Chargers earn road shutout

CLEMSON, S.C. — Kevin Steele brought Auburn's bid to make another run at a national championship to an early halt six years ago as Clemson's defensive coordinator.

Now, he's hoping to do the same thing again — this time standing on Auburn's sideline.

Steele been the defensive coordinate at Auburn the past two seasons. He'll try and slow down No. 3 Clemson's young, productive offense when the teams meet tonight.

It was in 2011, Auburn's second game of the season, as the reigning national champs when the Tigers played at Clemson — which was coming off a losing season. But without Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton, Auburn struggled on offense in Clemson's surprise 38-24 win.

Steele's defense held Auburn to 10 points the final three quarters to end that team's 17-game win streak.

Now, Steele's locked in to slowing Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant , the successor to two-time Heisman finalist Deshaun Watson. Clemson put up 665 yards — 313 of them by Bryant — in a 56-3 victory over Kent State last week.

"Obviously their old quarterback was a first-round draft pick and one of the best to play in modern times," Steele said. "But their quarterback (now) is a very good football player and has a bright future in this game."

No. 13 Auburn defense held Georgia Southern to a touchdown in a 41-7 opening-game victory.

Fresno State at Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama and Fresno State are both making big leaps in competition, just in different directions.

The top-ranked Crimson Tide goes from a Top-5 matchup with Florida State back to Bryant-Denny Stadium as 44-point favorites over Fresno State today.

The Bulldogs, meanwhile, just got through rolling over fledgling FCS program Incarnate Word and now face one of college football's juggernauts.

Alabama topped then-No. 3 Florida State 24-7 in Atlanta.

UT-Martin at Ole Miss

OXFORD – Mississippi's offense looked very familiar during its reasonably comfortable 47-27 win over South Alabama last weekend.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. The passing game was awesome: Shea Patterson threw for 429 yards and four touchdowns while receiver A.J. Brown caught eight passes for a school-record 233 yards and two touchdowns.

But the running game was just OK: The Rebels gained 102 yards on the ground, led by D'Vaughn Pennamon's 34 yards and a touchdown. Ole Miss averaged 3.5 yards per carry.

UT-Chattanooga at LSU

BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU coach Ed Orgeron didn't have to wait long to see what a number of his new recruits could do.

He may very well see a lot more of his youngest players on Saturday, when the 12th-ranked Tigers (1-0) open their home slate against Chattanooga (0-1) of the NCAA's second-tier Football Championship Subdivision.

By necessity, LSU had four true freshmen — outside linebacker K'Lavon Chaisson, linebacker Tyler Taylor, safety Grant Delpit and offensive guard Saahdiq Charles — starting last weekend against BYU.

Other true or redshirt freshmen also made their LSU debuts in a 27-0 triumph over the Cougars, including cornerback Andraez Williams, who had an interception. Freshman backup quarterback Myles Brennan even got some snaps in the second half.

This week, LSU looks to improve upon its 12-0 record against FCS teams, several of which the Tigers have beaten by more than 50 points.

TCU at Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — When Arkansas coach Bret Bielema made the decision to switch to a 3-4 defense following last season, he did so with the idea of getting his best athletes on the field more often.

Bielema also did so with the hope of slowing someone exactly like TCU quarterback Kenny Hill, who the Razorbacks (1-0) will face for a third time when they host the No. 23 Horned Frogs (1-0) today.

Hill first played against Arkansas while with Texas A&M in 2014, leading the Aggies to a victory. He was at this best a year ago, decimating the Razorbacks defense while accounting for nearly 500 yards of total offense.

Arkansas won that game 41-38 in double overtime, thanks to a breakout quarterback performance of its own from Austin Allen.

Nicholls State at Texas A&M

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Texas A&M Aggies are desperate to put their stunning loss to UCLA in their opener behind them when they host Nicholls State today.

They'll have to do it with a new quarterback after Nick Starkel broke his ankle against the Bruins and is expected to be out for the rest of the season. Starkel was injured early in Sunday's game and true freshman Kellen Mond struggled as the Aggies blew a 34-point, third-quarter lead in the 45-44 loss.

It was a long week in College Station, with fresh questions about coach Kevin Sumlin's future after the Aggies went 8-5 in each of the last three seasons after opening 5-0 each time. A member of the system's board of regents called for his firing after the game and then Sumlin's wife said a racist, threatening letter calling for Sumlin to go "or else " was delivered to their home.

Sumlin, who has three years and $15 million left on his contract, insists that he ignores any outside talk about him and his team.

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CALEDONIA – Looking to continue their dominance, the Choctaw County Chargers hit the road to Caledonia to take on the Confederates.

The Chargers came out firing on all cylinders and in the most dominating fashion, picked up a huge victory 34-0.

"At this point in the season, we're just looking for improvement especially from our younger players," Choctaw County coach Ben Ashley said. "With district play approaching soon, we need to be ready all around and we had it (Friday night).

"Against Eupora, as long as we play together and communicate as a family, I think we'll do fine. My only expectation is to play harder every week and this season that has been the result every week."

One player Ashley praised for stepping in big time was backup right guard, Chris Anderson who stepped up when the starter went down.

"I did something that I know I have to do and train to do every day," Anderson said. "I've always worked hard for this opportunity and it came (Friday night) and paid off in victory."

In the first quarter, the Chargers forced the Confederates to punt early and scored the following drive as quarterback Austin Telano threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to fullback Tyler Holman, giving Choctaw County a 7-0 lead with 4:27 left in the opening period. The Chargers refused to give Caledonia a possession and recovered an onside kick to keep control of the game.

With 1:16 remaining in the period, Telano dove to the end zone to extend the lead to 14-0.

"I felt really great after the first snap and when we got in the flow of the game, everything just started running smoothly," Telano said. "Next week, we have to have a great week in the weight room and practice and we should come out victorious."

In the second quarter, the Chargers scored from 11 yards out on a run by L.T. McBride with 7:52 remaining in the half. The two-point conversion failed and the lead stood at 20-0. Caledonia quarterback Seth Brown fumbled the snap with 4:07 left in the half and it was recovered by Chargers defensive end Tanner Threadgill, but the Confederate defense stopped Choctaw County on fourth down.

The Chargers stopped Caledonia once again and got the football back to take a 27-0 lead after a 26-yard gallop by running back Kaleb Nichols with 1:03 remaining and Choctaw County held onto the lead going into the half.

In the third quarter, Telano called his own number again to score from 10 yards out and the Charger lead was extended to 34-0 with 11:27 remaining in the quarter. With 8:41 remaining, Seth Brown was hit and the football was loose only to be recovered by Cameron Miller of the Chargers as the defense continued to dominate, but the Confederates recovered a fumble and retake possession for the remainder of the period.

In the fourth quarter, the Confederates converted a fourth down to open play, but it was short lived as Brown was picked off by linebacker Austin Fulgham in the end zone to give the Chargers yet another possession, but the scoring ended with a dominating win for Choctaw County aided by a heavy rush of defense.

"It feels great to get this win (Friday night) after playing with precision and executing every play," Threadgill said. "I expect nothing less of my teammates next week against Eupora as long as we continue to have discipline and execute 100 percent."

Next week, Choctaw County (3-1) hosts arch rival Eupora (3-1) in Ackerman.