Georgia running back Nate Frazier (3) gets past Clemson cornerback Jeadyn Lukus (10) for a big gain in a marquee opening week matchup in Atlanta.
John Bazemore | AP photo
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ATLANTA — Carson Beck threw for 278 yards, including a pair of touchdowns, and No. 1 Georgia opened another season of enormous expectations by stifling 14th-ranked Clemson 34-3 on Saturday.
Leading only 6-0 at halftime, Georgia finally got its offense rolling in the third quarter with a pair of 75-yard touchdown drives, capped by Colbie Young’s 7-yard reception and Nate Frazier’s 1-yard run. Beck tacked on a 40-yard TD pass to London Humphreys that sent the Clemson side of Mercedes-Benz Stadium heading for the exits.
Clemson was held to 188 yards and Nolan Hauser’s 26-yard field goal.
“To me, it feels like a playoff game,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “It’s a great way to try to assess where you are as a team. No longer do you have to win every game (because of the expanded playoff). But you do want to be playing your best at the end of the year. One of the ways to do that is to get quality wins.”
All-American Malaki Starks showed why he’s regarded as one of the nation’s top defensive backs, leaping high and twisting his body to make a stellar interception in the fourth quarter.
“I do think the play he made today is one of the best defensive plays I’ve ever seen,” Smart said. “How he could go find that ball and get it is pretty special.”
Frazier had an impressive start to his college career.
The freshman finished with 83 yards on 11 carries, standing out with a cutback that led to a 40-yard run.
No. 4 TEXAS 52, COLORADO STATE 0
AUSTIN, Texas — Quinn Ewers passed for 260 yards and three touchdowns and No. 4 Texas rolled past Colorado State in the opener for both teams.
Ewers connected with Matthew Golden for a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter, and had another strike to Isaiah Bond as the Longhorns built a 31-0 lead by halftime.
A big question for Texas heading into this season was just how quickly Ewers and Texas would find their rhythm in a passing attack that lost the top five receivers from the 2023 Big 12 championship team. Texas joined the Southeastern Conference this year.
Golden transferred from Houston and Bond from Alabama, and Ewers and his rebuilt receiving corps easily carved up the Rams. After a slow start that included a stalled drive and an interception on Texas’ first three possessions, Texas scored 24 points in the second quarter.
No. 15 TENNESSEE 69, CHATTANOOGA 3
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Nico Iamaleava threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns — all in the first half — in his first regular-season start to lead the 15th-ranked Volunteers to a victory over Chattanooga.
Dylan Sampson rushed for 124 yards and three scores in the first half as the Volunteers had an easy opener against an in-state FCS foe. Chattanooga, ranked eighth in the FCS preseason poll, didn’t cross into Tennessee territory until its first drive of the second half.
Tennessee dominated both sides of the ball in the first half and built a 45-0 lead. The Vols put up 490 yards of total offense and the Mocs didn’t get past their own 47.
No. 17 OKLAHOMA STATE 44, SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 20
STILLWATER, Okla. — Alan Bowman threw three touchdown passes, Ollie Gordon II scored three times and No. 17 Oklahoma State ended two-time defending FCS national champion South Dakota State’s 29-game winning streak with a victory.
Bowman, beginning his seventh year of eligibility at age 24, completed 24 of 33 passes for 265 yards in the opener for both teams. He threw scoring passes of 6 yards to Brennan Presley, 22 yards to Ollie Gordon II and 58 yards to Rashod Owens.
Gordon, a junior who won the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back last season, carried 27 times for 104 yards and two scores. His second touchdown, on a short pass from Bowman, covered 22 yards for a 24-6 lead with 10:46 left in the third.
No. 19 MIAMI 41, FLORIDA 17
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Cam Ward threw for 385 yards and three touchdowns and No. 19 Miami dominated Florida to give coach Mario Cristobal a signature victory to start his third season at his alma mater.
The Hurricanes controlled both lines of scrimmage and never trailed in the renewal of a once-heated rivalry. The latest iteration was a one-sided beatdown, the kind that sent Florida fans scurrying for the exits in the third quarter and raised speculation about coach Billy Napier’s job security.
Napier fell to 11-15 in Gainesville, including 2-10 against ranked opponents and 1-8 against rivals Miami, Florida State, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee. The Gators lost their sixth consecutive game overall and witnessed the end of their 33-game winning streak in home openers, a run that started with Steve Spurrier’s arrival in 1990.
Now, Napier has the same number of losses at Florida Field in two-plus seasons (five) as Spurrier had in a dozen years.
Napier’s buyout would be a little more than $25 million for the Gators to fire him during or after this season. But that fact his buyout is common knowledge points to how dysfunctional his tenure has been.
This year was supposed to be different. He layered nearly every aspect of the program, hiring a new defensive coordinator, a new special teams coordinator, a new strength and conditioning coach and a new nutritionist.
Little looked different to begin Year 3 and now Napier has to hope “The U” is a legit national championship contender to soften his worst home loss.
Among the most egregious miscues: Napier, who retained play-calling duties despite outside cries for him to give them up, dialed up runs on two third-and-5 plays. And his defense committed two roughing the passer penalties to extend first-half drives that led to touchdowns.