Crabtree TD with 1 second left lifts Tech

By JIM VERTUNO, AP Sports Writer

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP)—It was as risky a pass as Graham Harrell has ever thrown. Also the most important.

With the final seconds ticking off and Texas Tech trailing by a point, the Texas Tech quarterback saw Michael Crabtree in double coverage and let it fly. The All-American wide receiver snagged it on the sideline, shook off a defender and ducked into the end zone with one second left.

With that stunning 28-yard touchdown, the No. 6 Red Raiders turned near-heartbreak into a wild victory, 39-33 over No. 1 Texas on Saturday night.

Texas Tech showed it’s tops in the Lone Star State—and maybe even the best team in the land.

“Play 60 minutes,” Texas Tech coach Mike Leach said. “You may have a second to spare.”

That’s what it came down in a West Texas-style shootout that had the Longhorns (8-1, 4-1 Big 12) rally from a 19-0 deficit in the first half and from 29-13 in the third quarter to take a 33-32 lead with Vondrell McGee’s 4-yard TD run with 1:29 to play.

The problem was, Texas left Harrell too much time.

Harrell drove the Red Raiders (9-0, 5-0) 62 yards to the touchdown in six plays, slinging the long pass to Crabtree, who broke the tackle of Curtis Brown, kept his balance, stayed in bounds and scooted the last few yards for a score.

“On the sideline, I kind of dreamed that I would catch a pass and go in the end zone for a game-winning score. I do that, like every game, but it happened. It kind of shocked me,” Crabtree said.

Tech really just needed about 10 yards to set up a field goal for Donnie Carona, who had been benched earlier this season but kicked a 42-yarder in the fourth quarter. But Harrell took a big chance with the big throw.

If Crabtree had been tackled instead of getting in, Texas Tech might have had a hard time calling its last timeout to set up a short field goal before time expired.

“All we needed was a field goal, but a touchdown’s even sweeter,” Harrell said. “If you’re a quarterback and don’t want to be in that situation, you should probably change positions.”

Thousands of Texas Tech fans poured onto the field and had to be sent off while the play was under review to make sure Crabtree didn’t step out of bounds. Once the fans were chased off the field and Tech kicked the extra point, the Red Raiders were penalized and forced to kick off from their own 7.

When Texas couldn’t pull off a miracle kickoff return, the fans ran back on the field to celebrate the biggest win in Texas Tech history. The victory not only gave the Red Raiders command of the Big 12 South, it puts them smack in the chase for the national title, quite a leap for a program usually left behind by conference powers Texas and Oklahoma.

In fact, maybe Texas Tech shoots to the top of the rankings and the BCS standings? More likely, Alabama moves to No. 1. The question is whether the Red Raiders, on the strength of their first victory against a No. 1 team, can jump over the likes of Florida, Southern California and unbeaten Penn State on Sunday.

Just like Texas over the last month, the Red Raiders also face a daunting schedule the next three weeks. Texas Tech hosts No. 9 Oklahoma State next weekend, then has a bye week before traveling to No. 4 Oklahoma. They finish the regular season at home against Baylor.

“Now the biggest game in history is Oklahoma State,” Leach said, “or the history of this year, anyway.”

Harrell, who may have jumped ahead of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy in the Heisman Trophy race, finished with 474 yards and two touchdowns on 36-of-53 passing.

“Some of you guys maybe ought to add him to your Heisman list,” Leach told reporters after the game. “I know how political it is.”

McCoy has nothing to be ashamed of, throwing for 294 yards and two touchdowns and nearly leading his 10th career comeback in game where he was sacked four times and had his face bloodied on a hard hit in the third quarter. He did have an interception returned for a touchdown in the third.

“They played harder than us,” McCoy said. “The crowd was behind them the whole game. They never quit. They kept fighting.”

Texas had just appeared to pull off a stunning rally behind McCoy, who threw second-half touchdown passes of 37 and 91 yards to Malcolm Williams and led Texas on a grinding drive to its final touchdown after Texas Tech’s Carona kicked a field goal for a six-point lead.

McGee’s burst stunned the home crowd until a big kickoff return by Jamar Wall gave the Red Raiders the ball at their own 38 and time to move. Harrell hit on four straight passes, to get the ball in Texas territory. He also got a break when Texas freshman safety Blake Gideon dropped what would have been a game-ending interception on a tipped ball.

“I was sick, I was thinking, ‘Surely, we’re not going to lose like this,” Harrell said.

Given another chance, he and Crabtree came through.

“It’s the biggest catch I ever made,” said Crabtree, who had 10 catches for 127 yards.

Given the chance to make a national statement, Texas Tech looked early like it would dismiss the Longhorns in a rout. The Red Raiders belted Texas on the Longhorns’ on first play and kept hammering away for the entire first half.

Backed up on the Texas 2 in front of the raucous student section, McCoy handed off to Chris Ogbonnaya, who never got out of the end zone when he was dropped for a safety by defensive tackle Colby Whitlock.

The Red Raiders were just getting started.

Texas Tech made it 19-0 when Harrell found Eric Morris with a soft throw just beyond a defender’s reach for an 18-yard TD and the Red Raiders led 22-6 at halftime.

Matt Williams, the kicker Leach plucked from the stands after watching him win a promotional kicking contest six weeks ago, made field goals of 29 and 31 yards. He was pulled for Carona in the second half after he had a field goal blocked.

Jordan Shipley gave Texas life with a 45-yard punt return for a touchdown in the third quarter.

Still, Texas appeared done when Daniel Charbonnet returned McCoy’s only interception for a touchdown and a 29-13 Texas Tech lead.

But McCoy, who has led nine come-from-behind wins in his career, had the Longhorns storming back and in position to win.

“Football is a tough game,” Texas coach Mack Brown said. “Tonight was their night, we need to be classy in defeat and give them credit for what they did.”

Original here

Will Catapults Out-Chunk Air Guns at Pumpkin-Chunking World Championship 2008?

(Photo by David S. Holloway/Getty Images)

Halloween has never been kind to pumpkins. But in Sussex County, Delaware, this weekend, hundreds of the gourds will meet a particularly gruesome end: Loaded into hulking compressed-air cannons, fired like artillery shells across an empty field, their ground-splattering detonations will be cheered on by thousands of spectators. Other pumpkins will be vaulted into the air by modern incarnations of medieval siege machines, trebuchets and catapults that whip payloads thousands of feet through the air.

To say that the three-day-long Annual World Championship Punkin' Chunkin' competition—now in its 23rd year—is a labor of love is not only a cliche, but a gross misrepresentation. Chunkin' is a feat of obsessive, competitive engineering. According to Frank Shade, President of the Punkin' Chunkin' Association, some of the machines in competition would cost between a quarter and three-quarters of a million dollars to build from scratch. In most cases, improvements have been heaped on through the years; some devices started in the youth classes and eventually graduated to the corresponding adult group.

The reward for all that determination and the hundreds or thousands of dollars some teams spend to repair or revamp their machines? A 3-ft trophy. "Three years ago a sponsor came and offered $10,000 in prize money," Shade says. "It was the only unanimous vote I've seen." But the association's vote was no thanks, and its reasoning was simple. "Money pushes people to cheat. The biggest thing these folks compete for is a 3-ft trophy for the captain, seven medallions for the team, and seven baseball caps. Those caps are a big deal," Shade says.

Punkin' Chunkin' might not be gunning for a collective payoff, but the sport has become a major attraction for Delaware, drawing some 20,000 attendees in 2007, and $100,000 in revenue. The competition occurs between about Oct. 31 and Nov. 2. There are other attractions, such as a Chili Cook-Off and a Pumpkin Cooking Contest, but chunking is the main event. Each machine is allowed three attempted chunks. Provided the pumpkin isn't instantly pulverized by an excess of air pressure or some other mechanical problem, every chunk has a shot at winning the machine's specific class, as well as taking home the trophy for overall world champion. And although the artillery-like cannons of the Adult Air Class, which generate muzzle velocities between 300 to 800 ft per second, are the reigning long-distance champs—Big 10-Inch managed 4211.27 ft last year, and Second Amendment's 4434.38-ft-chunk in 2003 is the current world record—Shade believes that torsion catapults are poised for an upset. "Machines like Chucky II are laying out pumpkins at over 3000 ft. It's only a matter of time until a torsion cat snaps one out that breaks 4000 ft."

The air guns, which rely on a sudden release of pressure to propel pumpkins out of their barrels, may have hit an engineering wall. Torsion catapults, on the other hand, are still benefiting from design tweaks that provide more room for the catapult's arm to swing and a more efficient angle of release.

It's unlikely that a torsion catapult will take the world record away from Second Amendment this year, but the 2008 world championship could be up for grabs. The Chucky II team, which delivered on its 3000 ft prediction leading up to last year's competition (it won in its class, but the 3080-ft shot was disqualified because the pumpkin split in half in midair), is promising a 4000 ft chunk this year. If the catapults, trebuchets and other more traditional seige machines bring an end to the decade-long reign of the air guns, Shade believes that artillery-minded teams might have to explore a new direction: rail guns.

"Down the line, they could conceivably put something together where one of those electromagnetic rail guns could come on board and blow everyone away," Shade says, referring to the high-velocity experimental weapon systems currently being tested by the United States Navy. "The problem right now is that they have to have a small substation at this point. But that will change. Remember the original cellphones? You practically had to drag them around with a handcart."

Another option—applying WW II-era German rail-gun technology to compressed-air cannons. Instead of a single release of air pressure, cannoneers could begin with a small amount of air and trigger successively larger releases of pressure once the pumpkin is in motion. That would require longer barrels, and possibly computerized, precision-timed charges, but Shade doesn't put anything past Punkin' Chunkers. "We have said for years, if the knowledge and ability and technology devoted to throwing pumpkins could be harnessed, it could solve most of the world's problems," Shade says. "And win some wars, too."

The chunking is now underway, and the winners will be announced on Sunday. Check back here on Monday for exclusive photos from this year's competition. —Erik Sofge

Original here

Report: China listed U.S. athletes with potential to cause problems

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Concerned about possible demonstrations during the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government produced a list of nine American athletes and one assistant coach it thought might cause problems during the games.

The U.S. State Department knew about China's concerns and made "multiple representations" to the country's government to reinforce the American belief in freedom of expression.

USA Today reported Thursday that it had obtained an internal U.S. Olympic Committee e-mail in which a Chinese official expressed concern that members of the U.S. team might stage some sort of demonstration. USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel confirmed that the list was given to the federation during a meeting July 8 with Shu Xiao, minister counselor for cultural affairs at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, the e-mail said.

The athletes included softball players Jennie Finch, Jessica Mendoza, Natasha Watley, Amanda Freed, and softball assistant coach Karen Johns; soccer player Abby Wambach; cyclist Jonathan Page; paralympic basketball player Jen Howitt; paralympic wheelchair racer Cheri Blauwet; and golfer Laura Goodwin.

Wambach was injured and did not compete in the Olympics. Goodwin did not compete because golf is not an Olympic sport. Page was not selected for USA Cycling's Beijing-bound team. He specializes in cyclocross, a combination of road and off-road racing that is not part of the Olympic program.

Shu was concerned that some of the athletes have been affiliated with Team Darfur, an international coalition of athletes committed to raising awareness about the human rights crisis in Sudan's Darfur region, according to the email.

Asked about the list of athletes Thursday, the State Department issued a statement saying it had seen media reports about the list.

"During the run-up to the Olympics, we discussed with Chinese authorities their concerns about the potential for protest actions by Olympics athletes or others attending the Games," the statement said. "At the time we made multiple representations to Chinese authorities regarding the importance of respecting freedom of expression, and we continue to stand by these views."

It referred other questions to the USOC.

Seibel told The Associated Press that the federation knew of the list but did not pass on the concerns to the athletes because it didn't want to burden them with what it felt was a non-issue.

"We did make clear to the embassy that our athletes would have the same right to free speech and free expression, consistent with what is set forth in the Olympic Charter, that they have enjoyed at previous Games," Seibel said. "We made certain those rights would in no way be infringed upon or compromised."

International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said the IOC was not aware of the list.

"Any questions on the matter should be addressed to the Chinese authorities," she said.

Sun Weide, who was one of the spokesmen for the Beijing Organizing Committee, told The AP that he had resigned his position and declined to comment. Much of the committee has been dissolved more than two months after the Games.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

Original here