Some College Football Gems

September 15, 2011 - Here are some of this week’s college football gems…

The #1 Oklahoma Sooners meet the #5 Florida State Seminoles for the sixth time and the first time in Tallahassee.  Oklahoma leads the series 5-1.  Florida State won the first meeting in the Gator Bowl in 1965 and lost the rest, including three Orange Bowl appearances, 1980, 1981, and the 2001 BCS Championship.  Neither has ever shut out the other.

#3 LSU faces #25 Mississippi State in Starkville.  LSU leads the series 66-35-3.  The Tigers haven’t lost to the Bulldogs since Gerry DiNardo was LSU’s head coach in 1999.  LSU is 18-1 against Mississippi State since 1992.  Here’s another gem:  Of their first 16 games, between 1896-1919, 14 of those games were shutouts.  LSU led 8-6-2 for that period.

The #6 Stanford Cardinal go to Arizona Stadium to take on the Arizona Wildcats.  The Wildcats lead the all-time series 14-12.  Between 1991-98, Arizona won 6 straight over the Cardinal.  Even the great John Elway struggled against the Wildcats.  Arizona won the 1982 meeting 41-27.

Tulsa hosts #8 Oklahoma State this week.  Oklahoma State leads the series 39-27-5.  The Cowboys have won four straight over the Hurricane since 1999.  A gem from this series is when Oklahoma State beat Tulsa at home 1-0 in 1922.  In 1944, both teams broke 40 when the Cowboys won 46-40.

The #15 Michigan State Spartans visit the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  Notre Dame leads the series 45-28-1.  After losing 8 straight to Notre Dame between 1987-94, Michigan State has gone 10-4 since then.  Here are a couple of gems: In the first 17 games in the series, between 1897-1949, the Irish are 15-2.  Of those games, 13 were shutouts, including one of the two Spartan wins.  The other gem is they played each other today in 1984.  Notre Dame won 24-20.

The Tennessee Volunteers go the The Swamp to face the #16 Florida Gators.  Florida leads the series 21-19 and has won the last 6 games.  The Vols got most of their wins against the Gators in the beginning.  Tennessee won 13 of the first 15 games over Florida between 1916-71.  Today in 2007, the Gators spanked the Vols 59-20.

#19 Baylor hosts Stephen F. Austin State for the first time since 1947.  The Bears are undefeated in the series 3-0 and have hosted all three meetings, including an 88-0 drubbing in 1929.  The Lumberjacks have never scored on Baylor.

In a battle of the Tigers, #21 Auburn visits Clemson in Death Valley in Memorial Stadium.  Tigers?  Death Valley?  Visiting Tigers in Death Valley is nothing new to Auburn, having to face LSU in Baton Rouge every other year.  Auburn leads the series 34-11-2 and won the last 14 games since 1952.  Auburn has shut out Clemson 20 times in the series and shut them out 10 straight times between 1913-24.