By The AP

Austin Davis made the plays when it counted to send Southern Mississippi coach Larry Fedora out a winner.

Davis threw two touchdowns, including a 4-yarder late in the game, and Southern Miss (No. 21 BCS, No. 22 AP) earned a school-record 12th victory by holding off Nevada 24-17 in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl on Saturday night.

"It wasn't his best game, but he did enough to help us win this football game," said Fedora, who is leaving after four seasons to take over at North Carolina.

Davis overcame a shaky game for the Conference USA-champion Golden Eagles (12-2), and the defense in the second half managed to shut down Nevada's potent pistol attack led by Lampford Mark.

"I thought we struggled the entire game offensively. We made a few big plays at the end, but really the defense, these guys were special and they've done that all year," Davis said. "We made a play or two on offense when we needed to."

Davis was off most of the night but made it count on the game-winning drive. On third-and-goal, he scrambled right and found Kelvin Bolden for the 4-yard score, capping a seven-play, 68-yard drive. He had just 59 yard passing at halftime and finished 18 of 41 for 165 yards.

On the winning drive, Davis was 3 of 4 for 66 yards, including a 43-yard completion to Dominique Sullivan down the right sideline and a 19-yarder to a crossing William Spight. Sullivan had five catches for 75 yards.

With Davis held in check, the Golden Eagles relied on their defense, stopping Mark on fourth-and-1 at midfield with 3:56 left. Mark had 183 yards rushing for the Wolf Pack (7-6) but was held to just 21 yards in the second half.

"Our offense in the second half -- our offensive front just didn't get it done at all and I was really disappointed in that aspect of it. We got stopped on two fourth-and-1s," Wolf Pack coach Chris Ault said.

Nevada was without its top receiver, Rishard Matthews, who has 91 receptions for 1,364 yards and eight TDs.
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By Mike LaPlante


Jarnell Stokes has made a lot of people in the state of Tennessee very happy after picking the Volunteers over Kentucky, Memphis, Arkansas and Florida.

"I have spent a lot of time in prayer about what to do and I believe that the University of Tennessee is the right place for me," Stokes said. "I am excited about the future at Tennessee. I am going to work as hard as I can to fit in with my teammates and learn the system as quickly as I can to help the team."

The 6-foot-8, 250-pound power forward, ranked No. 18 in ESPNU's 2012 top 100 rankings, took an interesting path to Tennessee.

After being ruled ineligible for his senior season when he transferred from Memphis Central High School to Southwind High School, Stokes decided to take the necessary courses to graduate early and enroll in college for the start of the second semester. That decision helped to escalate his unique recruiting process to a feverish pitch as teams jockeyed for position for his services.

Tennessee, who had recruited Stokes hard for the 2012 class, ended up the winner in the last-minute sweepstakes.

First-year coach Cuonzo Martin inherited a difficult situation when he took over the Volunteers' basketball program, but the news of Stokes' decision to attend Tennessee is a vital development that should help Martin right the ship faster than most expected.

"We walk by faith not sight," Stokes said. "I am fortunate that that I have great people surrounding me. All the adversity that I have been through has made me a better person."
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Here are some links to newspapers who do a great job covering SEC sports and the teams of the Southeastern Conference. Be sure to follow your favorite team and the work of their beat writers.

Alabama
www.al.com
Arkansas
www.nwarktimes.com
Auburn
www.al.com/auburn/
Florida
www.gainesville.com
Georgia
www.onlineathens.com/dogbytes/
Kentucky
www.kentucky.com/sports/
LSU
www.2theadvocate.com/sports/
MSU
www.clarionledger.com
Mississippi
www.clarionledger.com
USC
www.thestate.com/
Tennessee
www.knoxnews.com/news/sports/
Vanderbilt
www.tennessean.com/section/SPORTS

Also follow the fine work of ESPN.com's Chris Low who does a great job following the conference.

ESPN myespn.go.com/blogs/sec