South Roundup : Clemson Wins, 29-10, Accepts Citrus Invitation

Freshman Chris Gardocki kicked 3 field goals--2 after South Carolina fumbles--as 15th-ranked Clemson beat the mistake-prone Gamecocks, 29-10, Saturday at Clemson, S.C., in the regular-season finale for both teams.

After the game, both teams accepted bowl bids. Clemson (9-2) will go to the Citrus Bowl against Oklahoma, which lost to Nebraska, 7-3. South Carolina (8-3) will play in the Liberty Bowl against Indiana.

In front of a record-tying crowd of 84,500 at Clemson, the Tigers used a short passing game to offset the Gamecocks’ blitz and took advantage of 4 turnovers.

Clemson quarterback Rodney Williams had his best game of the season, hitting 13 of 26 passes for 192 yards with no interceptions.

“You can’t let yourself get too excited,” Williams said. “I went at it like any other football game, and I was really relaxed and loose. In the huddle, I think everybody else was.”

Williams’ counterpart, Todd Ellis, continued his late-season slump, hitting just 11 of 30 passes for 142 yards and 1 touchdown. Ellis hit 4 of 17 with 1 interception in the second half.

The Gamecocks, who ended the season by winning just 2 of their final 5 games, fumbled away their chances of victory in the first half. South Carolina fumbled on its first 3 possessions--the first 2 coming after driving to the Clemson 9- and 20-yard lines.

Clemson, which won its third straight Atlantic Coast Conference title last week, finished with 417 yards in total offense. The Gamecocks ended up with 257 yards--the third game in a row they have not gone over 300 yards.

Duke 35, North Carolina 29--Roger Boone, who rushed for 157 yards in 23 carries, bulled up the middle for a 6-yard touchdown with 23 seconds left as the Blue Devils edged the Tar Heels in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Durham, N.C.

The Blue Devils finished the season with a 7-3-1 overall mark and 3-3-1 ACC record, the first time since 1962 that Duke has finished with more than 6 victories. The Tar Heels finished their worst season at 1-10 and 1-6.

It appeared North Carolina had rallied for the victory behind tailback Kennard Martin, who rushed for 291 yards in 39 carries--second best in ACC history.

It was Martin’s 39-yard dash that set up James Thompson’s 5-yard scoring run with 10 minutes left for a 29-28 Tar Heel lead.

But Boone and quarterback Anthony Dilweg, who completed 29 of 49 passes for 362 yards and 3 touchdowns, drove the Blue Devils 57 yards in less than 4 minutes for the winning touchdown.

Dilweg passed UNLV’s Sam King to move into sixth place on the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. single-season passing list with 3,824 yards.

North Carolina St. 14, Pittsburgh 3--Mal Crite and Todd Varn capped two long scoring drives with short touchdown runs and the Wolfpack wrapped up a trip to the Peach Bowl by beating the Panthers in a nonconference game at Raleigh, N.C.

The victory ended N.C. State’s season at 7-3-1, snapped a 3-game winless streak and helped the Wolfpack earn its second bowl trip in 3 seasons under Coach Dick Sheridan. In 1986, the Wolfpack went to the Peach Bowl, where it lost to Virginia Tech.

Pittsburgh fell to 6-4 and had a 4-game winning streak broken. The Panthers were in line for a Gator Bowl bid behind Michigan State if they could beat the Wolfpack and the Spartans lost to Wisconsin.

Virginia 24, Maryland 23--Quarterback Shawn Moore threw for a touchdown and ran for another as the Cavaliers beat the Terrapins in an ACC game at Charlottesville, Va.

Virginia, which had lost 16 straight games to Maryland dating to 1972, did not lock up the victory until the Terrapins failed on a 2-point conversion attempt with 1:09 to play.

The Cavaliers, who won their last 5 games for the second year in a row, wound up 7-4 overall and 5-2 in the ACC.

Maryland, which lost its last 3 games, finished 5-6 and 4-3.

Moore, a redshirt sophomore, rallied the Cavaliers from a pair of deficits and set a Virginia single-season record for total offense with 2,526 yards, breaking the mark of 2,356 set a year ago by his predecessor, Scott Secules.

Memphis State 28, Vanderbilt 9--Rusty Trail threw for a touchdown and ran for another, and Damon Young returned a pass interception 62 yards for a score as the Tigers beat the Commodores in a nonconference game at Memphis, Tenn.

Trail threw a 32-yard scoring pass to Ray Craft in the second quarter for a 14-3 Tiger lead and capped the Memphis State scoring with a 6-yard run with 1:51 to play.

Memphis State, a football independent, finished its season at 6-5, the Tigers’ best record since the 1983 team finished 6-4-1.

The loss left Vanderbilt, a member of the Southeastern Conference, with a 3-7 record.

Tennessee 28, Kentucky 24--Jeff Francis threw 4 touchdown passes to tie a school record as the Volunteers beat the Wildcats in an SEC game at Knoxville, Tenn.

Francis threw touchdown passes of 14 and 6 yards to Thomas Woods, who caught 11 passes for 91 yards. He threw scoring passes of 12 and 19 yards to Alvin Harper as Tennessee won its fourth straight game to improve its record to 4-6, 2-4 in the SEC. Kentucky finished its season 5-6 and 2-5.

Francis’ fourth touchdown pass capped an 11-play, 82-yard drive that gave the Volunteers a 28-14 lead with a minute to go in the third quarter.

That pass also tied a Tennessee single-game record for touchdown passes, last done by Tony Robinson in 1985. And it gave Francis the school single-season record for passing yardage with 2,036, passing Alan Cockrell’s 1982 mark.

Wake Forest 34, Appalachian State 34--Bobby Fuller’s fourth touchdown pass, a 25-yarder to Ritchie Melchor with 1:54 left, and Bjorn Nittmo’s extra-point lifted the Mountaineers into a tie with the Demon Deacons in a nonconference game at Winston-Salem, N.C.

Both teams ended the season at 6-4-1.

Wake Forest took a 21-17 halftime lead behind the running of Anthony Williams, who finished with 139 yards and 3 touchdowns in 21 carries.

Tulane 27, Mississippi St. 22--Terrence Jones passed for 144 yards and 2 touchdowns before he was injured in the first half, and the Green Wave held on to beat the Bulldogs in a nonconference game at New Orleans.

The victory evened Tulane’s record at 5-5 heading into next weekend’s regular-season finale against 11th-ranked Louisiana State.

Mississippi State’s ninth consecutive loss left the Bulldogs at 1-9 entering their last game of the season next Saturday against Mississippi.

Jones’ first-half output of 144 yards passing and 77 rushing yards moved him ahead of Stanford’s John Elway into No. 6 among the NCAA’s all-time yardage leaders. Jones has 9,252 in 4 seasons.

Jones passed 65 yards to Jerome McIntosh for one touchdown and 7 yards to James Toney for another, both in the second period, before leaving the game with a bruised shoulder 2 minutes before halftime.

Jones also set up the Green Wave’s first touchdown with a 52-yard pass to McIntosh to the Mississippi State 2.