Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Lock, Dooley, Missouri top Tennessee
MISSOURI 50, TENNESSEE 17
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Drew Lock threw two touchdown passes and Larry Rountree rushed for 135 yards Saturday as Missouri trounced Tennessee 50-17 for its third consecutive victory.
Lock went 21 of 30 for 257 yards and moved into second place on the SEC’s career passing yardage list. Lock has thrown for 11,599 yards in his career to overtake David Greene, who passed for 11,528 yards at Georgia from 2001-04.
The SEC record holder is Aaron Murray, who compiled 13,166 career passing yards for Georgia from 2010-13.
Missouri (7-4, 3-4 SEC) scored touchdowns on four consecutive possessions in offensive coordinator Derek Dooley’s return to Neyland Stadium. Dooley posted a 1521 record as Tennessee’s head coach from 2010-12 before getting fired during his third consecutive losing season.
Ty Chandler had two touchdown runs for Tennessee (5-6, 2-5), which lost starting quarterback Jarrett Guarantano to an injury. Keller Chryst replaced Guarantano early in the second quarter and went 7 of 19 for 173 yards with 2 interceptions.
NO. 1 ALABAMA 50, CITADEL 17
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Tua Tagovailoa passed for 340 yards and three touchdowns but No. 1 Alabama struggled for 30-plus minutes before putting away The Citadel.
The Crimson Tide (11-0), which had coasted against SEC opponents, went into halftime tied 10-10 with the FCS Bulldogs (4-6).
It wasn’t until ‘Bama scored two touchdowns in a 12-second span on its way to a 27-point third quarter that the Tide could rest easy.
NO. 13 FLORIDA 63, IDAHO 10
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Feleipe Franks passed for 274 yards and three touchdowns — all in the first half — and No. 13 Florida ran up 600 total yards to rout overmatched Idaho.
Florida rolled to a 49-0 lead at halftime. Gators defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson returned an interception 26 yards for a touchdown on the first play to start the onslaught. Four other touchdown drives took less than two minutes and the longest of the seven first-half scores came in 2:24.
Franks hit on 19-of-27 passes and led the Gators to a 42-0 lead before he was lifted with 5:22 left in the second quarter.
NO. 17 KENTUCKY 34, MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE 23
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mike Edwards had two takeaways leading to Kentucky’s first two touchdowns and the No. 20 Wildcats made several fourth-quarter defensive stops to escape Middle Tennessee.
Kentucky (8-3) ended a two-game slide but had to survive the Blue Raiders’ rally to 31-23 early in the fourth. Wildcats senior linebacker Josh Allen sacked Brent Stockstill for a 7-yard loss on fourth down and set up Miles Butler’s 32-yard field goal with 4:01 remaining.
NO. 5 GEORGIA 66, MASSACHUSETTS 27
ATHENS, Ga. — Freshman Justin Fields threw two scoring passes and ran for another touchdown, Tyler Simmons had rushing and receiving scores, and No. 5 Georgia protected its playoff hopes by overwhelming Massachusetts.
Another freshman, James Cook, ran for 76 yards on only three carries, including his first two career scoring runs,
from 26 and 27 yards.
Georgia gained 701 yards, including 426 yards on the ground, and never punted.
AUBURN 53, LIBERTY 0
AUBURN, Ala. — Seth Williams caught 5 passes for 109 yards and 1 touchdown, Kam Martin ran for 116 yards and Auburn’s defense pitched a shutout in a 53-0 victory over Liberty.
Auburn (7-4) held a pass-happy Liberty (4-6) offense in check, recording its first FBS shutout in 10 years (34-0 victory over Louisiana-Monroe in 2008).
Williams, a true freshman, recorded his first career 100-yard game, and Martin passed the century mark for the first time this season. The Tigers offense racked up 531 yards of offense, their highest output against an FBS foe this year. It was also the most points scored since beating Arkansas 56-3 in 2016.