Seminoles hold off Tar Heels’ charge
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Jordan Travis ran for two touchdowns and threw a scoring pass to help Florida State build a big first-half lead, and the Seminoles held off No. 5 North Carolina 31-28 in Atlantic Coast Conference play on Saturday night.
Travis guided an offense that generated 434 yards for Florida State (2-3, 1-3), but was shut out in the second half.
North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell led three second-half touchdown drives to pull to 31-28. The Tar Heels (3-1, 3-1) drove into Florida State territory but had drops on third and fourth down in the final seconds to end the comeback bid.
The Seminoles gave Coach Mike Norvell a signature victory in his first season in Tallahassee following a shaky start, which included a blowout loss at Miami.
Travis, a redshirt sophomore making just his second career start, completed 8 of 19 passes for 191 yards and a 12-yard touchdown pass to Camren McDonald. He also ran 16 times for 107 yards as the Seminoles jumped out to a 31-7 halftime lead, the most dominating performance for the program in recent memory.
What followed was a nail-biting second half as the Tar Heels mounted a comeback attempt. Howell completed 20 of 36 yards for 374 yards against the Seminoles, whom he was committed to for about six months in 2018 before signing with North Carolina just weeks after Mack Brown was hired.
North Carolina was 13th in FBS in third-down conversions (51%) coming into the game, but the Tar Heels were just 2 of 11 on third-down conversions and 0 for 3 on fourthdown tries.
The Seminoles also had four sacks, surpassing its fourgame total coming into the game. Janarius Robinson had two sacks, Jarvis Brownlee had a sack while Cory Durden and DJ Lundy each had half sacks.
Florida State ran for a season-high 241 yards on 36 carries, averaging 6.7 yards per carry. La’Damian Webb had 109 yards on 12 carries.
NO. 1 CLEMSON 73, GEORGIA TECH 7
ATLANTA — Trevor Lawrence brushed off his first interception of the season to pass for a career-high 404 yards and five touchdowns in Clemson’s romp over
Georgia Tech.
Lawrence completed 24 of 32 passes. All of his scoring passes came in the Tigers’ dominant first half. Clemson led 52-7 at halftime and kept adding to the lead in the second, even with second- and third- (and maybe fourth-) stringers on the field.
Lawrence left the game after Clemson’s first possession of the second half.
Clemson (5-0, 4-0 ACC) outgained Georgia Tech (2-3, 2-2) 671-204. The Tigers compiled an equally lopsided 29-7 advantage in first downs.
The second-longest streak of passes without an interception in ACC history ended late in the first quarter when Zamari Walton picked off a pass by Lawrence. Under pressure from Georgia Tech’s pass rush, Lawrence overthrew Powell. Walton ended Lawrence’s streak of 367 passes without an interception.
It was Lawrence’s first interception since Oct. 19, 2019, at Louisville. North Carolina State’s Russell Wilson set the ACC record with 379 consecutive passes without an interception from 2018-19.
NO. 4 NOTRE DAME 12, LOUISVILLE 7
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Kyren Williams ran for 127 yards, Ian Book had a 13-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter and Notre Dame held off Louisville.
Williams ran 25 times and had his third 100-yard game of the season to help the Irish (4-0, 3-0 ACC) win their 22nd consecutive game at Notre Dame Stadium.
It came against an inspired 3-4 Louisville defense that spent most of the afternoon on the field. Notre Dame controlled the clock for more than 36 minutes, including a game-ending 14-play drive that burned the final 7:55.
Book completed 11 of 19 for 106 yards and ran 12 times for 47 yards.
The Cardinals (1-4, 0-4) have lost four in a row.
NO. 13 MIAMI 31, PITTSBURGH 19
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — D’Eriq King threw four touchdown passes to help Miami beat Pittsburgh.
Will Mallory caught two of King’s scoring passes and the Hurricanes (4-1, 3-1 ACC) bounced back from a 42-17 loss at top-ranked Clemson last week.
The Panthers (3-3, 2-3) lost their third in a row and were without senior quarterback Kenny Pickett. He suffered an ankle injury against Boston College last week.
NO. 24 VIRGINIA TECH 40, BOSTON COLLEGE 14
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Hendon Hooker ran for a career-high 164 yards and three touchdowns and threw for a score in No. 23 Virginia Tech’s victory.
Khalil Herbert added 143 yards rushing for the Hokies (3-1, 3-1 ACC). They ran for 350 yards in bouncing back from a road loss to North Carolina.
Virginia Tech scored off of four of BC’s five turnovers to pull away. The Eagles (3-2, 2-2) turned it over three times in the first half alone, with the most damaging coming when quarterback Phil Jurkovec overthrew an open Jaelen Gill deep in Virginia Tech territory. Devin Taylor intercepted the pass for the Hokies, and Hooker’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Herbert made it 17-7.
Boston College cut it to 17-14 on a touchdown pass from Jurkovec to Hunter Long with 7:11 left in the third quarter, but the Hokies scored the final 24 points — 17 of those off BC turnovers.
Jurkovec threw for 345 yards and two touchdowns, but he also turned the ball over three times.