Hurts, Tagovailoa lead Bama to victory

Tua Tagovailoa passed for three first-quarter touchdowns, and Jalen Hurts added two more before halftime, combining to lead No. 1 Alabama to a 57-7 victory over visiting Arkansas State on Saturday.

The Crimson Tide (2-0) racked up big plays on the way to a 40-0 halftime lead while rotating the quarterbacks who battled for the job throughout the offseason. Coach Nick Saban offifficially announced Tagovailoa would remain the starter Monday, but both were big parts of the plan again.

Tagovailoa fifinished 13 of 19 for 228 yards and four TDs. He led seven drives and tossed in runs of 15 and 12 yards in the second half. Tagovailoa had TD passes of 58 yards to Jerry Jeudy, 31 to Henry Ruggs III and 41 to De Vonta Smith— all in the fifirst quarter— and tacked on a 14-yarder to Derek Kief.

Hurts, who started the past two seasons, was effective, too. He was 7 of 9 for 93 yards but fumbled at the goal line after taking a hit while airborne.

Najee Harris ran for a career-high 135 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.

Justice Hansen couldn’ t get the Red Wolves’ fast-paced off ff ff ff ff ff en se going against the Tide defense. He was 15 of 36 for 140 yards with a touchdown and interception after tying a school record with six touchdown passes last week.

Alabama out gained Arkansas State 599-391 in total yards.

No. 18 Mississippi State 31, (at) Kansas State 10: Nick Fitzgerald returned froma suspension to throw two touch down passes, Kylin Hill ran for 211 yards and accounted for three scores, and No. 18Mississippi State’s swarming defense shutdown Kansas State.

It was the fifirst road win over a Power Five opponent for the Bulldogs (2-0) since Sept. 16, 1995, when they beat another Big 12 foe in Baylor. They had lost their last three such games.

(At) Tennessee 59, East Tennessee State 3: Jeremy Banks and Madre London each rushed for two touchdowns, and Tennessee followed a weather delay with a second-quarter scoring fl flurry to trounce Football Championship Subdivision program East Tennessee State.

Marquill Osborne scored on a blocked punt return and Darrin Kirkland Jr. scored on an interception return as Tennessee’s Jeremy Pruitt earned his fifirst head coaching victory in his home debut.

The Volunteers had lost 40-14 to No. 14 West Virginia in Pruitt’s opening game last week at Charlotte, North Carolina.

( At) Vanderbilt 41, Nevada 10: Vanderbilt overcame two early red-zone disappointments and bottled up a high-scoring Nevada off ff ff ff ff ff en se, winning a critical early-season nonconference game with a dominant second-half performance.

Carrying on from last week’s opener against Middle Tennessee, the Commodores (2-0) were rock-solid defensively from the start, holding the Wolf Pack to 124 yards in the fifirst half and 250 overall, a week after coach Jay Norvell’s team scored 72 points on 636 yards against Portland State.

( At) Mississippi 76, Southern Illinois41: Jordan Ta’amu threw for 448 yards and fifive touchdowns, Scottie Phillips ran for 107 yards and two scores, and Mississippi survived an upset.

SIU led 38-35 at half time in a game that was much more competitive than originally anticipated. In fact, this one was downright bizarre.

The Salukis (1-1) had never beaten a team from the Southeastern Conference and were 3-30 coming into the game against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents.