TALLAHASSEE, Florida, 27 October 2003 — Bobby Bowden became the winningest coach in Division I-A history when his Florida State Seminoles, fifth in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings, crushed Wake Forest 48-24 on Saturday.
The Seminoles coach picked up his 339th victory to move one ahead of Joe Paterno of Penn State, which lost 26-14 at Iowa.
Bowden has been a head coach for 38 seasons, the last 28 at Florida State.
His lifetime record is 339-97-5, with two national championships, since starting his career. He has also spent six seasons as an assistant coach.
Quarterback Chris Rix passed for 339 yards and two touchdowns in three quarters to make it an easy afternoon for the 74-year-old coach.
No. 1-ranked Oklahoma survived a scare to defeat Colorado 34-20.
Jason White threw three touchdown passes, including a 59-yard strike to Mark Clayton with 1:59 left, to put the game away for the unbeaten Sooners. Oklahoma is 8-0 as it looks for a national championship game berth.
In Athens, Georgia, Billy Bennett’s field goal with 12:57 left gave the No. 4-ranked Bulldogs a narrow 16-13 win over UAB.
Georgia (7-1) struggled against a 29-point underdog and needed another field goal by Bennett late in the third quarter to come back from a 13-10 deficit.
In Bloomington, Lydell Ross rushed for a career-high 167 yards and scored three touchdowns to lead the No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes to a 35-6 victory over Indiana.
Santonio Holmes caught two touchdown passes for Ohio State while Craig Krenzel passed for 272 yards for the defending national champions.
Matt Leinart tossed four touchdown passes and threw for 351 yards to lead No. 7 Southern California over Washington 43-23 in Seattle.
The Trojans improved to 7-1 and compiled 565 total yards to give USC only its fourth win in its last 11 games in Washington.
No. 9 Washington State was also hard pressed but rallied to beat Oregon State 36-28.
Washington State scored 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to pick up the victory.
Two teams ranked in the top 10 of the weekly BCS poll lost on Saturday, No. 8 Purdue and No. 10 Northern Illinois.
In Ann Arbor, Michigan, John Navarre threw two touchdown passes to Braylon Edwards to lead Michigan to a 31-3 romp over Purdue. Josh Harris, meanwhile, passed for 437 yards as the host Bowling Green handed Northern Illinois its first loss of the season, 34-18.
