SPOTLIGHT / SATURDAY’S GAMES AT A GLANCE : NOTEWORTHY

Washington State’s Jason Hanson kicked a 62-yard field goal in a 40-13 victory over Nevada Las Vegas. The field goal was the longest in NCAA history without a tee. The record with a tee is 67 yards, first by Russell Erxleben of Texas in 1977, matched later that year by Steve Little of Arkansas and again by Joe Williams of Wichita State in 1978.

Florida’s Shane Matthews, a junior, passed for more than 300 yards for a school-record seventh time in the Gators’ 29-7 victory over Mississippi State. He finished with 322 yards.

Greg Primus set a Colorado State record with 256 receiving yards in the Rams’ 28-16 victory over Hawaii. He caught 10 passes and scored two touchdowns. The previous record of 219 yards was set by Jeff Champine against Northern Colorado in 1983.

Cal State Fullerton is 0-6 in games against Southeastern Conference schools, but at least the Titans made a respectable showing against Georgia, losing, 27-14. Fullerton had been outscored by SEC teams, 233-45. Reggie Yarbrough was one reason Fullerton stayed in the game. He had a school-record 43 carries for 192 yards and a touchdown.

Penn State intercepted passes by Boston College quarterback Glenn Foley five times, three by Darren Perry, in a 28-21 victory. Penn State turned three of the interceptions into touchdowns and beat Boston College for the 19th time in 20 games. Mark Chmura broke the Boston College receiving record of 139 catches, set by Tom Waddle from 1985 to 1989. Chmura caught seven passes for 118 yards and has 142 catches.

Tommy Vardell (114 yards in 29 carries) and Glyn Milburn (106 yards in nine) were the first two Stanford runners to surpass 100 yards in the same game since Brad Muster and Thomas Henley against California in 1984. The Cardinal upset No. 17 Colorado, 28-21.

Quarterback Tony Lowery broke the Wisconsin record for longest touchdown pass with an 89-yard play to Lee DeRamus in a 21-6 victory over Eastern Michigan. The Badger defense extended its streak of not allowing a touchdown to 10 consecutive quarters. Wisconsin (3-0) goes into its Big Ten opener next week at Ohio State undefeated for the first time since 1985. The loss was Eastern Michigan’s 13th in a row.

East Carolina’s 31-20 victory over South Carolina was the Pirates’ first over the Gamecocks in a nine-game series dating to 1977.

Kansas State’s Michael Smith caught 12 passes for 174 yards in a 56-3 loss to Washington. He has 2,032 receiving yards, breaking the Kansas State record of 1,904 set by Dave Jones from 1967-68. Washington’s Beno Bryant scored on a 53-yard punt return for a touchdown, the fourth of his career to tie the Pacific 10 Conference record set by UCLA’s Sam Brown from 1953 to 1955. Bryant’s punt return yardage of 770 yards is a school record, breaking the mark of 704 set by Steve Bramwell.

AIR SOONER

This was supposed to be the season Oklahoma opened up its offense, but in the Sooners’ first two games, they threw a total of 32 passes. That might be prolific at Oklahoma, but many teams throw that many in one half. Saturday against Virginia Tech, Sooner quarterback Cale Gundy did his best Ty Detmer imitation. In a 27-17 victory, Gundy threw 31 passes to tie a school record and completed 18 to break the Sooner mark. He passed for 235 yards, 11 short of the school mark. “Oklahoma was a lot better at throwing the football than we thought they might be,” Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer said.

PULLING OUT THE STOPS

No. 1 Florida State used two trick plays on one first-quarter drive to help beat No. 3 Michigan, 51-31. Quarterback Casey Weldon took a quick drop, then threw the ball straight across the field to third-string quarterback Charlie Ward. Ward passed it back to Weldon, who ran 29 yards to the Michigan 11.

With the ball at the four and 7:36 left in the quarter, the Seminoles set up for a field goal. Brad Johnson, a backup quarterback who holds on kicks, took the snap and shoveled the ball to William Floyd, who scored to give Florida state a 13-7 lead.

It was the most points ever scored against Michigan at home and the second most in a Michigan game in more than a century, topped only by Northwestern’s 55-24 victory in 1958.

STREAKS

Virginia quarterback Matt Blundin, who had sat out the previous two games because of an infection in his throwing elbow, completed 14 straight passes in a 34-3 victory over Duke. . . . Florida State extended the nation’s longest Division I winning streak to 10 and ended Michigan’s winning streak at eight. . . . Notre Dame’s 45-20 victory over Purdue was its sixth in a row over the Boilermakers and 16th in 17 games against Big Ten teams. . . . Northwestern’s 41-14 victory over Wake Forest ended an eight-game losing streak. . . . Southern Methodist’s 45-7 loss to Baylor was its 13th in a row. . . . New Mexico’s 17-10 victory over New Mexico State ended a 10-game losing streak.

BIG PLAYS

Ty Stewart kicked a 40-yard field goal with 32 seconds to play to give Iowa State a 28-27 victory over Rice. The Cyclones scored 11 points in the final 1:18. Senior Chris Pedersen, who had lost his starting job to sophomore Bob Utter, came back and threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Paul Schulte, then ran for the two-point conversion to cut Rice’s lead to 27-25. Iowa State recovered an onside kick, then moved into field-goal range.

Phil Johnson threw a two-yard touchdown pass to Byron Chamberlain with 24 seconds to play and then ran for a two-point conversion to lift Missouri to a 27-27 tie with Indiana.

Myreon Williams, a split end who had never played quarterback at Army, scored on a three-yard run with 1:06 left to give the Cadets a 21-20 victory over Harvard. He replaced injured quarterback Willie McMillian in the third quarter and brought the Cadets back from a 20-7 deficit.

NEVER SAY DIE

Central Michigan tied Toledo, 16-16, on Chuck Selinger’s 22-yard field goal with eight seconds to play. The Chippewas (3-0-2), who opened the season with a 20-3 victory over Michigan State, beat Southwest Louisiana, 27-24, on a field goal with no time left and Akron, 31-29, on a field goal with three seconds to play. The Chippewas tied Ohio University, 17-17, on a touchdown and extra-point with no time left.

IN QUOTES

Florida State cornerback Terrell Buckley, after a 51-31 victory over No. 3 Michigan: “I don’t think there should be any doubt about who’s No. 1. If there are still any doubters, they should go have their heads examined by a shrink.”

Purdue Coach Jim Colletto said the Boilermakers’ 45-20 loss to Notre Dame was as much a function of his team’s ineptness (10 turnovers in two games) as the Fighting Irish’s skill: “You just can’t keep handing the ball to teams . And on stupid things, it’s not like anybody got hit hard . . . . Those are inexcusable mistakes.”

Wyoming Coach Joe Tiller, after Derek Palmer mishandled a snap on a field-goal attempt that left the Cowboys and Texas El Paso in a 28-28 tie: “We had control of the game and let it go . Some of the worst words are ‘could have,’ ‘would have’ and ‘should have.’ Our turnovers and missed plays let the game slip away.”

Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, whose Nittany Lions had to battle to beat Boston College, 28-21 : “I’m not in the mood to pat anybody on the back. They wanted it more than we did , and we were lucky they didn’t get it.”

TOUGH HABIT TO KICK

Nebraska sophomore kicker Byron Bennett had an awful night in an 18-9 victory over Arizona State. He missed two field-goal attempts when the ball bounced off the upright, missed another wide right and had another attempt blocked. Arizona State also blocked one of his extra-point attempts in the first quarter, though the ball was recovered in the end zone for two points by Nebraska’s William Washington. Bennett did manage one 28-yard field goal.