ERST LESEN! » in wide space but attack out of

Not too long ago, the toughest questions Baylor football coaches faced were those that brought up the 23rd-ranked Bears weak nonconference schedule.Interim Baylor coach Jim Grobe has had to field many questions about the programs culture.Perhaps the upside of that is no one has asked him about the continuing lack of interesting or challenging September games for the Bears.No. 23 Baylor hosts unranked SMU at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday at McLane Stadium in Waco, which some in Texas regard as a rise in competition. The Bears opened their season with a 55-7 rout of Northwestern State. It was the most points a team coached by Grobe has ever scored.I think the thing is weve all had games when you scored more points than you counted on, Grobe said. The biggest problem weve got is managing the game.While this weeks opponent is a step up from an FCS foe, however, its uncertain how big a step.The Mustangs went 2-10 under first-year head coach Chad Morris last season and began this season last week by pulling away from a rebuilding North Texas team in the third quarter for an unimpressive 34-21 win that included 572 yards total offense.How stern the test is Saturday might hinge on the health of SMUs quarterback.Matt Davis is a game-time decision, Morris said, because of a knee injury. He rushed for 91 yards and had 155 passing yards with two scores last week.Wide receiver Courtland Sutton and defensive end Justin Lawler were named to the AAC weekly honor roll for their contributions.Sutton, a sophomore, had four receptions for 162 yards and three touchdowns, one a career-long 88-yard catch, the fifth-longest play in SMU history.Lawler, a junior, recorded 3.5 sacks, just an assist off the school single-game record, among his team-high eight tackles.The Mustangs rushed for 272 yards and passed for 300, but they also gave up 311 yards to the Mean Greens passing game -- not a good sign.Grobe is familiar with Morris style from their days in the ACC. Grobe, of course, was the head coach at Wake Forest. Morris was the offensive coordinator at Clemson.I think offensively Chad is doing the same things he did at Clemson, and when I was at Wake Forest I had to go against that stuff, so I know how hard it is for Phil Bennett and the defensive guys to get ready, Grobe said, referring to Baylor defensive coordinator Phil Bennett. One of the things that Phil Bennett was concerned about last year is that we missed too many tackles.If you look at SMU against North Texas, they broke a lot of tackles and made them miss a lot. Thats a real challenge going into this one for us.Grobe expects the Ponies to spread the field to break off big plays.Thats the thing that Chad will do to you, Grobe said. Hes going to spread you out and force you to make one-on-one tackles.The thing that he did a great job of at Clemson that impressed me is that you feel like you have to go back and play coverage, but the thing is that he loves to run the football. You cant hunker down on one thing.One big item of interest will be Baylor running back Shock Linwoods quest to become the schools career rushing leader. Linwood rushed for 97 yards on nine carries against Northwestern State and needs 107 more to pass former Bear and Pittsburgh Steeler Walter Abercrombie.Abercrombie finished his Baylor career with 3,665 yards from 1978-81.Barring injury, Linwood is going to pass Abercrombie and keep going, perhaps adding another 1,000 yards to the Baylor career mark.After watching Linwood in a game for the first time as the Bears coach, Grobe was impressed.What I really liked about Shock was his energy, Grobe said. When he got on the field you could just tell he was ready to roll. The extra yardage he got the other night was fun to see.The biggest health question for Baylor was safety Travon Blanchard, honorable mention All-Big 12 in 2015, but Grobe said he is not expected to play against SMU after also missing the opener recovering from meniscus surgery. Fjallraven Kanken No.2 Backpack Navy . -- Matt Rupert scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the London Knights extended their win streak to nine games by defeating the Owen Sound Attack 4-3 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. Fjallraven Kanken Classic Graphite Backpack .Y. -- Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone has drawn on his Syracuse connections once again by hiring Rob Moore to take over as receivers coach. http://www.cheapkankenbackpack.com/fjallraven-kanken-big-ox-red-beige-backpack-20l.html . Robinson finished with 17 points, all but two in the second half, and Lawson had 14 after halftime and finished with a game-high 11 assists as the Nuggets handed Dallas its first home loss in eight games this season. J.J. Hickson led Denver with 22, and Kenneth Faried added 10 points and 10 rebounds. Fjallraven Kanken Big Backpack Black . All of the scoring came in the final 20:04. Lucic scored on a power play at 15:46 of the third period, when he tipped a shot over Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen for a 3-1 lead. Cheap Kanken No.2 Backpack . Numbers Game examines the deal that sees Michael Del Zotto and Kevin Klein switch places. The Predators Get: D Michael Del Zotto. What went down in the fourth week of college soccer? The aim each week is to bring you five stories that defined the week in college soccer or help navigate the long road to the Womens College Cup.And sometimes to point out goals like this.South Alabama takes down No. 1 Florida StateWhat a difference a year makes. When South Alabama played Florida State in the second round of the NCAA tournament a year ago, the Jaguars trailed by a goal after 116 seconds. They trailed by four goals after barely 10 minutes. A 5-0 loss appeared, in the end, almost merciful.So on the surface, South Alabamas 1-0 win over top-ranked Florida State that began the past week seems like one of the more surprising results in recent memory. After all, no one in a Seminoles uniform had lost to an opponent other than Duke, Florida, UCLA or Virginia, the only teams to beat Florida State since 2012. And on a day that saw the Seminoles outshoot South Alabama 28-3 and force Jaguars goalkeeper Justice Stanford to make eight saves, the whole thing might come off as an anomaly, a hiccup in the normally smooth order of college soccer.Yet over the past decade, Florida States nonconference losses usually proved indicators of the quality of opposition. And if South Alabama was fortuitous to win the day on the strength of Charde Hannahs first-half goal, the program doesnt look much like a fluke in the long run. Led by Hannah, the Jaguars this season returned their six leading scorers from a team that went 18-3-2 a season ago. They won at Ole Miss on Sunday. Even their losses so far this season, in double overtime at both Auburn and Mississippi State, hardly constitute meaningful regression.That Florida State has plenty to offer was clear in a 3-0 win over No. 17 Connecticut later in the week (although goals were again hard to find in Sundays 1-0 overtime win against Troy). So while the names make the Labor Day stunner sound like the upset of the season, hindsight may once again prove it nothing more than the Seminoles stumbling against a very good opponent.Georgetown (and the country) serves notice to ACCFrom an exhibition a week ago against the under-20 national team from Papua New Guinea, not a noted power, to a 3-2 upset against No. 3 Virginia, it was quite a seven days for Georgetown. And that despite ceding the favorite two goals before Sundays game was even 10 minutes old.Yet by halftime, on the strength of goals from Taylor Pak, Amanda Carolan and Rachel Corboz (her seventh in as many games), Georgetown had surged ahead to stay.Virginia hadnt lost a regular-season nonconference game since the 2012 season, let alone surrendered a two-goal lead, but there may be a lesson in that. Florida State lost. Duke lost at home. Notre Dame came away from an admittedly difficult Bay Area trip with two draws but no wins, and North Carolina soundly lost the finale of its California road trip at USC.Granted, North Carolina also won at UCLA. Florida State beat Connecticut. Notre Dame had reason to be proud of Sundays draw. And with the ACC season starting this week, the league is still the best bet in the country in which to catch a quality game. But not the only place this year.Stanfords ascennsion runs aground .dddddddddddd.. for nowStanford couldnt quite complete a perfect weekend that would have made No. 1 a foregone conclusion. By most accounting, the second-ranked Cardinal enjoyed a productive weekend with a commanding 4-1 win over No. 10 Minnesota and a 2-2 draw with No. 20 Notre Dame. But a world-class free kick from Notre Dame freshman Jennifer Westendorf, a low line drive that might still be traveling if not for the net, highlighted a second half that disrupted what had been a smooth Stanford operation through one and a half games.No matter what the polls say Monday, Stanford has the means to be No. 1 when it matters, because there may not be another team that can match what the Cardinal have in the middle of the field with All-American Andi Sullivan and freshman Tierna Davidson. Sullivan scored her own highlight-reel free kick against Minnesota, while Davidson scored her first career goal, but its the control they exert in all the space from box to box that marked much of the weekend.West Virginia makes its case for No. 1Like Stanford, No. 4 West Virginia showcased a concentration of talent in one area of the field that could well lead a team to a national championship. But in the case of the Mountaineers, it was the all-Canadian back line that so impressively put its imprint on a 3-1 win at No. 6 Duke.That starts, of course, with Kadeisha Buchanan. Even on a day that took a physical toll on the World Cup and Olympic veteran -- Buchanan was in the middle of several collisions and was briefly forced to the sideline in the second half with what looked like a leg injury -- she stood out on a field with plenty of talent. But it isnt just Buchanan. Left back Amandine Pierre-Louise scored the first goal after a long run forward with the ball and a strike from distance, but she and right back Ashley Lawrence, another Canadian international more familiar in a midfield role, effectively pinned down Duke with their ability to not only defend in wide space but attack out of it.South Florida snowbirds roll onFlorida State lost. Virginia lost. Stanford tied. Heck, even George Washington lost to Liberty on Sunday. It wasnt a great week for maintaining perfection, as in unbeaten and untied records. But it wasnt a complete bust. Central Michigan, UC Santa Barbara and Wake Forest each won two games to maintain perfect starts. Now 7-0-0, Central Michigan already has more wins than it did the entire 2015 season. Or the 2014 season. A year after she led the team with four goals, sophomore Alexis Pelafas is vying for the national lead with nine goals in six appearances.Best of the unbeaten and untied, however, is No. 14 South Florida. With a roster that reads like one of those most often associated with the team in Tallahassee (Ghana, Iceland, Jamaica, Mexico and Norway represented), USF is 7-0-0 and hasnt allowed a goal the past two weeks. The best import of all for Canadian-born coach Denise Schilte-Brown at the moment is one of her own, freshman and Quebec product Evelyne Viens coming off a four-goal weekend. ' ' '