned that into three points on Alex Carlton's 42-yard field goal with 8:28 remaining in the third quarter.
But the Eagles came right back after the kickoff and drove 74 yards in 11 plays to Gillett's 1-yard run to close the gap to 24-20, with 2:29 left in the third. The extra point attempt was botched.
The game was delayed for about 12 minutes, with 12:49 left in the second quarter, when a bank of lights on one side of Rynearson Stadium and the scoreboard went out.
The score was tied 7-7 when the lights on the west side of the stadium and the scoreboard, located at the north end of the field, went dark.
Play resumed with only the east side light banks and no scoreboard.
The lights came back on shortly after the contest was restarted. The scoreboard remained inoperable for the rest of the first half as officials kept time on the field.
Priest's 5-yard TD run with 9:07 left in the first quarter gave Eastern Michigan a 7-0 lead. It capped an 11-play, 66-yard game-opening drive.
Army capitalized on Priest's fumble at his own 14, which was recovered by Josh Jackson, when Hassin went in from 3 yards out to tie the game at 7, with 2:47 remaining in the opening quarter.
Hassin got his second touchdown on another 3-yard run with 40 seconds left in the first half. But Priest got his second TD, by bulling his way into the end zone from 5 yards out with 15 seconds left in the half to make it 14-all.
Advances
Special teams specialists in spotlight
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer is a special teams guru, and he gushes over the way Boise State excels at a part of the game that sometimes is overlooked.
Broncos coach Chris Petersen, meanwhile, is equally effusive in his praise of the Hokies' play on special teams.
Both go into Monday night's matchup between the No. 3 Broncos and the No. 10 Hokies at Landover, Md., knowing that one big special teams play could determine who wins the game.
Virginia Tech has blocked 124 kicks in 281 games under Beamer. It has scored 44 touchdowns on blocked kicks and punt returns, and last season scored three special teams touchdowns, all in different ways: a kickoff return, a punt return and a blocked punt.
Beamer said it's getting harder to find an edge when kickers are on the field.
"I think special teams have really improved in the last 10 years," he said this week. "Used to be you could outscheme some people, but not much anymore. You look at Boise State, I think one publication had them with the No. 1 special teams group in the country.
"They put their best people over there. They've got starters over there."
That's exactly how the Hokies have made their units stand out, and their success in that and in scoring on defense spawned a nickname: Beamerball.
But what might someday be known as Petersenball is pretty productive, too.
The Broncos have blocked 18 kicks in Petersen's four years and returned seven kicks for scores. Wideout Titus Young brought two kickoffs back for TDs of 100 and 95 yards last year.
The Broncos also converted a fake punt on 4th-and-9 from their own 33 yard-line in the third quarter in the Fiesta Bowl last year, keeping a drive alive for the winning score.
"They don't take a back seat to anyone," Beamer said.
But Petersen said the Hokies' schemes are more difficult "because you see it all," and the tradition of making things happen on special teams makes players eager to be involved.
"Somehow, some way, they get those guys to play harder than most," he said.
Beamer's punt block team — he calls it Pride & Joy — includes wideouts Dyrell Roberts, Danny Coale, Marcus Davis and D.J. Coles, and defensive backs Cris Hill, Davon Morgan and Eddie Whitley. The unit blocked three kicks in the Hokies' final two preseason scrimmages.
"I think we've got a good crowd," Beamer said. "We've got guys that have speed there. I like our potential. Now it's a matter of we got to get it done. With Boise, they come out in so many different sets, you got to be ready for that. They get you thinking a little bit."
While the good news for Beamer was the three blocks, the bad news was that his first-team punt protection team was getting beat too often. He thinks that has been fixed.
"You've got some new people there," he said. "They're doing it for the first time. Experience is a wonderful thing and we're trying to get them as much experience as we can."
-- Hank Kurz Jr.
Plenty of familiarity for McNeill at ECU
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) — While Ruffin McNeill is looking forward to making his coaching debut at East Carolina, his title is just about the only thing new for the first-year Pirates coach.
The surroundings certainly won't be; he is back in at his alma mater, in his home state coaching in the same stadium where he played.
Even Sunday's opponent in the Conference USA opener is a familiar face — Tulsa's Todd Graham.
The two met years ago during McNeill's 10-year stint as assistant on Mike Leach's staff at Texas Tech.
A few years ago McNeill was recruiting a punter from Allen High School in suburban Dallas. That high school's coach at the time: Graham, who coached preps before he joined West Virginia's staff in 2001.
And while McNeill ultimately didn't lure many of Graham's high school players to Lubbock — "They had a little tie-in with some other schools," McNeill said with a laugh — the added recruiting responsibilities Leach gave him over the years provided a valuable taste of what it's like to be a head coach.
"I was used as a guy to go everywhere — all the kids and all the parents, like I do now," McNeill said. "I've had a chance to practice the head-coaching deal quite a bit, because I went around to every home, offensively, defensively, special teams-wise, meeting parents and those type of things."
At least partly because of those experiences, he was prepared to take a dream job at his alma mater — the two-time defending conference champions.
Hired in January after Skip Holtz left for South Florida, the East Carolina defensive back from the 1970s isn't worried about any nervousness that might arise in the moments before kickoff because "I've been in just about all situations you can be in as a football coach."
But, McNeill added, "I'm sure it'll be emotional, and I'm looking forward to it, and I'm looking forward to the execution of the game operation. That's the exciting part of it to me — let's see who can beat who. I love that part of the game. But I'll be excited, I'm sure."
The Pirates will debut their new coach, a newly expanded stadium and a new quarterback against what may have blossomed into a new rivalry.
East Carolina has beaten Tulsa twice in the past two years, including a win in the 2008 C-USA championship game, the first of the Pirates' two straight league titles under Holtz.
"We felt like they came in here in '08 and took it," Graham said. "I think there's definitely a healthy respect, and our players know that East Carolina represents the best in our league for the last two years. Our guys are very excited and very motivated, and it has developed into being somewhat of a rivalry for us because they are the team to beat."
Neither team has the luxury of opening with an outmanned opponent from a lower division, and that has given the league opener an added sense of urgency for both sides.
"It's your first game, but it's also a conference game. It's a conference game that has a lot of implications," Graham said. "In this conference, it's extremely competitive and you don't want to start off with a loss. ... We put a lot more emphasis on being conference champions than anything else. Naturally this being the first game, and being a conference game, and being the two-time defending champion we're playing, this is a big, big game for us."
-- Joedy McCreary
News & Notes
Three players in game carted off with neck injuries
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) — Three players were carted off the field on stretchers with neck injuries in the season opener between Northwestern State and Air Force, yet each of the players was released from the hospital Saturday night.
"Not in 21 years have I seen a game like that, where we've boarded three athletes," said Tony Peck, head athletic trainer at Air Force. "It's bad luck."
Northwestern State free safety Lance Lacoste hurt his neck covering a punt in the third quarter of Air Force's 65-21 win, while Demons offensive guard Josh Cunningham and Falcons cornerback Reggie Rembert were taken off in the first quarter.
Demons staff said Lacoste felt a severe pain in his neck and that Cunningham may have suffered a stinger, along with a concussion.
However both were out of the hospital in time to head back to Natchitoches, La., with the team.
Rembert, one of the top cornerbacks in the Mountain West Conference, had feeling in all extremities after hurting his neck on a tackle. He even raised his right hand and gave a thumbs-up to the crowd as he exited the stadium.
Falcons coach Troy Calhoun wasn't sure how bad Rembert's injury was or when he may be back. The Falcons host BYU next weekend.
"We just have to do all tests," Calhoun said. "You don't mess with something like that."
Three neck injuries in one game was something that Calhoun could hardly believe.
"It opens your eyes — not that they aren't open already," Calhoun said. "This is a phenomenal sport. But it's a physical game."
It was a sentiment shared by Northwestern State coach Bradley Dale Peveto.
"I didn't see exactly what happened, but a lot of times early in the season guys don't keep their heads up when they tackle," Peveto said. "When they get their heads down, that's when neck injuries come into play. Usually, when it's a neck injury, they get hit on the top of their head when their neck is down.
"There were a bunch of them tonight, and hopefully they're going to be very short-lived and these kids are going to be healthy again real soon."
The injury to Rembert rattled the Falcons, who were sluggish in the first half against the FCS Demons. He's one of their team leaders and the sight of him on a backboard shocked them.
"Him going down was pretty big," said defensive back Jon Davis, whose team scored 41 unanswered points in the second half to pull away. "But we just had to step it up and keep playing."
-- Pat Graham
Brother of Michigan player takes an amazing walk
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Doctors told Brock Mealer he would be in a wheelchair the rest of his life.
On Saturday, he led the Michigan Wolverines on the field.
"This is the start of a new chapter," he said. "The next chapter is to getting rid of one cane, and getting rid of the next cane."
The brother of offensive lineman Elliott Mealer, Brock used two canes to steady himself and fire up the team and the largest crowd to attend a football game before Michigan went on to rout Connecticut 30-10.
Mealer was told he wouldn't walk again after he and Elliott survived a car accident on Christmas Eve in 2007 that killed their father and Elliott's girlfriend.
"Going into it, I was trying to focus more on the game, but it was definitely emotional," Elliott said. "For him to be able to do that is great, literally a stepping stone for him to continue to push on."
Mealer has endured hours of rehabilitation with the football program's strength and conditioning coaches along with therapists and physicians at the University of Michigan's hospital in a relentless quest to get around on his own two feet.
His friends and family had seen him walk — sometimes on his own or with a cane — but this was different — in front of 113,090 fans at the new-look Big House.
In addition to Elliott, Brock was joined on the field by his brother Blake, and their mother, Shelly, who escaped the accident near Toledo, Ohio, with just bruises after a car driven by a 90-year-old man ran a stop sign.
"It was a touching moment for us because we know the whole story," Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said.
-- Larry Lage
Forcier's dad says his son isn't leaving Michigan
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Tate Forcier's father said his son is not transferring from Michigan.
"That's 150-percent fact," Michael Forcier said in a telephone interview.
Wolverines quarterback Tate Forcier told annarbor.com, "All you need to know is I'm out," after quarterback Denard Robinson led the Wolverines to a 30-10 victory against Connecticut on Saturday.
"Tate was upset he didn't play, then he felt like a caged animal getting prodded by the media," his father said. "There's no way I'm going to be any part of him leaving Michigan. He's going to play this season because there's no way Robinson can keep taking a pounding like that."
Forcier started every game at quarterback last season as a freshman, but wasn't one of two QBs used by coach Rich Rodriguez in the season opener.
Robinson made his debut as a starter and accounted for 383 yards and two touchdowns. Freshman Devin Gardner replaced Robinson when he briefly left the game after getting hit hard.
Michael Forcier said his son was simply frustrated when he stood far away from Rodriguez during the game well behind the sideline.
"I talked to Tate briefly and asked him why he was pouting on the sideline with a towel over his head," he said. "He said he was just trying to get away from the TV cameras that were trying to get him to show some emotion."
-- Larry Lage
Florida CB Jenkins injures elbow in opener
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — No. 4 Florida could be without starting cornerback Moses Jenkins next week against South Florida.
Jenkins injured his left elbow in Saturday's season opener against Miami (Ohio), and coach Urban Meyer says he's not sure how long the senior will be sidelined. Jenkins missed most of last season because of post-concussion symptoms.
Guard James Wilson injured his left knee late against the RedHawks, but Meyer says he should return next week.
Meyer says starting left tackle Xavier Nixon (knee) and tight end Jordan Reed (knee) could be back against the Bulls. The Gators also played the opener without safety Will Hill and guard Carl Johnson. Meyer says they "weren't ready to play."
Boise State's mascot horse reined in for opener
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Boise State officials say a request to allow the team mascot horse to charge onto the field and lead the No. 3 Broncos into Monday's game against No. 10 Virginia Tech has been denied by FedEx Field officials in Landover, Md.
School spokesman Brad Larrondo tells the Idaho Statesman that the team wasn't sure about bringing the mostly white buckskin paint named Willy but inquired anyway.
Larrondo says the school was told that stadium officials consider the field a neutral site and want to keep it as neutral as possible.
Boise State typically has a horse only at home games, but the team was led onto the field by a horse at its two Fiesta Bowl appearances, both victories.
Georgia holds A.J. Green out of opener
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Georgia star receiver A.J. Green is being held out of the Bulldogs' opening game against Louisiana-Lafayette.
Georgia spokesman Claude Felton says Green will miss Saturday's game for the No. 23 Bulldogs pending a ruling from the NCAA clarifying his status.
The NCAA is investigating Georgia amid allegations that players from several schools attended an agent-hosted party in Miami. There have been reports that Green, a junior rated as one of the nation's top receivers, is the target.
Green says he's never been to Miami.
