No. 8 Notre Dame holds off Vanderbilt

Jalen Elliott knocked the ball loose from Vanderbilt receiver Kalija Lipscomb with 1:07 remaining to give Notre Dame a fourthdown stop and No. 8 Notre Dame held on for a 22-17 victory Saturday.

Kyle Shurmur threw for 326 yards and a touchdown for Vanderbilt (21), rallying his team from a 16-3 halftime deficit. His fourth-and-4 pass from the Notre Dame 31 to Lipscomb, who caught 11 passes, was nicely thrown and the receiver almost made a reaching catch at the 11. But Elliott, with some help from the ground, knocked the ball loose and incomplete.

Tony Jones Jr. finished with 118 yards on 17 carries for Notre Dame (3-0). He also caught two passes from quarterback Brandon Wimbush for 56 yards.

Wimbush, who had 297 passing yards but three interceptions in the 24-16 victory against Ball State, threw for 122 yards and added 84 yards on the ground, including a 13yard scramble for a touchdown as Notre Dame took an early 10-0 lead late in the first quarter. But despite a 2-yard TD pass from backup quarterback Ian Book to tight end Nic Weishar early in the fourth quarter for a 22-10 lead, the Irish struggled over the last three quarters and had to hold on.

A week of worry at Clemson over an approaching hurricane ended with a victory over Georgia Southern in front of a full crowd.

Travis Etienne ran for 162 yards and two touchdowns for the No. 2 Tigers (3-0) and Trevor Lawrence threw for 194 yards, including a 57-yard score to fellow freshman Justyn Ross in their first meeting with Georgia Southern (21) of the Sun Belt Conference.

Clemson was the lone major conference school in the Carolinas and Virginia to play, although school officials did move up the game to noon instead of its planned 3:30 p.m. start in deference to Florence, a one-time Category 4 hurricane that was a slow moving tropical storm by Saturday.

At kickoff, though, the crowd of 79,844 had sun and mild breezes for tailgates like many football Saturdays. Conditions changed by halftime with bands of grey clouds over the stadium and the wind picking up. Florence’s drenching rain was forecast to hit the area Saturday night.

Clemson outgained Georgia Southern 595-140.

Jake Fromm threw three touchdown passes and Elijah Holyfield ran for 100 yards, each playing only the first half for Georgia.

Georgia (3-0) led the Blue Raiders (1-2) 42-7 at halftime. It was an impressive warmup for the Bulldogs’ stretch of seven straight Southeastern Conference games, beginning next week at Missouri. There were clouds but no rain in the game that was moved up to a noon kickoff due to Tropical Storm Florence.

Freshman Justin Fields ran 15 yards for a touchdown in the first half and threw a touchdowns pass in relief of Fromm. Jeremiah Holloman caught three passes for 90 yards, including an 11-yard scoring pass from Fromm in the first quarter. Mecole Hardman had a touchdown catch and a 70-yard punt return touchdown, and Tyler Simmons had a 56-yard touchdown run.

Kyler Murray threw for 348 yards and three touchdowns and Oklahoma held off Iowa State 37-27 in the Big 12 opener for both teams.

Marquise Brown had 191 yards receiving and a TD to help the Sooners (30), a year removed from a stunning home loss to the Cyclones, extend the nation’s longest road winning streak to 17 games.

Murray also ran for a team-high 77 yards.

Iowa State (0-2) rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit to make it 3427 late in the third quarter. But the Sooners killed nearly eight minutes on a drive that ended with a 42yard field goal from Austin Siebert with 2:51 left, and Parnell Motley’s interception with 1:11 to go sealed.

Backup Zeb Noland threw for a career-high 360 yards and a pair of long touchdown passes to Hakeem Butler for the Cyclones. Starting quarterback Kyle Kempt sat out with a knee injury.

K.J. Costello overcame a rough start to throw two touchdown passes to JJ Arcega-Whiteside and Stanford beat FCS-level UC Davis.

Costello threw interceptions on two of the first three drives of the game for the Cardinal (30) before settling in a bit against the overmatched Aggies (2-1).

The game kicked off at the unusually early time of 11:01 a.m. local time in front of a sparse crowd at Stanford Stadium. The Cardinal even played without star running Bryce Love, who got the week off to heal some minor ailments. Costello finished 17 for 30 for 214 yards with two TDs and two interceptions.

The defense did the rest against a UC Davis team that averaged 49 points per game and more than 500 yards of offense in season-opening wins over San Jose State and San Diego.

Malik Rosier threw for two touchdowns and ran for three more to help Miami beat Toledo.

The Hurricanes (2-1) never trailed and led 21-0 late in the first half, but Toledo (1-1) twice pulled within a touchdown.

Rosier threw for 205 yards and ran for 80, and Jeff Thomas had five catches for 105 yards and a TD.

The Hurricanes lost standout safety Jaquan Johnson late in the second quarter to an apparent injury.