By William Bowman
The Daily Item
Tyler Smith, Bucknell's junior tailback, has come on in the last two games and now is probably in the running to be named All-Patriot League as the Bison prepare for their season finale Saturday at Colgate.
In the first eight games of the season, Smith carried the ball 102 yards for 370 yards. The last two games -- wins at Lafayette and Fordham -- the running back from Hatfield has 70 carries for 416 yards and he now leads the Patriot League with 786 yards this year. Saturday at Fordham he had 28 carries for 204 yards and two scores and was named Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, the first for a Bucknell player since C.J. Hopson in 2009.
His 416 yards in his last two outings gives Smith more rushing yards in any two-game span than any player in BU history, surpassing Rich Lemon's two-game total of 403 against Holy Cross and Colgate in 1995. He is now just the fourth player in school history with two 200-yard career games.
With 180 yards this week at Colgate, Smith can move into Bucknell's single-season top 10 rushing list.
FAMOUS COMPANY: Bucknell's Bryce Robertson intercepted two more passes on Saturday, giving him an NCAA-best 12 this year. He is averaging 1.2 interceptions per game, which is currently tied for the best single-season average all-time in FCS. Robertson would need two more interceptions at Colgate to break the record.
The current FCS record is owned by Princeton's Dean Cain in 1987. Cain is probably best remembered as Clark Kent/Superman in the 1990s television show "Lois & Clark, The New Adventures of Superman."
Robertson has 12 interceptions this year while the Bison have turned the ball over just 10 times themselves.
In each of the last three games, Robertson has intercepted two passes, giving him six in three games. Over that span, only BU receiver Frank DeNick has caught that many passes for the Bison.
CLOSE CALLS: After Saturday's loss to Nebraska, Penn State is 6-1 in games decided by 10 points or fewer this year and 4-1 in games decided by seven points or fewer.
All six of Penn State's conference games have been decided by 10 points or fewer. The Nittany Lions were the first team in the 116-year history of the Big Ten to win five consecutive conference games by 10 points or fewer.
NO NAME: The Big Ten has taken Joe Paterno's name off the Big Ten's football championship trophy.
League commissioner Jim Delany said Monday that it is "inappropriate" to keep Paterno's name on the trophy that will be awarded Dec. 3 after the first Big Ten title game.
Penn State fired Paterno, its longtime head coach, last week and investigations are under way into allegations of child sex-abuse involving a former assistant for the Nittany Lions.
The trophy had been named the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy. Amos Alonzo Stagg won 319 games in 57 years, most at the University of Chicago. Paterno's 409 wins are the most by a major college coach.
The trophy will now be called the Stagg Championship Trophy. Stagg was later the co-head coach at Susquehanna with his son, Amos Alonzo Stagg Jr., from 1947 to 1952.
STILL FOOTBALL SEASON: Faulkner knocked off Union (Kent) 95-89 in triple overtime on Saturday in the highest-scoring NAIA football game in history.
With the overlap between the two seasons, at first glance the score could have easily been mistaken for a basketball score, but the 184 combined points was 43 more than the previous record of 141 set in 1994. It was the second-highest scoring game all-time behind only Georgia Tech's 222-0 win over Cumberland in 1916.
Faulkner (3-7) scored 14 touchdowns in the game that was tied at 75-75 at the end of regulation. Faulkner's Josh Hollingsworth passed for an NAIA-record 637 yards and seven TDs.
