Weekend Sports Re-cap

Any preseason college football poll would tell you that Ohio State belongs at the top of the Big Ten while Maryland would rank close to the bottom.

They do, however, have two things in common. First, they played their openers without their head coaches. Second, they won those openers.

Ohio State will go another two games without the suspended Urban Meyer, who is caught up in a scandal about what he knew and when he knew it concerning complaints of domestic violence and other bits of unsavory behavior by a former assistant.

The Buckeyes, ranked No. 5, beat visiting Oregon State 77-31. New starting quarterback Dwayne Haskins Jr. threw a school-record five touchdown passes. Ryan Day has been standing in for Meyer, who can return to practice on Monday but cannot coach the next two games.

Maryland’s DJ Durkin is on administrative leave as the school looks into the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair in June as the result of heat stroke. An ESPN story alleged an abusive culture at Maryland that has already resulted in the departure of the strength and conditioning coach. First-year offensive coordinator Matt Canada took over for Durkin and guided the Terps to their second consecutive season-opening win over Texas.

The Terps forced three turnovers in the final 6:09 in a 34-29 victory at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. The No. 23 Longhorns rang up 22 unanswered points but Maryland scored the last 10 of the game.

The Terps honored the late McNair by lining up only 10 players on the first play of the game and letting the play clock expired. Texas kindly declined the penalty.

Another college football oddity: Furman’s quarterback is a full-time student at … not Furman. Harris Roberts is a redshirt senior and an engineering major; Clemson and Furman share that program, so Roberts, after three years at Furman, now attends Clemson but plays for the Paladins. Nothing odd about how the game came out, as the No. 2 Tigers beat the FCS Paladins 48-7.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman