NCAA Week 9 Observations

• Miami starting QB Jacory Harris was knocked out of the game after being hit while throwing an interception in the second quarter.  They got their first win of the season against a team from a BCS conference. They have also beaten Richmond and VMI of the Championship Subdivision and Eastern Michigan.  Virginia's five interceptions matched its total in the first seven games combined.

• Syracuse has now won 4 true road games in a season for the first time since 1996.  The 6-2 start is their best since 2001, when they finished 10-3 -- the last time they had a winning record.  The Cincinnati loss is  its worst beating at home since a 38-0 loss to West Virginia in 2005.

• Chandler Harnish found Willie Clark with a 21-yard TD pass with 3:42 to play to lift the Huskies to their six straight victory, their longest winning streak since 2004.

•  Marcus Lattimore rushed for 184 yards and a TD as South Carolina won for the fifth time in its last 29 games vs. Tennessee. Lattimore has 13 TDs this season, tied for the fifth-most by a freshman in SEC history. His 13 TDs are three shy of the South Carolina single-season record.  The Gamecocks are 5-0 at home this season. Tennessee is 0-5 in the SEC. It's the first time the Volunteers have lost their first five conference games of a season since 1977. 

• Temple won its 10th straight home game to tie a school record and posted back-to-back shutouts for the first time since blanking Connecticut and Xavier during the 1971 season.

• San Diego State is now eligible for a bowl for the first time since 1998 when the Aztecs played North Carolina in the Las Vegas Bowl. Its six wins this season surpass its win total in any of the last six seasons.

• The loss by Notre Dame gives the current senior class 26 losses, the most in a four-year span at the school since 1900. Tulsa's win over Notre Dame was the Golden Hurricane's 1st over a BCS-AQ team since beating Iowa in 1996.   It was Notre Dame's first loss to a current member of Conference USA since SMU (then a member of the Southwest Conference) beat the Irish in the 1984 Aloha Bowl.  Tulsa's Damaris Johnson returned a punt 59 yards for TD and is 25 yards shy of becoming Conference USA's all-time leader in kickoff return yards. 

• Arizona improved to 7-1 this season and will enter November with fewer than two losses for the first time since 1998.  

• It was the first game between Florida and Georgia with both teams unranked since 1979.  The Gators have won 18 of the last 21 games in the series. The loss snapped Georgia's three-game win streak.  

•   Baylor ended a 12-game losing streak against Texas and won its first game at Texas since 1991.  Baylor QB Robert Griffin III broke the school record for career passing TDs with 39.  Texas has lost three straight home games in a season for the first time since 1997. 

• Stanford beat Washington for the third straight time. That hasn't happened since Stanford won 10 straight from 1967-76.  This was Stanford's first road shutout since beating Oregon 17-0 in 1974.  The Cardinal is 7-1 for the first time since 1970 when they started 8-1. Stanford's defense shut out Washington at home for the first time since 1976