No. 1 Alabama trounces Arkansas, improves to 10-0
FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. » Alabama has been the dominant program in college football for more than a decade and Arkansas coach Sam Pittman has been coaching in the Southeastern Conference almost all of it.
After the top-ranked Crimson Tide buried Pittman’s Razorbacks 52-3 on Saturday, the veteran coach said he believes the Crimson Tide has never been better.
“On tape, it’s the best Alabama team I’ve seen,” said Pittman, a longtime assistant at Tennessee, Arkansas and Georgia in his first season has head coach. “(Alabama coach Nick Saban) is going to hate me for saying that. I think he calls that rat poison. But that’s how I believe. That’s the best squad I’ve seen. They’re hard to stop.”
DeVonta Smith returned a punt 84 yards for a touchdown as Alabama scored 28 points in a span of 11 minutes in the first half.
After the teams traded field goals, Smith started the Crimson Tide (10- 0, CFP No. 1) barrage. Najee Harris scored consecutive touchdowns just 14 seconds apart and a final plunge from 1 yard by Brian Robinson Jr. had Alabama in cruising toward the Southeastern Conference championship game next week against No. 6 Florida.
“One of the motivating factors was win 10 SEC games in a regular season which has never been done before,” Saban said. “And obviously we wanted to play to a standard. We got started a little slow and as the game went on, we got better and better on defense and controlled the tempo on offense. All in all, I was really pleased. We got to play a lot of players.”
It was an otherwise quiet day for Smith, with three catches for 22 yards, but the receiver bolstered his surging case for Heisman Trophy consideration on one play.
“We gave up 76 yards early in the game, then we went for a good little stretch where they didn’t get a first down and we started getting momentum on offense. The punt return was big,” Saban said.
Crimson Tide defenders racked up eight sacks, the fifth of which resulted in a fumble by Arkansas quarterback Feliepe Franks which was recovered by DJ Dale at the Razorbacks 4. Harris scored on the next play.
Alabama allowed 188 yards and kept Arkansas (3-7) from registering a first down during a streak
of seven straight possessions from the first quarter to the third.
“We were having trouble picking them up,” Pittman said. “I had trouble picking them up when I was (offensive line coach) at Georgia with arguably the best line in football. We have to figure out how to move the pocket. Nobody can just sit back there against Alabama.”
Harris and Robinson finished with a combined 100 yards rushing and five touchdowns on 27 carries. Jase McLellan added a final rushing down, an 80-yarder, with 1:51 left. Mac Jones, whose day was finished in the third quarter, threw for 208 yards on 24 of 29 passing for Alabama.
Franks was one of three Arkansas quarterbacks to take snaps, including backup K.J. Jefferson, who left in the third quarter with an apparent leg injury, bringing Franks back into the game to finish. They combined to go 9 of 17 for 108 yards.
NO. 12 GEORGIA 49, MISSOURI 14
JT Daniels threw three touchdown passes, two to George Pickens, and Georgia routed Missouri.
Zamir White ran for 126 yards and a score for Georgia (7-2). Missouri (54) managed just 200 yards of offense after topping the 600-yard mark each of the past two weeks.
The game was tied at 14 when Pickens reached to his shoe tops to gather in a 36-yard touchdown toss from Daniels in the final minute of the first half. The pair connected again on the first drive of the second half, with Pickens catching a short pass on a slant route, stepping out of a tackle attempt and racing 31 yards for a score.
Daniels completed 16 of 27 passes for 299 yards. Pickens caught five passes for 126 yards and James Cook caught a TD pass and ran for a score.
NO. 15 NORTHWESTERN 28, ILLINOIS 10
Cam Porter ran for a career-high 142 yards and two touchdowns, Evan Hull added a season-best 149 yards on the ground, and Northwestern tuned up for the Big Ten championship game by beating Illinois.
Porter came in with just 32 yards and one TD.
But the freshman broke out in a big way, leading the Wildcats (6-1, No. 14 CFP) to an easy victory over the Illini (2-5).
Northwestern’s focus now shifts to the Big Ten championship game against No. 3 Ohio State next week. It’s the second title matchup in three years between the teams.
Northwestern won the Big Ten West after finishing last in the division in 2019. UTAH 38, NO. 21
COLORADO 21
Ty Jordan scored twice, including a sealing 66-yard burst, and Utah’s revamped defense forced three turnovers to help the Utes rally past Colorado in the snow to thwart the Buffaloes’ Pac12 title hopes.
The soon-to-be-unseated Pac-12 South champion Utes (2-2, 2-2 Pac-12) found their footing on the frozen field in the second half, turning around a 21-10 deficit by scoring 28 straight points.
Colorado freshman receiver/ Brenden Rice, the son of Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice, showed off his speed by scoring twice — on an 81yard punt return and on a 61-yard catch off a bubble screen.
But it wasn’t enough as the Buffaloes (4-1, 3-1, No. 21 CFP) suffered their first loss under new coach Karl Dorrell during the earliest kickoff (10:05 a.m. local time) in Folsom Field history.
COASTAL CAROLINA 42, TROY 38
Grayson McCall threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Jaivon Heiligh with 45 seconds left and No. 11 Coastal Carolina preserved its first perfect regular season with a 42-38 victory over Troy on Saturday.
McCall needed just 45 seconds to move the Chanticleers (11-0, 8-0 Sun Belt), who didn’t have any timeouts, 75 yards for the score. He completed all four of
his passes, three of them to Heiligh.
Coastal Carolina survived a sandwich game between an upset of then-No. 8 BYU and the league title game against No. 17 Louisiana-Lafayette. The Trojans (5-6, 3-4) didn’t make it easy for the highest-ranked team to visit Veterans Memorial Stadium. Backup quarterback Jacob Free, who replaced an injured Gunnar Watson in the fourth quarter, hit Tray Eafford on a 6-yard touchdown with 1:20 left. The play was set up with an interception by star middle linebacker Carlton Martial, who also had 21 tackles.
McCall completed 24 of 29 passes for 338 yards and three touchdowns. Heligh caught 11 passes for 138 yards and two TDs.
McCall also ran for a 2-yard score with 5:03 left for a seemingly safe 35-23 lead. CJ Marable ran for 120 yards and two scores, including an early 59-yarder, and also caught a touchdown pass.
NO. 19 IOWA 28, NO. 25 WISCONSIN 7
Spencer Petras threw for 211 yards and two touchdowns to Ihmir Smith-Marsette to lead Iowa past Wisconsin for the Hawkeyes’ sixth win in a row.
Iowa (6-2) beat the Badgers (2-3) for the first time since 2015 to reclaim the Heartland Trophy. Hawkeyes players celebrated by making snow angels after flurries picked up in the second half and blanketed the field in white.
Iowa’s offense came alive in the second half after both teams struggled in the first. Petras found Smith-Marsette for 19-yard touchdown in the third quarter to give the Hawkeyes a 14-0 lead.
Smith-Marsette finished with seven catches for 140 yards, and Tyler Goodson had 106 yards rushing.
The Badgers gained just 225 total yards, 56 on the ground.
NO. 20 NORTH CAROLINA 62, NO. 9 MIAMI 26
Michael Carter and Javonte Williams set an NCAA record by combining for 544 yards rushing, and North Carolina embarrassed Miami in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Carter ran for 308 yards and two touchdowns, and Williams had 236 yards and three touchdowns for the Tar Heels (8-3, 7-3 Atlantic Coast Conference). Per the NCAA, it was the seventh time teammates each ran for at least 200 yards, the first since 2016 and the first such instance in ACC history.
And the numbers only got worse for Miami (8-2, 7-2). Carter and Williams’s combined total topped the NCAA’s listed FBS record for teammates, set on Nov. 30 when Jaret Patterson (409) and Kevin Marks (97) rushed for 506 for Buffalo against Kent State.
North Carolina finished with 778 yards — the most ever yielded by Miami and a Tar Heels record — and 554 yards rushing, also the most allowed in Hurricanes history. Sam Howell threw for a score, ran for a score and caught a TD pass for the Tar Heels.
It was the third-most points allowed in Miami history, the most since 66 for Syracuse in 1998.
NO. 24 BUFFALO 56, AKRON 7
Jaret Patterson ran for 105 yards and matched a major college football record by reaching 1,000 yards for the season in five games, helping Buffalo rout Akron in a tune-up for the Mid-American Conference championship against Ball State. Patterson scored two touchdowns before halftime, bringing his season totals to 1,025 yards and 18 rushing TDs for the Bulls (5-0). He is the 12th player in FBS history to surpass 1,000 yards in five games. Kevin Marks Jr. led the Bulls with a career-high 175 yards and two touchdowns.
Akron is 1-5.