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Monday, September 4, 2000

Associated Press
Ohio State quarterback Steve Bellisari dives over Fresno
State's Marcellus Armstrong during the first quarter of
Saturday's game. Ohio State toppled Fresno State,
43-10, in the season opener for both schools.

Buckeyes,
Cornhuskers whale on
WAC opponents

Rolovich to start at QB
Portland packs wallop
WAC Standings
NFL Islanders

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Staff and wire reports

Western Athletic Conference teams didn't fare too well against some of the top teams in the nation.

San Jose State had the toughest assignment, going up against the No. 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers Saturday.

For Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch, it wasn't much different than fall camp when he was off-limits to tacklers.

The junior quarterback had only eight carries for 57 yards, but San Jose State tacklers couldn't stop him when the Huskers got close to the end zone. Crouch scored on runs of 6, 4 and 9 yards in a 49-13 shelling of the Spartans.

Associated Press
SMU players enter Gerald J. Ford Stadium to face
Kansas on Saturday in Dallas. The game marked
the return of football to the SMU campus after six
years with the completion of the new stadium.

Nebraska wore down the smaller Spartans on an afternoon when it reached 100 degrees by the beginning of the fourth quarter and the temperature on the artificial turf was 120.

The Cornhuskers had 505 rushing yards.

"We pretty much had our way," said Nebraska center Dominic Raiola of Hawaii, a former St. Louis School standout. "We were trying for 350 or more but when you see the numbers going up like that you just don't want to stop."

Ohio State 43, Fresno State 10: No. 16 Ohio State set a school record with 136 yards in penalties and looked sluggish on offense in defeating the defending WAC co-champion Bulldogs.

"We can play better," coach John Cooper said.

David Mitchell's 34-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown came just 21 seconds after teammate Michael Doss plopped on another fumble in the end zone, giving the Buckeyes a 13-0 lead late in the first quarter to set the tone for the rest of the way.

SMU, Rice Triumph: SMU and Rice were the only WAC teams to win.

SMU ripped Kansas 31-17, while Rice edged Houston 30-17 in two overtimes.

There were three other losing WAC teams -- Oregon rolled over Nevada 36-7, North Carolina handled Tulsa 30-9 and Oklahoma routed UTEP 55-14.

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Conference standings

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	Conference				Overall
	W	L	T	PCT.	W	L	T	PCT.	PF	PA
Rice	0	0	0	.000	1	0	0	1.000	30	27
SMU	0	0	0	.000	1	0	0	1.000	31	17
Hawaii	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	1.000	0	0
TCU	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	1.000	0	0
Fresno St.	0	0	0	.000	0	1	0	1.000	10	43
Nevada	0	0	0	.000	0	1	0	1.000	7	36
San Jose St.	0	0	0	.000	0	1	0	1.000	13	49
Tulsa	0	0	0	.000	0	1	0	1.000	9	30
UTEP	0	0	0	.000	0	1	0	1.000	14	55

Last week's results

Ohio St. 43, Fresno St. 10
Nebraska 49, San Jose St. 13
Oregon 36, Nevada 7
North Carolina 30, Tulsa 9
SMU 31, Kansas 17
Oklahoma 55, UTEP 14
Rice 30, Houston 27, 2OT

Coming up Saturday

Portland St. at Hawaii, 6:05 p.m.
Rice at Michigan, 6 a.m.
TCU at Nevada, 10 a.m.
Oklahoma St. at Tulsa, 1 p.m.
Fresno St. at UCLA, 1:30 p.m.
SMU at UTEP, 3 p.m.
San Jose St. at Stanford, 4 p.m.