Kansas 55, OSM{Florida International} 3

"Alright, I know we're 0-3, and now we have the nation's longest losing streak, and we're just traveled from Miami to Kansas to take on the 3-0 Jayhawks. But we're gonna get the opening kickoff and show 'em what we're made off! Let's go!"

After the kickoff, Florida International had a 1st and 10 at their own 15. Then they completed a pass for no gain, then a rush for a 1 yard loss, and then another rush for a 6 yard loss, and then Kansas blocked a punt for a touchdown. Not good.

Kansas was never really in trouble in this game, but it could have been worse. Florida International turned it over five times, but they did take it away 3 times. Kansas got 615 yards of total offense, but they gave up 255.

Something however must give this week as two of the five winless teams in the Sun Belt Conference. Today, Florida International takes their 16-game losing streak into Murfreesboro to take on Middle Tennessee. MTSU has a 7-game losing streak of its own, but Florida International's last win? December 3, 2005, against the Blue Raiders of MTSU.

San Jose State 23, GGSM{Utah State} 20

Argh, an agonizing loss for Utah State. Hosting another winless team provides a good opportunity to win your first game, and for a little while it seemed that Utah State might just do that. The San Jose State Spartans drew first blood with a first quarter touchdown, although they missed the extra point. In second quarter, SJSU extended this lead to 9-0, but Utah State countered by returning the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown. After another SJSU touchdown, the final three minutes of the second half ended with a flurry of a USU field goal, SJSU interception, USU field goal, SJSU punt, USU interception, and an SJSU missed field goal. Thus, SJSU took a 16-13 lead into the locker room.

After a scoreless third quarter, the Aggies of USU used an 18-play (17 rushes, 1 pass), 92-yard, 8:23 touchdown drive to grab a 20-16 lead. However with 2:01 remaining, SJSU Adam Tafralis led his team down the field and fired a 31-yard touchdown pass to David Richmond to take the 23-20 lead, a lead that was cemented by the onside kick that SJSU successfully executed with a 3 point lead with less than a minute left to play after a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

It was a big day for SJSU's Tafralis. His 35 completions and 426 yards passing were each more than he had gotten in the Spartans three previous games. On the other hand, USU's Leon Jackson III could only manage 78 passing yards. His 11 completions were however more than the number of times he punted (6).

Today, Utah State travels to in-state rival 1-3 Utah.

Miami (FL) 23, OSM{Florida International} 9

This game seemed rather uneventful. No fight. Nothing incredibly inept jumps out. Florida International gave up an 80-yard touchdown pass, but they got a 65-yard touchdown pass.

However, the real problem for the Golden Panthers happened in Chicago, where Duke knocked off Northwestern to end their 22-game losing streak. This means that Florida International's 15-game losing streak is now the nation's longest. Woo-hoo! The Shame Mask is on the longest loser because of Northwestern!

Oklahoma 54, GGSM{Utah State} 3

I think a sign of a rough game is when the starting quarterback completes 9 passes for 65 yards but punts 10 times for 409 yards. This is what happened to Utah State's Leon Jackson against Oklahoma. Backup QB Jase McCormick did complete 6 passes for 22 yards, though.

Utah State did manage to win the time of possession battle 31:39 to 28:21. Of course this was "helped" by a 92-yard touchdown run by Oklahoma freshman DeMarco Murray, a 69-yard touchdown run by Allen Patrick, and a 47-yard interception return for a touchdown by Curtis Lofton. Oklahoma's 617-153 total yardage advantage really helped the Sooners, too.

Tomorrow, though, something must give as San Jose State comes to Logan, UT. Check out these offensive rankings:

Scoring Offense: USU 116th (12.3 points per game), SJSU 119th (5.7 points per game)
Total Offese: USU 116th, SJSU 118th
Rushing yards per game: USU 99th, SJSU 116th
Passing yards per game: SJSU 111th, USU 115th

Maryland 26, OSM{Florida International} 10

The Florida International Golden Panthers' second drive against Maryland went like this: 4-yard rush, 15-yard rush, interception returned for 19 yards. Believe it or not, this is actually an improvement on their drive to start the game, which went: incomplete pass, incomplete pass, incomplete pass, safety.

At least Florida International's offense was balanced. They had 81 yards passing and 82 yards rushing.

But, to their credit, Florida International was only penalized 3 times for a total of 11 yards. On the young season, only 12 teams that have played two games have been penalized fewer times, and only 4 have less penalty yardage.

Next week, the FIU magical misery tour takes them across town to the Orange Bowl for the rematch of last years melee with the University of Miami.

This is not looking to be a good year for FIU's conference, the Sun Belt. The only teams that have not started 0-2 are 0-1 Arkansas State (Saturday's game against Memphis was postponed due to lightning.) and 1-1 Florida Atlantic, but that win was in the only conference game when they beat MTSU. In out-of-conference games, the members of the Sun Belt are a collective 0-13 and have been outscored 580-249. Things are looking up though as Louisiana-Lafayette hosts I-AA McNeese State next week. Other out-of-conference foes include at #2 LSU, at #25 Texas A&M, at Miami, and Troy's home game against Oklahoma State.

Wyoming 32 GGSM{Utah State} 18

It seems that Utah State could have the makings of an interesting season. Down 14-3 midway through the 3rd quarter at Wyoming on Saturday, the Aggies scored 15 points in 1:25 to take a 18-14 lead, only to let it slip away in the fourth quarter. A couple of interesting things stood out to me in the box score:

Utah State did not convert a single third down. They were 0-13. However, they did convert 4 of 5 fourth downs attempts.

Utah State QB Leon Jackson was 17-25 for 147 yards and a touchdown. He also ran the ball 13 times for 28 yards. And he punted 4 times for 186 yards. He was the regular punter during his freshman season, then did not punt his sophomore season before resuming the punting duties last year. He had a 62 yard punt, but his 24 yard punt in the fourth quarter when they had a 18-17 lead gave Wyoming good field position to start the drive on which they took the lead. On the Aggies' following drive, Jackson fumbled and gave Wyoming even better field position for their touchdown that put the game out of reach. Generally it is not a good thing when your quarterback has more yards punting than total yards.

Next week, the Aggies travel to Norman to take on the 3rd ranked Oklahoma Sooners.

Penn State 59, OSM{Florida International} 0

Basically the only good things for Florida International on Saturday were that the players got a trip from Miami to central Pennsylvania and Duke also lost, which means that the Blue Devils' 21-game losing streak still dwarfs the Golden Panthers' 13-game losing streak.

It was the first game as a head coach for FIU's Mario Cristobal, who at age 36 was born during Joe Paterno's sixth season as the head coach at Penn State.

FIU converted only one of their fifteen third downs. They lost five fumbles. They rushed the ball 31 times for minus-3 yards. They completed 12 of 26 passes for 117 yards. They gave up 313 yards and 3 TDs passing and 236 yards and 5 TDs rushing.

Next up for Florida International, the University of Maryland comes to Miami.

UNLV 23, GGSM{Utah State} 16

Ah, college football is back! In places other than Utah State, there is much rejoicing. However, for the Aggies of Utah State, it means they must take the field wearing the Golden Gopher Shame Mask. They kicked of the season on Thursday night by hosting UNLV. After giving up a field goal in the first quarter, Utah State rallied in the second quarter to take a 10-3 lead into the locker room at halftime. The UNLV halftime speech proved to be more inspiring when the Rebels used two third quarter field goals and a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to take a 16-10 lead.

However, UNLV's next possession ended with a fumble, and then 6 plays and 34 yards later, quarterback Leon Jackson's 1 yard touchdown run tied the game for Utah State. I say tied because they missed the extra point.

UNLV played field position on their next drive, pinning Utah State at their own 2 yard line. Unable to move the ball, the Aggies punted out of their own end zone giving UNLV a first down at the Utah State 36 with 3:03 left on the clock. Six plays later, UNLV got an 11-yard touchdown run to take a 23-16 lead.

Can Utah State pull out the miraculous last minute comeback drive? Not after fumbling the kickoff. UNLV recovered and ran out the clock.

Next up for Utah State, at Wyoming.