(STATS) - A matchup of No. 5 and 6 college football teams is supposed to be a thriller.
Just not FCS No. 5 vs. FBS No. 6.
Defending Ohio Valley Conference champion Jacksonville State was unfazed by its daunting challenge on Saturday and nearly pulled off one of college football's biggest upsets before falling 27-20 in overtime to SEC national power Auburn at a stunned Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Peyton Barber's 4-yard touchdown on the first possession of overtime was the difference for Auburn (2-0), which had to force the extra session on Jeremy Johnson's 10-yard TD pass to Melvin Ray with 39 seconds left.
Jacksonville State got to the Auburn 5 on its OT possession, but Cassanova McKinzy's 16-yard sack of quarterback Eli Jenkins on 3rd-and-goal effectively killed the scoring opportunity.
Jenkins tested Auburn all game, completing 26 of 43 attempts for 277 yards and a touchdown with one interception.
Located in Alabama about two hours north of Auburn, the Gamecocks had beaten another SEC team, Ole Miss, to open the 2010 season. Auburn, the FBS national runner-up in 2013, was the highest-ranked team ever faced by the Gamecocks (1-1), who just a week ago were in a Top 10 matchup on the FCS level and beat Chattanooga 23-20.
Jacksonville State forced two turnovers in the fourth quarter and was in position for the upset after Troymaine Pope's 5-yard touchdown run with 5:38 left to play broke a 13-13 tie. He finished with 85 yards on 21 carries.
The game echoed thoughts of Appalachian State's 34-32 stunner over No. 5 Michigan to open the 2007 season - the only top-10 FBS team to lose to an FCS school.
The Gamecocks built a 10-6 halftime lead behind Jenkins' 11-yard touchdown pass to Josh Barge with 5:31 left in the second quarter. Auburn reclaimed a 13-10 lead on Johnson's 51-yard TD pass to Roc Thomas in the third, but Jacksonville State tied the game on Connor Rouleau's 26-yard field goal with 10:43 remaining in the fourth.
Possibly having overlooked its small-school opponent, Auburn caught a big break with just over two minutes remaining. As the Gamecocks were nursing their 20-13 lead, Hamish MacInnes, punting from his 17, knocked the ball only 14 yards to set up the Tigers for the game-tying score.
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STATS FCS TOP 25=
ALL TIMES ET
SATURDAY, SEPT. 12
Purdue (1-1) 38, No. 21 Indiana State (1-1) 14
Indiana State quarterback Matt Adam passed for 194 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another 80 yards, but the Sycamores failed to stop Purdue's Austin Appleby, who threw for four touchdowns.
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No. 22 Richmond (1-1) 31, Hampton (1-1) 28
Richmond scored all 15 points of the fourth quarter to sidestep an upset.
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Mars Hill (0-1) at No. 10 Chattanooga (0-1), 1 p.m.
No. 7 Eastern Washington (0-1) at No. 14 Northern Iowa (0-1), 2 p.m.
No. 15 Liberty (1-0) at West Virginia (1-0), 3 p.m.
Weber State (0-1) at No. 2 North Dakota State (0-1), 3:30 p.m.
Lehigh (1-0) at No. 13 James Madison (1-0), 4 p.m.
No. 12 New Hampshire (0-1) at Colgate (0-1), 6 p.m.
No. 6 Villanova (0-1) at No. 16 Fordham (1-0), 6 p.m.
No. 19 Eastern Kentucky (1-0) at North Carolina State (1-0), 6 p.m.
No. 3 Coastal Carolina (1-0) at South Carolina State (1-0), 6 p.m.
No. 24 Portland State (1-0, 0-0 Big Sky) at No. 23 Idaho State (1-0, 0-0), 6:05 p.m.
Southern Utah (0-1) at No. 9 South Dakota State (1-0), 7 p.m.
Robert Morris (0-1) at No. 17 Youngstown State (0-1), 7 p.m.
Morgan State (0-1) at No. 4 Illinois State (0-1), 7:30 p.m.
Florida Tech (0-0) at No. 20 Southeastern Louisiana (1-0), 8 p.m.
No. 18 Cal Poly (1-0) at Arizona State (0-1), 11 p.m.
IDLE
No. 1 Sam Houston State (0-1)
No. 8 Montana (1-1)
No. 11 Montana State (1-0)
No. 25 Harvard (0-0)
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