The Jackson State Tigers began their season with a 44-20 victory over Paul Quinn College in their home opener. Ohio State transfer Erik Haw scored four touchdowns, including three in the first quarter. New head coach Rick Comegy brought several transfers to the team who contributed to the win. Mississippi Valley State shut out Arkansas-Pine Bluff 10-0, led by defensive lineman Tyler Knight. Ole Miss will allow star lineman Jerrell Powe to enroll part-time while his eligibility is reviewed. Florida beat Southern Mississippi 34-7 behind three touchdown passes from Chris Leak, but the Gators' offense struggled early. LSU crushed Louisiana-Lafayette 45-3 as quarterback JaMarcus Russell threw three

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Comegy a winner in
Jackson State debut.
JACKSON (AP) — Ohio
State transfer Erik Haw
scored four touchdowns
Saturday as Jackson State
began the Rick Comegy era
with a 44-20 victory over
Paul Quinn College.
The Tigers won their
home opener for the first
time in four years after suf-
fering through three
straight losing seasons.
Comegy brought a stable
of transfers to the team af-
ter taking over last spring.
Haw was the most success-
ful, scoring touchdowns on
his first three touches.
He had touchdowns runs
of 3 and 5 yards and scored
on a 74-yard screen pass
from fellow transfer Jimmy
Oliver in the first quarter as
Jackson State built a 30-6
halftime lead.
Haw capped off the night
with a dazzling 20-yard
touchdown run early in the
fourth quarter to put the
game out of reach, 37-20.
Oliver passed for 184
yards and a touchdown
while leading Jackson
State’s offense to 308 total
yards.
“It’s great to the get this
first one out of the way,”
Comegy said. “I want these
kids to know what it feels
like to get a ring. We got off
to a good start tonight.”
Jeremy Banks accounted
for two touchdowns for NA-
IA member Paul Quinn.
Judge allows Powe
to enroll at Ole Miss
OXFORD (AP) — Univer-
sity of Mississippi officials
said Friday the school would
admit a star lineman as a
part-time student until eligi-
bility concerns are resolved
by the NCAA or the courts.
Ole Miss announced last
week that Jerrell Powe had
been ruled ineligible to re-
ceive scholarship aid or play
football at Ole Miss this sea-
son. The former Wayne
County High School star
played last season for Har-
grave Military Academy in
Virginia.
Mississippi Valley
blanks Pine Bluff
CHICAGO (AP) — Missis-
sippi Valley State, led by de-
fensive linemanTyler
Knight, shut out Arkansas-
Pine Bluff 10-0 at the eighth
annual Chicago Football
Classic on Saturday.
The win was the first
shut out of a Southwestern
Athletic Conference game
by Mississippi Valley since
1997, a 27-0 win over
Prairie View A&M.
ON TV
n
Today
AUTO RACING
7 p.m. NBC — NASCAR, Nextel Cup,
Sony HD 500
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
3:30 p.m. ESPN — Memphis at Ole
Miss
4:30 p.m. FSN — TCU at Baylor
7 p.m. ESPN — Kentucky at Louisville
GOLF
12:30 p.m. ESPN2 — LPGA, State Farm
Classic, final round, at Springfield, Ill.
3 p.m.
NBC — Champions Tour, First Tee Open,
final round, at Monterey, Calif.
4 p.m. ABC — PGA Tour, Deutsche
Bank Championship, third round,
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
1:10 p.m. WGN — San Francisco at
Chicago Cubs
7 p.m. ESPN2 — L.A. Angels at Detroit
TENNIS
10 a.m. CBS — U.S. Open, men’s third
and women’s fourth round
6 p.m. USA — U.S. Open, men’s third
and women’s fourth round
WNBA BASKETBALL
4 p.m. ESPN2 — Playoffs, finals, game
3, Detroit at Sacramento
Monday
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
7 p.m. ESPN — Florida St. at Miami
GOLF
2 p.m. ABC — PGA Tour, Deutsche
Bank Championship, final round
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
1:10 p.m. WGN — Pittsburgh at Chica-
go Cubs
6 p.m. TBS — Atlanta at N.Y. Mets
TENNIS
10 a.m. CBS — U.S. Open, men’s and
women’s fourth round
6 p.m. USA — U.S. Open, men’s and
women’s fourth round
8 p.m. CNBC — U.S. Open, men’s and
women’s fourth round
LEADING OFFn
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) —
Florida will have to wait at least
another week for the offensive ex-
plosion that typically happens in
coach Urban Meyer’s second sea-
son.
Once again, Chris Leak and the
Gators’ offense weren’t able to
put together four good quarters.
Leak threw three touchdown
passes, highly touted freshman
TimTebowranforascoreandNo.
7 Florida overcame a sluggish
start to beat Southern Mississippi
34-7 Saturday night.
“I felt like we should have
played much better,” Meyer said.
The Gators were hoping to en-
joy an offensive surge in Meyer’s
second season — the kind he wit-
nessed at Bowling Green and
Utah. Instead, Florida’s offense
looked much like it did last season
— playing with an inconsistent
running game, a shaky offensive
line and relying on Leak and the
defense to win games.
Nonetheless, it worked again.
“It’s never a disappointment to
win, but we weren’t at the top of
our ability,” receiver Andre Cald-
well said. “We expected to play a
lot better. We expected more ex-
plosive plays and to put up more
points.”
Leak completed 21 of 30 pass-
es for 248 yards — most of it in
the second half.
His third pass of the game was
intercepted, and Southern Miss
turned it into a 7-0 lead when Je-
remy Young connected with
Damion Carter three plays later.
“I don’t think you can write a
script as great as that,” Golden
Eagles coach Jeff Bower said.
Leak bounced back. He evened
the game on the final play of the
first quarter, rolling left and find-
ing Dallas Baker wide open in the
end zone for a 21-yard score. He
added a 29-yard TD pass to Je-
malle Cornelius late in the third
quarter and a 16-yarder to
Kesthan Moore in the fourth.
But the Gators wanted more,
especially early. They settled for a
14-7 halftime lead.
“We can’t start the game like
that,”Meyersaid.“Iwasextreme-
ly upset with the way it started.”
There were several bright
spots, though.
Baker finished with nine
catches for 123 yards. Another
receiver, freshman Percy Harvin,
had a memorable debut. He ran
four times for a team-high 58
yards and had three receptions
for 33 yards. Harvin gained 23
yards on an end around in the
second quarter, setting up De-
Shawn Wynn’s 3-yard touch-
down run.
Harvin later used a sick move
to turn what should have been
lost yardage into a 9-yard gain,
setting up Leak’s final TD pass.
“You can see he’s one of our
most electric players, if not the
most,” Meyer said. “We’ll never
have a playmaker and not have
him touch the ball.”
Tebow made an impact in his
debut, too. He entered the game
on the first play of the fourth
quarter and had cameras flash-
ing all around. After a 10-yard
run by Moore, Tebow faked a
handoff and kept the ball as he
ran around the left end. He used a
stiff-arm to elude LeVance Rich-
mond, then dived across the goal
line for a 1-yard score.
“He’s going to be a great player
here,” Meyer said. “He’s going to
will himself into the end zone
many times here.”
Tebow also misused a cadence
that caused a false start and
called a wrong formation.
“First jitters, I guess,” Tebow
said.
Regardless, his first game was
more than he ever imagined.
“It definitely surpassed my ex-
pectations,” he said. “I’m just
thankful I got to be a part of
things.”
The pregame activities may
have been the highlight of the
night.
The 1996 national champi-
onship team celebrated its 10-
year reunion, and coach Steve
Spurrier returned to Florida Field
for the first time since leaving his
alma mater following the 2001
season.
Spurrier received a rousing
ovation — probably the loudest of
the night.
“I always talk about memories
of a lifetime, and that’s what we
play for,” Spurrier said. “This
team was able to have the biggest
memory.”
Florida would just as soon for-
get about the beginning opener.
Leak was sacked twice and
hurried even more often. Wynn
carried seven times for 45 yards
before leaving the field in the
third quarter with an neck injury.
The defense, playing without
benched defensive tackles Steven
Harris and Marcus Thomas, gave
up 295 yards.
Young finished 13-of-27 for
129 yards and three intercep-
tions for Southern Miss. He was
replaced in the fourth quarter by
StephenReaves,thesonof former
Florida All-American quarter-
back John Reaves.
“(Young) was a little inconsis-
tent,” Bower said.
BATONROUGE,La.(AP)—Ja-
Marcus Russell played his way
out of LSU’s season opener by the
third quarter — for all the right
reasons.
His second pass of the game
was a 58-yard bomb for a touch-
down as he was getting hit on a
rollout, and he had two more
scoring passes in the first half to
sendtheNo.8Tigersontheirway
to a 45-3 victory over Louisiana-
Lafayette on Saturday night.
He finished 13-of-17 for 253
yards, validating second-year
coach Les Miles’ decision to make
him the starter over Matt Flynn
and high-profile recruit Ryan
Perrilloux.
After redshirt freshman Bran-
don LaFell made his first college
catch on Russell’s opening scor-
ing pass, LSU took a 14-0 lead on
a defensive touchdown barely
more than five minutes into the
game. It happened on the first of
two interceptions by Jonathan
Zenon, who stepped in front of
Cajuns quarterback Jerry Babb’s
ill-advised pass into the right flat
as he was getting hit on a scram-
ble.
Russell threw touchdown
passes of 16 yards to Early
Doucet and 28 yards to Dwayne
Bowe in the second quarter,
putting LSU ahead 28-3 at the
half.Fromthatpointon,themost
excitement in the stadium came
when NBA star and LSU gradu-
ate Shaquille O’Neal, wearing a
gold T-shirt with a purple Super-
man insignia on his chest, was
honored on the field during half-
time and given a No. 33 football
jersey, the same number he wore
with the Tigers’ basketball team.
Russell returned for only the
opening drive of the third quar-
ter, completing passes of 26
yards to Bowe and 14 yards to
running back Justin Vincent dur-
ing a 10-play, 73-yard scoring
drive that ended with Jacob Hes-
ter’s 2-yard touchdown run.
That made the score 35-3.
Russell was 10-2 as a sopho-
more in 2005, but a separated
shoulder and wrist injury kept
him out of the Peach Bowl, when
Flynn led LSU to a 40-3 victory
over the Miami Hurricanes. That
was Perrilloux’s redshirt year.
But Miles decided this season
to stick with the 6-foot-6, 260-
pound Russell, who responded by
throwing three TD passes in a
game for the first time in his ca-
reer. He is now 15-2 as a starter.
Flynn played most of the sec-
ond half, replaced by Perrilloux
late in the fourth quarter.
Louisiana-Lafayette was co-
championof theSunBeltConfer-
ence last season and is expected
to be among the best teams in
that league again this year.
Florida’s wide receiver Perry Haven (8) carries the ball after
catching a Chris Leak pass in the first half with Southern Miss
defender Martevious McGee (6) in pursuit. The Gators opened
the 2006 season at home with a 34-7 win over Southern Miss.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FloridapoundsSouthernMiss34-7toopen
Gator season
LSUcrushesUL-Lafayette
Both Southwest Mississippi Community College soccer
teams were in action in their inaugural matches on Saturday.
SMCC’s Dale Wheat (5) and East Mississippi’s Rainer Hage-
wood (18) battle for a loose ball during Saturday’s match.
The women lost to East Mississippi 5-0, while the men’s
team lost 6-0, also to East Mississippi.
AARON RHOADS | ENTERPRISE-JOURNAL
SMCC soccer makes its debut
LSU wide receiver Early Doucet (9) celebrates his touchdown
catch in front of Louisiana-Lafayette defender Torres Kingsby.
ASSOCIATED PRESS