Williams leads No. 10 Notre Dame to win over Duke in ACC debut
Kyren Williams ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns in his first start, grad quarterback Ian Book threw for 263 yards and No. 10 Notre Dame beat Duke 27-13 on Saturday at rainy Notre Dame Stadium in the season and Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams.
The speedy Williams, who saw limited action last season as a freshman, had 19 carries and also was Notre Dame’s leading receiver with two receptions for 93 yards, one a 75-yarder in the first half.
The victory was Notre Dame’s 19th straight at home and the first for the Fighting Irish in a conference after 132 years as an independent. Because of COVID-19, the Irish are playing this season as a member of the ACC. The school announced a crowd of 10,097, 90% of them students, attended the game in the 77,622-seat stadium where fans were wearing masks and socially distanced because of the pandemic.
The triumph also came on a day when the school announced a four-year contract extension for coach Brian Kelly, who is now 9-2 in openers at Notre Dame.
Book outdueled Duke grad quarterback Chase Brice, who threw for 259 yards on 20-of-37 passing and rushed for a touchdown in his debut for coach David Cutcliffe after transferring in from Clemson.
Book completed 19 of 31 passes, one a 17-yard TD pass to Avery Davis early in the fourth quarter that increased the Irish lead to 24-13. He rushed for just 12 yards on nine carries.
Totre Dame finished with a 439-334 edge in total offense, including a 176-75 advantage on the ground.
TOP 25
A No. 18 North Carolina 31, Syracuse 6: Javonte Williams ran for three fourth-quarter touchdowns and North Carolina overcame a mistake-filled performance to beat Syracuse in the season and Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Michael Carter added 138 yards of total offense for the Tar Heels in an empty home stadium after the school opted to open with no fans in attendance due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Syracuse’s offense did little well, generating little from its running game unless it came on quarterback
Syracuse’s Tommy DeVito completed just 13 of 31 passes for 112 yards while taking seven sacks, and the Orange finished with 202 total yards.
A Louisiana- Lafayette 31, No. 23 Iowa State 14: The Ragin’ Cajuns got kick and punt returns for touchdowns to help secure one of its biggest wins in program history an easy win over the Cyclones at Ames, Iowa.
On a day when both offenses seemed overmatched, the Ragin’ Cajuns were ignited by Chris Smith’s 95-yard kickoff return in the second quarter and Eric Garror’s 83yard punt return in the third.
Levi Lewis also threw a 78-yard scoring pass to
Peter LeBlanc to give Louisiana-Lafayette a 17-14 lead late in the third quarter.
Louisiana-Lafayette beat a Top 25 opponent for the first time, having gone 0-26 against ranked foes away from home. The Ragin’ Cajuns’ only other win over a Top 25 team was in 1996 at home against Texas A&M.
The Ragin’ Cajuns limited Cyclones quarterback Brock Purdy to 16-of-35 passing for 145 yards, with no touchdowns and an interception. It was ISU’s fewest passing yards in two years.
Iowa State’s Breece Hall rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.
OTHER GAMES
A Arkansas State 35, Kansas State 31: Jonathan Adams Jr. caught three touchdown passes, including the game-winner with 38 seconds remaining, and the Red Wolves edged the host Wildcats.
Layne Hatcher threw a 17-yard pass to Adams for the winning score after the Wildcats (0-1) had taken a 31-28 lead on a Blake Lynch 35-yard field goal with 2:30 remaining.
Arkansas State (1-1) faked a punt that led to a pass interference call, keeping a drive alive and leading to a 5-yard TD pass to Adams from Logan Bonner for a 28-21 lead with just under 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Kansas State responded with Harry Trotter’s 5-yard touchdown run before Lynch’s go-ahead field goal.
A West Virginia 56, Eastern Kentucky 10: Jarrett Doege threw three touchdown passes, Leddie Brown and Alec Sinkfield gave the host Mountaineers running game a lift it hadn’t seen in quite some time, and the West Virginia trounced Colonels.
Brown and Sinkfield both finished with career highs of 123 yards and two rushing TDs in the Mountaineers’ season opener. It marked the first time that two West Virginia players went over 100 yards in the same game since the 2017 season.
ELSEWHERE
The pandemic disrupted college sports again Saturday, with Virginia and Virginia Tech postponing their Sept. 19 football opener because of COVID-19 issues at Virginia Tech. The schools said this was a mutual agreement. No makeup date was announced for the game that had been set for Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium. Virginia Tech also will not hold football practice for four days.
The postponement is the second for the Hokies since the Atlantic Coast Conference released a revised schedule. Their original opening game, slated for Sept. 12 against North Carolina State, was pushed back two weeks after a COVID-19 outbreak at N.C. State.
Virginia, suddenly faced with not opening its season until Oct. 3 at No. 1 Clemson, announced it has moved its home game against Duke to Sept. 26. The game was originally scheduled for Nov. 14.
A day earlier, Memphis announced it had multiple positive tests within the football program and a “significant number of individuals” who had to be quarantined because of contact tracing.
The Tigers’ game against Houston on Friday was eventually postponed.