Penn State's football team came up short Saturday minus Joe Paterno, losing an emotionally-charged first game since a shocking child sex-abuse scandal engulfed the college campus. In a hushed Beaver Stadium prior to Penn State's final home game of the season against Nebraska, players from both teams gathered at midfield before the opening kickoff to kneel and pray for the victims of child abuse. Interim Penn State head coach Tom Bradley called Saturday an “unprecedented” day in American college football history. “It was unprecedented ever in the history of college sports what went on today,” said Bradley, following Penn State's 17-14 loss. “We grieve for the victims, we feel sad for the families and the children.” The Nittany Lions played for the first time in 46 years without Paterno – US college football's winningest head coach – at the helm. Paterno was fired this week as part of the fallout from the scandal swirling around former assistant Jerry Sandusky which has rocked the university to its core and put big-time American college athletics under scrutiny. Sandusky, who was once considered to be Paterno's heir apparent, has been charged with sexually assaulting eight boys over a span of 15 years, some of them at Penn State facilities. Game day was emotional as many of the 107,903 fans were clad in blue, the color of child-abuse prevention. Some of the players had tears in their eyes and wore shirts in support of Paterno that read “Joe Knows Football”. TCU 36, No. 5 Boise State 35: Casey Pachall threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Carter with 1:05 left, then connected with Josh Boyce on the go-ahead 2-point conversion, and Boise State's Dan Goodale booted a 39-yard field-goal attempt wide right as time expired to give TCU victory against the fifth-ranked Broncos. Pachall threw for 473 yards and five touchdowns as the Horned Frogs (8-2, 5-0) secured a clear path to the Mountain West Conference title and snuffed out the Broncos' hopes of playing in the BCS championship game. No. 1 LSU 42, Western Kentucky 9: Alfred Blue and Kenny Hilliard each scored two touchdowns, and No. 1 LSU overcame a slow start to defeat Western Kentucky. LSU (10-0), which came in favored by nearly six touchdowns, led only 14-7 at halftime before dominating the second half. Other results: No. 2 Oklahoma State 66, Texas Tech 6; Oregon 53, Stanford 30; Alabama 24, Mississippi St. 7; Michigan 31, Illinois 14; No. 8 Arkansas 49, Tennessee 7; No. 9 Clemson 31, Wake Forest 28; No. 13 Michigan State 37, Iowa 21; No. 14 Georgia 45, No. 24 Auburn 7; No. 15 South Carolina 17, Florida 12; No. 16 Wisconsin 42, Minnesota 13; No. 18 Southern Cal 40, Washington 17; No. 22 Michigan 31, Illinois 14; West Virginia 24, No. 23 Cincinnati 21.
