No. 2 Appalachian State beat Western Carolina 35-10.

The Mountaineers won comfortably without quarterback Armanti Edwards, out with a bruised hip, Tommy Bowman writes.

Appalachian State held the Old Mountain Jug for the fourth straight year, outscoring Western Carolina 28-0 in the second half, Tyler Norris Goode writes.

No. 9 Wofford beat No. 20 Furman 35-10.

Wofford walloped Furman by keeping them off balance with their wishbone and beating them deep on occasion, Willie T. Smith III writes.

Wofford will be in the FCS playoffs. After beating Furman, the Terriers played Christmas music in the locker room, Todd Shanesy writes.

The Terriers remained kings of fourth down conversions, while Furman was not, Mandrallius Robinson writes.

No. 12 Elon lost to No. 22 Liberty 26-3.

“Finish” has become Elon’s motto this season, but they forgot to against Liberty, Adam Smith writes.

The Flames consumed the Phoenix, burning away any remaining hope for an at-large bid, reports the Greensboro News-Record.

Samford beat Chattanooga 30-7.

Chattanooga’s Rodney Allison lost his last game as head coach to Samford, ending a long, miserable season for Chattanooga, John Frierson writes. Allison also lost his first game as head coach to Samford six years ago.

The Citadel lost to No. 4 Florida, 70-19.

The Bulldogs tried to prepare to play in The Swamp, but the Gators’ jaws this year are hard to simulate, Jeff Hartsell writes. It could’ve been Tim Tebow’s last home game at Florida.

1. Winners, not losers: Success. Samford handled the 1-11 Mocs. The win allows the Bulldogs to feel good about their progress going into the offseason with their first winning record since 2003. After a combined 3-13 record in the Ohio Valley the past two years, a fifth-place finish in the SoCon isn’t bad. Samford finished ahead of Chattanooga, Western Carolina, The Citadel and Georgia Southern.

2. Retrack Evans: Success. Evans gained 134 yards and scored three touchdowns and now holds the Samford single-season rushing record with 1,284 yards, breaking Surkano Edwards’ record of 1,270 set in 1992.

3. Spread it out: Limited success. Not a ton of balance for Samford’s offense in this one. Dustin Taliaferro completed passes to eight players, including receivers, running backs and tight ends. DeMarcus Covington (two catches, 23 yards) was the only receiver with more than one reception. Samford didn’t need to spread it around — the Bulldogs won by collecting turnovers and bulling the Mocs with their jumbo package of three tight ends and a fullback blocking for Evans.

4. Celebrate seniors: Success. Head coach Pat Sullivan made it a point to expound on each one of the seniors in a pregame radio interview and then got them time in the game. Marcus Rice had six carries and Adrian Bradley played a crucial role in the aforementioned jumbo package and also caught a pass.

5. Take off the dog collar: Limited success. Samford let Taliaferro throw deep and early — he completed a 65-yard touchdown to Riley Hawkins on his first throw — and then nearly threw an interception, got sacked and fumbled. After that Samford re-chained the freshman, resorting to screens and short routes that turned out effective.

1. Winners, not losers: Beat the 1-10 Mocs and Samford secures its first winning season since 2003. Lose, and Samford ends the fifth straight losing season with a collapse. Last week’s game against No. 9 Wofford turned into a disaster. A loss at Chattanooga negates most of head coach Pat Sullivan’s progress.

2. Retrack Evans: Wofford and Furman both found ways to derail running back Chris Evans in the past four games. Evans, the SoCon’s leading rusher, sits at 1,150 yards for the season. He won’t reach the offensive line’s goal of 1,500, but 1,300 should be about right if they do their job against Chattanooga.

3. Spread it out: Samford’s had success at times going to Jonathan Lowery downfield and Riley Hawkins and Brock Johnson in multiple ways, but lately the offense has become fixated on a game-by-game basis with one play grouping. The Bulldogs need to show they can return to balance with their non-Evans options.

4. Celebrate seniors: Sullivan said he wants to give his seniors a good last memory. One way to do that? Get a comfortable lead and make sure to play all your healthy ones — guys like Adrian Bradley and Marcus Rice. It shouldn’t be hard — with Dante Williams sidelined the entire year because of a torn ACL, there’s nine seniors that dress. With Chattanooga’s average margin of -25.3 points a game, that shouldn’t be too much to ask.

5. Take off the dog collar: True freshman quarterback Dustin Taliaferro’s the second-most efficient quarterback in the SoCon behind Armanti Edwards. Taliaferro has played well despite certain inconsistencies — flustered by the blitz early, forcing too many passes at times and limiting big plays by soft-tossing to open receivers — but he’s succeeded in part because Samford’s put him in managable situations. If the Bulldogs want to make it back to the FCS playoffs, Taliaferro’s going to have to win more games with his arm. Early on, I’d like to see Samford test him more liberally.

Prediction

Samford 35, Chattanooga 13

I’m 10-0 for the season, so this is it — can I get a spot in the BCS title game if I get this one right? Not that it’s been hard. The score hasn’t always followed suit, but the outcome’s been by the book. This one should be as well. Samford’s experienced too much misery over the past few years to be thinking about Thanksgiving turkey just yet.

The Sports Network

1. James Madison
2. Appalachian State
3. Cal Poly
4. Northern Iowa
5. Montana
6. Villanova
7. Richmond
8. Weber State
9. Wofford
10. Southern Illinois
11. New Hampshire
12. Elon
13. Central Arkansas
14. McNeese State
15. South Carolina State
16. William & Mary
17. Maine
18. Tennessee-Martin
19. Harvard
20. Furman
21. Colgate
22. Liberty
23. Western Illinois
24. Jacksonville State
25. Tennessee State

Coaches Poll

1. James Madison
2. Appalachian State
3. Cal Poly
4. Northern Iowa
5. Montana
6. Richmond
7. Villanova
8. Weber State
9. Southern Illinois
10. Wofford
11. New Hampshire
12. Central Arkansas
13. McNeese State
14. Elon
15. South Carolina State
16. Harvard
17. Maine
18. Tennessee-Martin
19. William & Mary
20. Liberty
21. Jacksonville State
22. Colgate
23. Furman
24. North Dakota State
25. Tennessee State

No. 2 Appalachian State beat No. 11 Elon 24-16.

Appalachian State secured the conference’s automatic birth with a win over Elon and can clinch the title outright next week, Tommy Bowman writes.

Elon shocked the Mountaineers by holding them to 24 points, David Scott writes.

The frigid weather added to the atmosphere, Adam Smith writes. “With the wind whipping a mix of rain and snow off the surrounding mountaintops and nearly 25,000 fans roaring right along, the scene that framed this championship clash took on an especially classic atmosphere.”

No. 9 Wofford beat Samford 28-7.

Samford’s big offensive line couldn’t get any push against Wofford, Todd Shanesy writes. Wofford went for it nine times on fourth down. Also, Wofford knew Samford was going to try an onside kick.

The Terriers held the ball for nearly 45 minutes and ran Samford over, David Morrison writes.

Georgia Southern beat No. 14 Furman 17-10.

Furman’s loss ended any chance at making the playoffs, Willie T. Smith III writes.

The Citadel beat Chattanooga 24-21.

A late comeback win over the Mocs would’ve been a pleasant ending, but The Citadel has to travel to The Swamp and play Florida next week.

Chattanooga was happy to be competitive, John Frierson writes. “It was fun to be in it and be playing for a win late in the fourth quarter,” Mocs coach Rodney Allison said.

When I ran track at Hoover High School and again at Samford, that’s what my teammates and I dubbed the last few minutes of inactivity before the gun went off. In between warming up and some last-minute strides, we’d lay down with our feet elevated for a few brief minutes, embracing the silence.

That’s what this past weekend felt like in college football. No top-10 team lost, the only close game going No. 10 Georgia’s way 17-13 over Auburn. Then again, there may not be a storm of upsets this year with two weeks left in the regular season — at least not one as ferocious and damaging as last year’s.

Here are the 10 most important things that happened in college football this past weekend, in my opinion:

1. Florida favored: Little by little, reporters and prognosticators have recognized Florida’s brilliance. I felt lonely on Oct. 12 when I said they were the best team in the country, but with each blowout win they gain more endorsements. Despite fumbling away a perfect season to Ole Miss, the Florida Gators are now favorites to beat Alabama in the SEC Championship game and win their second BCS title in three years.

2. Tech’ed: The entire Big 12 is about to be had by Texas Tech. Remember asking yourself every year, “How good would Hawaii or Texas Tech be if they played some semblance of defense?” Well, this 2008 Red Raiders team is your answer. They’ll get one last, difficult challenge at Oklahoma this Saturday that would lock up a spot in the Big 12 Championship game.

3. Trojan boredom: Seems like USC’s built such high expectations that they’re bored once they lose one game, because ‘this season doesn’t mean anything any more.’ They may be the most talented team in the country, particularly on defense, but right now they’re not even a lock for an at-large BCS bid. They toyed with Stanford too long Saturday, and thanks to their loss to Oregon State, the Beavers are in line to win the Pac 10 championship.

4. Utah lingers: The Utes have a big’un this Saturday against BYU — if the Cougars hadn’t los to TCU, this would be a game between two top-10 teams. As it stands, Utah wins and they’re in a BCS game as an at-large. How do you think Alabama, Texas or Florida will feel if their reward for a near-national championship season is a chance to lose to a team from the Mountain West?

5. Bengal Tigers nearly stunned: LSU woke up Saturday night and found themselves trailing 31-3 to Troy late in the third quarter. What followed: a 37-point rampage in the final 16:26 to give the Tigers a two-score win a week after dropping a heartbreaker to Nick Saban.

6. Bama’s got a finger: You think Tide fans will be fired up when Auburn comes to Tuscaloosa in two weeks? The buildup starts now. Tommy Tuberville’s won six straight games and would love nothing more to subdue his critics with a win over No. 1 Alabama, whose classy fans may have a certain finger in mind for Auburn should they start their own streak.

7. Topsy turvy…less: The calm Week 12 belies a few more chances at disaster for the nation’s top teams, but this time last year No. 2 Oregon lost Dennis Dixon for the year as they fell to Arizona and No. 4 Oklahoma lost to — guess who? — Texas Tech.

8. East coast pileup: Maryland and Miami (FL) lead the ACC at 4-2, but there are seven other teams within a game in the standings. We could have a team with three conference losses and four overall securing an automatic BCS birth. As if we need any more evidence for an eight-team playoff…

9. Big East floundering: …wait, that’s right! There’s a conference worse than the ACC! Tune in Saturday to watch Cincinnati and Pittsburgh play for a grand prize! Which is… drumroll please… a BCS game against Maryland or Miami! Wow, that ought to get the conference all kinds of positive attention.

10. Doomsday trifecta: Which three BCS teams are a combined 11-21 this year? Wave to the crowd, Rich Rodriguez, Tommy Tuberville and Phil Fulmer! Oh wait… Fulmer’s already gone. Yeesh. Not a good year for Michigan, Auburn or Tennessee, none of which will qualify for a bowl game unless the Tigers upset Alabama.

Here’s how they did on the five goals I set for them before the game:

1. Line up: Failure. Wofford ran the ball 73 times for 349 yards, forcing Samford’s defense to play 24:55 in the first half. The defensive line looked off balance and confused for the better part of three quarters.

2. Managing ain’t negative: Push. Hard to say how Dustin Taliaferro did here — Samford fell behind too far for Taliaferro to stay in game-managing mode. He made plays with his legs and found Riley Hawkins downfield for a touchdown, but the biggest question is why did he attempt just two passes in the first half with Wofford bottling up Samford’s offense?

3. Strength against strength: Failure. Wofford outrushed Samford 349 to 56. Chris Evans rushed for 43 yards and got nothing after halftime.

4. Confidence a must: Push. Samford came out flat for the second straight home game, though it’s difficult to judge where they were confidence-wise. They never waived a white flag in the second half and sounded disappointed but not self-doubting after the game.

5. Kick ‘em high: Push. John Paul Fraites never had a chance to kick a field goal and made good on his lone extra point attempt.

If the Bulldogs draped defenders on the up-back, Wofford optioned toward the sideline. If Samford crept both safeties up, Wofford threw over their heads. Whatever Samford tried, the Fighting Terriers countered, gaining 468 yards of total offense in a 28-7 win.

Upsetting. Frustrating. Disappointing. These are the words Samford’s players used to describe their least-competitive game all season.

“They were doing the same stuff we saw in practice. It was just a matter of stopping it,” said Bryce Smith, who led Samford with 12 tackles. ”At the beginning of the game it was really hard to keep up.”

Wofford scored three touchdowns before Samford got a first down, starting with a 17-play, 93-yard drive in the first quarter. The Fighting Terriers ran for 82 yards on the drive, eclipsing the 79 yards per game Samford’s defense allows on their first possession.

Wofford ran plays out of several formations, including a triple stack backfield, optioning and running draw plays and misdirections and quarterback keepers. Samford’s defense tackled two and three players on many plays, unsure who had the football. That kind of dominance allowed Wofford to hold the ball for 44:53, a rousing advantage against what had been the SoCon’s best team in time of possession. Samford held the ball for 5:05 in the entire first half.

“We weren’t helping our defense at all going three-and-out every possession. It made it real hard on them,” quarterback Dustin Taliaferro said. “We had to change our game plan up being down 21 points. With them running the ball like they did and sustaining the clock, we had to pass it more and try to move it down the field.”

Taliaferro threw two passes for minus-one yard in the first half. Chris Evans gained 41 yards on nine carries in the half but Samford didn’t throw downfield until it was too late.

Taliaferro found Riley Hawkins on a go route for a 53-yard touchdown late in the third quarter as Samford avoided a shutout. Taliaferro carried the ball 10 times for a net of 14 yards, scrambling for a few of Samford’s nine first downs. DeMarcus Covington led the receivers with four catches for 49 yards.

Wofford’s offense converted 5-of-9 times on fourth down, keeping alive several scoring drives and delivering blow after blow to the defenses’ psyche.

“The type of offense they run, they had confidence in themselves to go for it. We just didn’t make the play to stop them,” Rodney Shepherd said.

Samford (5-5, 3-4 SoCon) has lost to all four ranked FCS opponents, but played competitively in every game before Saturday. It was a bittersweet last home game for the 11 seniors that have endured some difficult seasons.

“I don’t know if it’s necessarily a step backwards. It might be a standstill,” offensive tackle Mitchell Waters said. ”But if you don’t get better every day, you might as well have taken a step back. There’s a lot of lessons to be learned from this game for football and for life. We have to respond to this, have a short-term memory, learn from it and come out next week with a big win.”

Samford has a chance at a winning season next Saturday at Chattanooga, while No. 9 Wofford (8-2, 6-1) is a near-lock to make the playoffs if they beat Furman.

Samford played their worst half of football to date against Wofford as the Fighting Terriers are embarrassing the Bulldogs. Wofford’s vaunted rushing offense had Samford thoroughly baffled, tackling players that didn’t have the football, getting blown off the line and doing a poor job of protecting the edge.

Samford’s offense didn’t help, gaining two first downs on five first-half possessions. The players look beaten; the emotion and fight present well into the second quarter seemed to leave after Wofford ran for 14 yards on fourth-and-5.

Wofford hasn’t kicked a field goal or punted, electing to go for it on four fourth downs. Samford’s only stop came on a bizarre fake field goal at the end of the half on fourth-and-11 from the Samford 21.

Some telling stats:

• Wofford outgained Samford, rushing for 213 yards to 49
• Wofford gained 271 yards of total offense to 48 for Samford
• Wofford held the ball for 19:38 compared to 5:05 for the Bulldogs
• Wofford nearly boasted two 100-yard rushers in the first half. Dane Romero gained 101 yards on 19 carries and Mike Rucker gained 90 yards on nine carries.

Wofford’s rushed for over 330 yards in seven games and have scored three or more rushing touchdowns against every FCS team they’ve played this season. Samford’s allowed two FCS teams to rush for over 100 yards. Appalachian State tops that short list with 121.

Here are my five goals for the Bulldogs against Wofford:

1. Line up: Samford’s improved in a number of areas under head coach Pat Sullivan, but the defensive line’s made the biggest leap this season. That could all come crashing down Saturday against the nation’s top rushing offense (346 ypg, 36 TDs). Wofford’s big across the line (300, 325, 270, 322, 303), but equally as important for leverage, they’re tall (6-3, 6-5, 6-4, 6-3, 6-6). Mark Brown and Patrick Hatcher have led Samford to the SoCon’s top rushing defense, allowing 79.1 ypg, and they’ll have to man up to stop Wofford and three of the SoCon’s top 10 rushers. But they can’t penetrate too much, or Wofford’s option will slide right past them on the edge.

2. Managing ain’t negative: Dustin Taliaferro ranks second in the conference in passing efficiency, behind only Armanti Edwards. Not bad for a true freshman that was playing high school football this time last year, as Sullivan’s fond of saying. Taliaferro must remain efficient in this one even if Samford gets down a couple scores in the second half.

3. Strength against strength: The best way to stop the Fighting Terriers’ rushing game? A steady dose of Chris Evans. Problem is, Evans faces the second-best rushing defense (you think the trenches matter in this one?). Against Furman, the fourth-best in the SoCon, Evans managed just 68 yards and Samford had to break two long touchdown passes to nearly force overtime. The offensive line can’t let Wofford get Evans in the backfield.

4. Confidence a must: Samford’s players need to believe they can win a close game against a ranked opponent. They haven’t looked meek, jumping Appalachian State early, but the Bulldogs looked flat for a long time against Furman and couldn’t finish a furious fourth-quarter comeback. Samford needs to own the mindset that they’re the team to beat on their home field.

5. Kick ‘em high: John Paul Fraites has got to get his kicks up in the air. His low trajectory likely cost the Bulldogs a chance at overtime against Furman when his second extra-point try got blocked. Fraites also needs to be more accurate. He missed the first extra-point against Furman but got another chance because of an offsides penalty. The redshirt sophomore’s made just 3-of-7 field goals and 26-of-28 extra points after making 9-of-9 and 38-of-39 as a high school senior.

Prediction:

Samford may be 5-4, but I’m a perfect 9-0 picking the outcome of their games this season. There’s one place I have a goose egg though: I’ve gotten close to the actual final score but never hit it. We’ll see if both those streaks continue this week.

The Fighting Terriers do a better job enforcing their will on offense and slowing Evans than Samford does at both, beating Samford 28-13 at Seibert Stadium.