The biggest portal begins to open up for the Trojans

Confetti from a college football weekend.

USC 48, UCLA 45

— He was one of the hotter recruits Clay Helton brought to USC, and also one of the bigger disappointments. This year Korey Foreman had played in eight games and made 12 tackles. But he grabbed a new identity with the interception that cinched the Trojans’ 48-45 win at UCLA, pushed their record to 10-1, and put them in the Pac-12 championship game.

– It was the third time USC had intercepted Dorian Thompson-Robinson, the gallant UCLA quarterback. Caleb Williams won that position battle handily by throwing for 470 yards and two touchdowns, and Austin Jones filled in well for Travis Dye with 120 yards rushing. The Bruins turned it over four times, held the ball for only 24:40, and are 8-3 with a trip to Cal Friday – only their fourth road game.

– Just as Williams rises up the Heisman Trophy board, the Traveling Wilburys now have a plausible path to their first College Football Playoff appearance. Tennessee’s loss removes one contender, and if the Trojans beat Notre Dame and win the league title game, their main competition will be the Michigan-Ohio State loser and LSU, but only if the Tigers upset Georgia in the SEC championship.

SOUTH CAROLINA 63, TENNESSEE 38

– USC coach Lincoln Riley got help from another quarterback he coached. South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, who, like Williams, transferred from Oklahoma, lit up fifth-ranked Tennesee with 438 yards and six touchdown passes, and boosted the Gamecocks’ record to 7-4.

– Rattler also caught a touchdown pass in his breakthrough game, and South Carolina rolled up 606 yards. Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker, considered a Heisman favorite just three weeks ago, exited with a leg injury in the fourth quarter, long after the Vols’ defense had been riddled.

– Tennessee (9-2) had only lost to Georgia, but now must wonder if it can take care of Vanderbilt next week, after the Commodores knocked off Florida. It gave up touchdowns on nine of South Carolina’s 10 legitimate drives, and had never given up 63 points in an SEC game before.

TCU 29, BAYLOR 28

– The Horned Frogs have forgotten how to lose. They trailed Baylor 28-20 with 9:47 left, but scored at the end of a 90-yard, 11-play drive with 2:07 left. A 2-point conversion attempt failed, so TCU ran through all its time outs, stopped QB Blake Shapen after an 8-yard gain on third-and-10, and got it back with 1:34 left. Max Duggan converted a third-and-1 to get into position, and the Frogs scrambled into positon with the clock expiring to give Griffin Kell a shot at a 24-yard field goal, which he made.

– With star receiver Quentin Johnston out (ankle), senior Taye Barber rose to catch five passes for 108 yards. That’s not unusual for a team that regularly wipes out double-digit deficits in the second half and is now 11-0.

– TCU plays Iowa State in Fort Worth next week but is already in the Big 12 championship game. Kansas State can be the opponent if it beats Kansas Saturday, or if Baylor beats Texas Friday.

MICHIGAN 19, ILLINOIS 17

– The Wolverines (11-0) kept their date with Ohio State next week in Columbus but it didn’t look good at the end of the third quarter, when they couldn’t stop Illinois running star Chase Brown, and their own featured back, Blake Corum, was out with a knee. But Jake Moody kicked three field goals in the fourth quarter, including the winner with :09 left.

– The Illini (7-4) was stopped on fourth and 8 at the Michigan 33 with 8:06 left, enabling the second of Moody’s late field goals. A holding penalty forced Illinois to punt it away with 2:15 left, and J.J. McCarthy saved Michigan with a fourth-down completion to Isaac Gash, to the Illinois 37. Michigan was 3-for-4 on fourth down and Illinois 0-for-2, which might have made the difference.

– Illinois coach Bret Bielema lost his mother, Marilyn, two days before the game. Brown, perhaps the most consistent runner in the nation, ran 29 times for 140 yards and two touchdowns, but his team fell a game behind Iowa and Purdue, the co-leaders of the Big Ten West. Purdue wraps it up if it beats Indiana.

.OHIO STATE 43, MARYLAND 30

– The second-ranked Buckeyes couldn’t shake Maryland (6-5) until the very end in College Park. They only led 36-30 until Zach Harrison’s two sacks of Taulia Tagovailoa, who fumbled to Ohio State’s Steele Chambers at the end of the second one. Chambers stepped into the end zone to wrap it up.

– Maryland outgained Ohio State 402-401 and Tagovailoa became the Terps’ alltime passing leader by going 26 for 36 with 293 yards. But the Buckeyes, savaged by running back injuries, got 27 carries and 146 yards from freshman Daylen Hayden, who also scored three touchdowns.

– The winner of Saturday’s crucible in the Horseshoe will go to the College Football Playoff if it also wins the Big 10 championship. The loser is shut out of the game but still could squeeze into the playoff depending on the margin of defeat Saturday, and some less controllable circumstances.

GEORGIA TECH 21, NORTH CAROLINA 17

– There is no Substitute Teacher of the Year Award, but Tech’s Brent Key would be the runaway winner. The Yellow Jackets were 1-3 when Geoff Collins was fired, and they are 4-3 with interim coach Key, and they recovered from a 17-0 deficit to hang a huge upset on the homestanding Tar Heels, now 9-2.

– After they spotted the Tar Heels 17 points, Tech held them to 97 yards on their next 33 plays, sacked Heisman candidate Drake Maye six times, and held him to 202 yards passing. \

– Tech also did it without either of its top two quarterbacks. Zach Gibson and Taisun Phommachanh split the duties, and the Jackets won it on Hassan Hall’s 8-yard run with 11:08 left. Carolina still has a date with Clemson in the ACC championship.

OREGON 20, UTAH 17

– Quarterback Bo Nix had run 77 times for Oregon this year, with 14 touchdowns. An ankle injury almost kept him out of this one, but he played, and his only carry was a fourth down pickup that iced the game for the Ducks (9-2).

– Oregon leaned on its spotty defense, never giving up a 20-yard play and holding Cameron Rising to 170 yards passing. The Ducks also intercepted him three times.

– Sophomore Dant’e Thornton snagged four passes for 151 yards, as Oregon stayed alive for the Pac-12 championship game. It will play USC if it can get past a strong Oregon State team in Corvallis Saturday.

OHIO 32, BALL STATE 18

– On any given Tuesday, anything can happen in the Mid-American Conference. Ohio is hoping Kurtis Rourke can overcome a knee injury that he suffered last Tuesday against Ball State, so the Bobcats will have a better chance against Bowling Green and make the MAC Championship Game.

– Rourke has thrown for 25 touchdowns with only four interceptions, and completed 69.1 percent of his passes. Against Fordham he went 41 for 50 for 537 yards. He is from Oakville, Ontario, and followed his brother Nathan to Ohio. Today Nathan is a rising star in the Canadian Football League. Playing for the B.C. Lions, he twice broke the CFL record for most passing yards by a Canadian-born quarterback.

– In an example of how the transfer portal handles 2-way traffic, Sam Wiglusz is Ohio’s leading receiver with 10 touchdowns and 65 catches. He transferred from Ohio State.

JACKSON STATE 24. ALCORN STATE 13

– Deion Sanders’ Tigers moved to 11-0 and need to beat Southern, then win the SWAC championship game in order to get to the Celebration Bowl, where the No. 1 HBCU team is identified. HIs son Shedeur, the quarterback, was sacked five times but managed to throw his 31st touchdown pass of the year, one more than he had in 2021.

– The recipient of that pass was freshman Travis Hunter who, for the second consecutive week, caught a touchdown and intercepted a pass in the same game. Hunter was a five-star recruit from Suwanee, Ga. who chose to turn down the glamour schools and play for Sanders at Jackson State.

– Charles Barkley is requesting that Auburn, his alma mater, hire Sanders as its coach. Florida State, Sanders’ alma mater, was supposedly interested in him, but second-year coach Mike Norvell has done well enough to stay. Regardless, Sanders has been a serious winner at Jackson, and it wouldn’t be a shocker if he ends up coaching Alabama’s rival, even if it causes a rooting dilemma for the Aflac Duck.