S. Florida rallies late to top Illinois

CHICAGO — llinois seemingly had the game in hand. Itwas going to be a mark of significant improvement for the Illini.

Then, SouthFloridamadeacoupleof plays after Illinois had held it in check. None more important than a 50-yard touchdown bomb with 2 minutes, 24 seconds left in the fourth quarter that ultimately cemented the Bulls’ 25-19 victory.

Quarterback Blake Barnett connected with Darnell Salomon on third-and-20 for the score and hit Randall St. Felix for the two-point conversion that completed an 18-point comeback in the fourth quarter.

The Illini hadn’t trailed up until that point, appearing to be on the way to avenging last season’s 47-23 loss to South Florida.

With six seconds left, facing third-and 15, freshman quarterback M.J. Rivers II overthrew a receiver in the end zone to end the game.

Illini kicker Chase McLaughlin has become the team’s most reliable player, making all four of his field goal attempts (26 yards, 46, 53 and 41).

The Illini took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter with Mike Epstein’s 43-yard touchdownrun.

Rivers made his first start in place of injured senior AJ Bush Jr. Bush left the previousgameagainstWestern Illinois with a hamstring injury.

—Shannon Ryan

NIU 24, Central Michigan 16: At DeKalb, Marcus Childers threw for three touchdowns, and a late interception by Northern Illinois preserved the Huskies’ win over Central Michigan in a Mid-American Conference opener.

With CMU at the Huskies’ 15-yard line, Vinny Labus intercepted Tommy Lazzaro’s pass that bounced off the hands ofCameron Cole with 20 seconds left.

Down 21-3, Lazzaro replaced starter Tony Poljan to begin the comeback in third quarter. Lazzaro scored on a 6-yard run to make it 21-10, and on CMU’s next possession, led the Chippewas 73 yards on a drive that ended when he connected with Julian Hicks on a 4-yard scoring pass that made it 24-16 with 9:43 left.

Childers threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Spencer Tears to put the Huskies (1-2) ahead 7-3 with 4:03 before halftime.

Notre Dame 22, Vanderbilt 17: At South Bend, Ind., Jalen Elliott knocked the ball loose from Vanderbilt receiver Kalija Lipscomb with 1:07 remaining to give Notre Dame a fourth-down stop and No. 8 Notre Dame held on for a victory over the Commodores.

Kyle Shurmur threw for 326 yards and one touchdownforVanderbilt (2-1), rallying his team back from a 16-3 halftime deficit. Hisfourth-and-4 pass fromtheNotreDame 31 to Lipscomb, who caught a game-high 11 passes for 89 yards, was nicely thrown and the receiver almost made a reaching catch at the 11. But the safety Elliott, with some help from the ground, knocked the ball loose and incomplete.

“I’m proud of the effort and the way we competed,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. “We’re trying to find our identity on offense. We’re far fromwherewewant tobe on the offensive line and as an offense. Our defense is good but not a great defense yet. But there are a lot of positives to take from this.”

Vanderbilt finished with420yards to380 for the Irish, who did not turn the ball over but got three fromthe Commodores. Notre Dame, which entered the game 104th in rushing offense at 124.5 yards per game, finished with 245 rushing yards.

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

—Associated Press