Texas rallies, beats Texas Tech
LUBBOCK, Texas — Sam Ehlinger threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Joshua Moore in overtime, sending No. 8 Texas to a wild 63-56 victory over Texas Tech on Saturday that saw the Longhorns rally with two touchdowns in the final 3 minutes of regulation.
Moore’s second touchdown catch came with 40 seconds left and Ehlinger’s 2-point conversion pass to Brennan Eagles tied it to get to overtime. Texas got the ball first and quickly scored when Ehlinger and Moore connected for their third score of the day.
Texas Tech’s possession ended when Alan Bowman was forced to scramble and threw a wild pass that was intercepted by Caden Sterns.
Kansas State 38, No. 3 Oklahoma 35
NORMAN, Okla. — Skylar Thompson threw for 334 yards and ran for three touchdowns and Kansas State rallied from 21 points down to stun Oklahoma.
Freshman Deuce Vaughn caught four passes for 129 yards and ran for a touchdown in the Wildcats’ first road victory over a a topthree team in the AP poll. They rebounded from an opening loss to Arkansas State.
Oklahoma freshman Spencer Rattler passed for 387 yards and four touchdowns, but threw three interceptions.
Kansas State upset Oklahoma 48-41 in Manhattan last year.
Kansas State said earlier in the week it was struggling to have enough players available at all position groups to play the game because of COVID-19.
No. 4 Georgia 37, Arkansas 10
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Stetson Bennett threw two touchdown passes in the third quarter and Georgia rallied to beat Arkansas in the season opener for each school.
Bennett replaced D’wan
Mathis in the second quarter and finished 20 for 29 for 211 yards. Bennett put the Bulldogs ahead to stay when he tossed a 19-yard touchdown pass to George Pickens and ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 13-10 with 6 minutes left in the third.
No. 5 Florida 51, Mississippi 35
OXFORD, Miss. — Kyle Pitts caught four of Kyle Trask’s six touchdown passes and Florida spoiled coach Lane Kiffin’s Mississippi debut.
Trask completed 30 of 42 passes for 416 yards, throwing touchdown passes of 1, 16, 71 and 17 yards to Pitts. The star tight end had 170 yards receiving in the season and Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.
Trask directed four consecutive touchdown drives that spanned the second and third quarters to help the Gators build a 41-14 lead for the Gators (1-0 Southeastern Conference).
Miss. St. 44, No. 6 LSU 34
BATON ROUGE, La. — K.J. Costello passed for an Sec-record 623 yards and threw five touchdown passes in the Mississippi State debut of coach Mike Leach’s “Air Raid” offense, and the Bulldogs knocked off defending national champion LSU.
Costello’s passing yardage in his first game since transferring from Stanford to Starkville, Mississippi, eclipsed the 544 yards Georgia’s Eric Zeier had against Southern Mississippi in 1993 to set the Southeastern Conference record. And Costello needed most of it to make up for his two interceptions and two lost fumbles, which helped LSU rally to tie the game at 34 before he engineered a pair of scoring drives in the final 10 minutes.
No. 8 Auburn 29, No. 23 Kentucky 13
AUBURN, Ala. — Bo Nix threw for 233 yards and three second-half touchdowns, including a pair to Seth Williams, and Auburn scored twice in the fourth quarter to pull away from Kentucky in the season opener.
The Tigers turned a threequarter scare into a comfortable win by capitalizing on a late turnover and Kentucky’s failed fake punt in the lone Top 25 matchup of the Southeastern Conference’s opening weekend.
Nix delivered some big plays to start an encore to a promising freshman season, especially to Williams. He completed 16 of 27 passes and also ran for 34 yards.
No. 13 C. Florida 51, East Carolina 28
GREENVILLE, N.C. — Dillon Gabriel threw for 408 yards and four touchdowns to help Central Florida beat East Carolina to open its American Athletic Conference schedule.
Jaylon Robinson and Marlon Williams each had huge games as Gabriel’s top targets for the Knights (2-0, 1-0). Robinson had nine catches for 150 yards and two touchdowns, and Williams had a career-best 13 catches for 136 yards.
No. 14 Cincinnati 24, No. 22 Army 10
CINCINNATI — Desmond Ridder passed for 258 yards and two touchdowns and Cincinnati beat Army in the first matchup of ranked teams at Nippert Stadium since 2008.
No. 15 Okla. St. 27, West Virginia 13
STILLWATER, Okla. — Chuba Hubbard scored on a 23-yard run with 1:17 remaining to salvage a difficult afternoon and help Oklahoma State beat West Virginia.
Sidelined for a number of key plays after fumbling on consecutive second-half possessions, Hubbard ended up with 101 yards on 22 rushes for his 12th 100-yard performance in his last 13 games. Hubbard’s backup, L.D. Brown, gained 103 yards on 11 carries, including a 66yard touchdown run, for Oklahoma State (2-0, 1-0 Big 12).
No. 19 La.-lafayette 20, Georgia Southern 18
LAFAYETTE, La. — Nate Snyder hit a 53-yard field goal on the final play to lift Louisiana-lafayette past Georgia Southern.
The Ragin’ Cajuns (3-0, 2-0 Sun Belt) looked on the way to their first loss when Georgia Southern quarterback Shai Werts hit Khaleb Hood with a 28-yard touchdown pass and Dalton Anderson with a 2-point conversion with 54 seconds left to give the Eagles (1-1, 0-1) an 18-17 lead.
No. 21 Pittsburgh 23, No. 24 Louisville 20
PITTSBURGH — Kenny Pickett threw for 220 yards and two touchdowns and Pittsburgh sacked Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham seven times.
No. 2 Alabama 38, Missouri 19
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Mac Jones threw for 249 yards and two touchdowns in less than three quarters of work, many of his throws landing in the capable hands of Jaylen Waddle, and No. 2 Alabama began its Southeastern Conference-only schedule with a romp over rebuilding Missouri.
Waddle finished with eight catches for 134 yards and two touchdowns, and Najee Harris ran for 98 yards and three more scores, helping the Crimson Tide spoil the debut of new Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz and win their 27th straight over the SEC East before a Covid-19-curtailed crowd of 11,738 fans at Faurot Field.