Rough week for USC, Virginia Tech

National: Boston College quarterback Tyler Murphy, a graduate transfer from Florida, rushed for 191 yards on 13 carries (including the clinching 66-yard touchdown with 3 1/2 minutes left) in a 37-31 home win over ninth-ranked Southern Cal.

Local: Widener's defense, which forced four turnovers and allowed 52 yards rushing on 37 attempts in a 45-3 win at defending MAC champion Lebanaon Valley. The Pride, which forced seven turnovers last week at Rowan, has opened with two road wins for the first time since 1980 under first-year coach Mike Kelly.

This is what can often happen in college football.

USC can go to Stanford and win, and then the next week lose at BC. Virginia Tech, ranked 17th, can win at Ohio State, then lose at home to East Carolina.

It's why there's a Fraud Five, and why every week is a playoff and why so much of it is about emotions.

BC was a 17-point underdog. It gained 506 yards, 452 on the ground. Wonder if Steve Sarkisian was texting Pat Haden about that? The Trojans rushed for 20. Good thing they scored the first 10 points. An unranked BC team hadn't beaten a Top 10 opponent since 2002 (at Notre Dame).

It was Steve Addazio's biggest moment since the 2011 New Mexico Bowl. He awarded game balls to the family of BC alum Welles Crowther, a 9/11 victim/hero who inspired his red bandanna theme. "It meant a lot," the former Temple coach said. "We talked a lot about who he was and what it takes to be a BC man."

The Eagles wore helmets, shoes and gloves decorated in the red bandanna theme, an accessory which Crowther was known for wearing. Addazio had one of the colorful handkerchiefs hanging out of each front pocket.

Meanwhile, in Blacksburg, East Carolina got its first win over a ranked team since 2009, 28-21, on a TD with 16 seconds to go, after the Hokies had tied things just over a minute earlier.

Should we really be surprised?

"I'm not going to make that [suffering a letdown] excuse," said longtime VT coach Frank Beamer, whose team was down by 21 after one quarter. "I thought we were ready."

ECU had lost 10 straight to ACC teams.

We should know by now that most weeks it's merely a matter of who and how.

South Carolina needed a win. Simple as that. And the Gamecocks got it, 38-35 at home over Georgia.

So 2 weeks after being embarrassed at home by Texas A&M, they've at least got a pulse again in the SEC East. And maybe even nationally.

Georgia's Marshall Morgan, who'd made an SEC record 20 consecutive field goals, missed a 28-yarder with 4 1/2 minutes remaining. By inches. Then the other USC went for it on fourth-and-1 from midfield and made it. By the width of the chain marker.

It was Steve Spurrier's 201st victory as an SEC coach, tying him for second with Vince Dooley behind Bear Bryant. He's 16-6 against Georgia, moving him past Auburn's Shug Jordan for most wins against the Dawgs. That includes four of the last five meetings. But the last two times USC beat them (2011 and '12), they went on to win the division.

In what's becoming a trend, the start of this one was delayed nearly 90 minutes because of lightning and severe weather.

Florida won its 28th straight over Kentucky. But this time, the host Gators needed triple-overtime, 36-30. In the first extra period, Jeff Driskel needed to throw a 9-yard TD pass to Demarcus Robinson on fourth-and-7 to extend things.

Two Florida kickers missed field goals in the fourth quarter, including a 52-yarder at the buzzer.

UF still hasn't lost to UK at home since 1979. Now it has to go to Alabama. The last time the Gators went there, in 2010, they lost 31-6.

In case you hadn't already figured much of it out already.

Southern Cal: At least it doesn't have to deal with Oregon until maybe the Pac-12 title game.

Virginia Tech: Just when you thought maybe the Hokes were finally back . . .

Kansas: I don't care who you are, it's never OK to lose 41-3 at Duke.

Louisville: No great sin to lose at Virginia, which hung with UCLA, on a late field goal after trailing by 13. Still, maybe I was expecting more.

Texas Tech: Don't know if you should be losing by 21 at home to Arkansas, and giving up 438 rushing yards (6.4 a carry) and seven TDs.

Florida: Oops, never mind. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

Purdue and Notre Dame have played every year since 1946. Notre Dame won for the seventh straight time, 30-14, in Indianapolis. They won't meet again until 2020. Don't ask. It ain't like missing Michigan.

* UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley, who was a Heisman kind of guy not too long ago, injured his left (non-throwing) elbow in the first quarter of what became a 20-17 win against Texas in Arlington. Third-year sophomore Jerry Neuheisel, son of the former Bruins coach, played the rest of the way. His 33-yard TD pass to Jordan Payton - following a 58-yard punt return - with 3 minutes left was the difference.

* Ohio State, which beat Kent 66-0, has won 39 in a row against in-state schools since a 7-6 loss to Oberlin in 1921. Kent received $850,000 for showing up. Following another bye, the Buckeyes will host Cincinnati on Sept. 27.

* James Conner has rushed for 544 yards, breaking the Pitt record for the first three games of a season set by Tony Dorsett in 1973.

* Virginia has won twice, matching its total from a year ago, when it dropped its last nine.

* Wake Forest rushed for minus-25 yards in a 36-24 loss at Utah State.

* Vanderbilt had to score 14 fourth-quarter points (including a TD on a blocked-punt return) to avoid losing at home to Massachusetts.

* Duke is 3-0 for the first time since 1994. Freshman Shaun Wilson rushed for a school-record 245 yards.

* Mississippi is 3-0 for the fourth time since 1972.

* J.T. Barrett became the first Ohio Stater to pass for 300 yards since Heisman winner Troy Smith did so against Michigan in that 2006 1 vs. 2 matchup of unbeatens.

* Kansas has lost 25 straight on the road, 15 of which have been by at least 20 points.