Click here to subscribe today or Login.
First Posted: 9/7/2013
Miami made it two big victories for the Atlantic Coast Conference against the Southeastern Conference in the first two weeks of the college football season.
The Hurricanes beat mistake-prone No. 12 Florida 21-16 on Saturday. Add that to Clemson’s victory against Georgia and the ACC can come away feeling good about its early season showing against the league that has won the last seven national championships.
Ultimately, it was a split of four spotlight matchups. No. 1 Alabama beat Virginia Tech handily and South Carolina whipped North Carolina in the opening weekend of the season.
But considering all the grief the ACC generally takes for not being able to stand up to the mighty SEC, .500 is looking solid.
“How about that ACC? Spunky little old league?” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said after his Tigers had an easy follow-up victory against South Carolina State on Saturday.
Miami needed a lot of help from Florida.
The Gators had five turnovers and numerous empty trips to the red zone. Florida outgained Miami 413-212, but Stephen Morris threw a couple of TD passes and the Hurricanes held on.
No. 2 Oregon 59, Virginia 10
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — De’Anthony Thomas ran for 124 yards and three touchdowns, Marcus Mariota threw for two touchdowns and ran 71 yards for another score, and Oregon started fast and completely manhandled Virginia.
The Ducks (2-0), who gained a school-record 772 yards last week in beating Nicholls State, looked capable of doing it again against a Virginia defense that hoped to keep the Cavaliers in the game. Oregon finished with 557 yards and did all its scoring while possessing the ball for just 21:25.
Virginia (1-1) got an early look at what it was up against as Mariota dropped back on a third-and-5 on the opening series, then bolted up the middle untouched, going 71 yards for a touchdown.
After 1:51, the Ducks were on their way to their 16th consecutive victory on their opponent’s field, the longest streak in the country.
No. 4 Clemson 52, South Carolina St. 13
CLEMSON, S.C. — Tajh Boyd ran for a touchdown and Clemson returned two interceptions for scores for the first time in program history in a win over FCS opponent South Carolina State.
Boyd finished 14-of-23 passing for 169 yards after accounting for five TDs a week ago and becoming a prime Heisman Trophy contender as the Tigers (2-0) defeated No. 11 Georgia 38-35.
In this one, Boyd scored Clemson’s first touchdown and played only a half against the Bulldogs (0-2) before finding a spot on the Death Valley sidelines next to offensive coordinator Chad Morris. That was more than enough, though, for Clemson to move to 27-0 all-time against FCS teams.
Cornerbacks Martin Jenkins and Darius Robinson each had pick-6 scores to help the Tigers to a 38-7 lead by halftime.
Backup Cole Stoudt had three touchdown passes, two to reserve Germone Hopper, in the blowout.
No. 7 Texas A&M 65, Sam Houston St. 28
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Johnny Manziel threw for 426 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another score in less than three quarters to give No. 7 Texas A&M to a victory.
The Heisman Trophy-winner played about a quarter more than he did last week when he sat out the first half serving a suspension for what the school called an “inadvertent” violation of NCAA rules involving signing autographs.
Texas A&M’s suspension-depleted defense was burned for several big plays by the Bearkats, the FCS runner-up the last two seasons, in the final tuneup before next week’s rematch with top-ranked Alabama.
Sam Houston’s Timothy Flanders had 170 yards rushing with two scores and added a TD reception.
Texas A&M’s Mike Evans had a career-high 155 yards receiving, Tra Carson ran for 51 with two touchdowns and Ben Malena had 68 yards rushing and a score.
No. 8 Louisville 44, E. Kentucky 7
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Teddy Bridgewater threw for 397 yards and four touchdowns, and Louisville routed Eastern Kentucky on a day the Cardinals’ defense just missed it second straight shutout.
Linebacker Preston Brown had two sacks for Louisville, and Calvin Pryor had an interception as Louisville limited Eastern Kentucky (1-1) to 76 yards of total offense in the first half.
Following the noon kickoff, Louisville (2-0) settled for a pair of field goals from John Wallace after turnovers gave the offense short fields. The Cardinals also settled for a third field goal in the third quarter despite reaching Eastern Kentucky’s 4.
Bridgewater hit his first five passes and wound up 23 of 32 with no interceptions after throwing five touchdowns with one interception in the opener. He tossed TD passes to Damian Copeland, and two to DeVante Parker and Gerald Christian while connecting with eight different receivers.
Miami 21, No. 12 Florida 16
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Stephen Morris threw two first-quarter touchdown passes, and Miami took advantage of Florida giving the ball away on four red-zone opportunities on the way to knocking off the Gators.
Duke Johnson added a 2-yard touchdown run with 3:29 left to make it 21-9 Miami (2-0), which has won four straight games for the first time since 2008 and will almost certainly return to the AP Top 25 on Sunday for the first time since 2010.
Jeff Driskel threw for a career-best 291 yards and had a 21-yard touchdown pass to Solomon Patton with 2:08 left for the Gators (1-1), who lost three fumbles, had two passes intercepted and were stopped once on downs. Driskel also ran for a touchdown.
No. 13 Oklahoma St. 56, UTSA 35
SAN ANTONIO — New starter J.W. Walsh completed his first 10 passes and finished 24-of-27 for 326 yards with four touchdowns to lead Oklahoma State over UTSA.
It’s the fourth start for the sophomore Walsh, his first this season after a quick relief performance for Clint Chelf last week. With his speedy start against a Roadrunners team entering its third season of football, Walsh led the Cowboys (2-0) to TDs on five of six first-half possessions.
UTSA (1-1) tied the score 7-7 when Kenny Bias scored on a 6-yard run with 4:22 left in the first quarter. But Walsh scored from 4 yards out in the second and the Cowboys led 35-7 at halftime.
Walsh left with six minutes left in the third and the Cowboys up 42-7.
No. 16 Oklahoma 16, West Virginia 7
NORMAN, Okla. — Brennan Clay had career-high 170 yards rushing as Oklahoma overcame a second-half quarterback switch defeat West Virginia.
The No. 16 Sooners (2-0, 1-0 Big 12) scored the game’s final 16 points after trailing 7-0 in the first quarter. Freshman quarterback Trevor Knight threw a pair of third-quarter interceptions, leading to junior Blake Bell taking over in the fourth quarter.
Clay finished with 22 carries, leading an Oklahoma offense that had 323 yards rushing and topping his previous best of 157 yards rushing against Iowa State in 2012.
Paul Millard was 21-of-42 passing for 218 yards for the Mountaineers (1-1, 0-1), whose lone score came on a 75-yard touchdown run by Dreamius Smith in the first quarter.
No. 23 Baylor 70, Buffalo 13
WACO, Texas — Bryce Petty threw for 338 yards and two touchdowns, Lache Seastrunk ran for 150 yards with three scores and Baylor’s first-team offense had 576 total yards in only 11 minutes with the ball in a rout of Buffalo.
The starters for the Bears (2-0) had eight touchdowns in their nine drives. The only non-scoring drive was when they had the ball at the end of the first half.
Baylor finished with a school-record 781 total yards and topped the 69 points scored a week earlier in what had been the most for the Bears since 1929.
No. 24 TCU 38, SE Louisiana 17
FORT WORTH, Texas — Trevone Boykin led three straight scoring drives after starter Casey Pachall left with an injury game, and TCU pulled away from Southeastern Louisiana.
Pachall appeared to injure his left arm or wrist at the end of a running play late in the second quarter. Boykin ran 16 yards on the next play, and Jaden Oberkrom ended the first half with a 46-yard field goal that put the Horned Frogs (1-1) ahead 17-14.
Boykin completed a 29-yard pass to Brandon Carter on the first play of the second half, and Carter finished that drive with a 5-yard scoring run. Then Boykin threw 27 yards to Josh Doctson for a 31-14 lead.