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...And Then There Was One - Page 2

© Chuck Bednar

Entering the final day of the regular-season, Tennessee was first in the BCS standings. UCLA was second and Kansas State third. With losses by the Wildcats and Bruins, it appears that 11-1 Florida State, ranked fourth in the BCS, will now provide the opposition for the Volunteers.

The official bowl berths were not available as of press time, but a complete bowl preview will be featured next week here at Suite 101, as well as a review of the weekends College Football Awards and Heisman Trophy celebrations.

In other action this weekend...

WAC CHAMPIONSHIP - With Air Force's vaunted option offense shut down by BYU, the Falcons went to the air - using a 59-yard pass play to Matt Farmer late in the fourth quarter Saturday to beat the Cougars 20-13 in the final WAC game for both teams.

Air Force was down 13-7 and the game was all but over when an injured Blane Morgan tossed a short pass to Farmer, who raced untouched down the left side to put Air Force ahead 14-13 with 3:49 left. BYU turned the ball over on downs, allowing the Falcons added another score when Spanky Gilliam ran 29 yards with just over 2:00 left.

But the Cougars still had a chance after a failed conversion. The Falcon defense held, though, and when Kevin Feterik's fourth-down pass failed with 33 seconds left, they had secured the win and their first ever outright WAC Championship.

"It was ironic that we had to win the game on a pass play," Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry told reporters after the game. "They stopped our running game so we had to pass."

MAC CHAMPIONSHIP - Marshall quarterback Chad Pennington, suffering from a groin injury, hit Nate Poole for a 19-yard touchdown pass as the Herd downed Toledo 23-17 on Friday for the Mid-American Conference championship.

Marshall trailed to start the fourth quarter for just the second time this season and managed just 135 yards in offense in the second half. But with their 23-game home winning streak in jeopardy, Pennington needed only 45 seconds to put together a 61-yard drive that put Marshall ahead to stay, 13-10. He hooked up with Jerrald Long for a 42-yard pass play before hitting Poole on a corner pattern with about 14:00 remaining.

"Part of being a quarterback is being a leader at the same time," the Marshall quarterback said afterwards. "I couldn't drop back... but I tried to hang in there."

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