SEC ROUNDUP

No. 1 Alabama 57, Arkansas State 7: Tua Tagovailoa passed for three first-quarter touchdowns and Jalen Hurts added two more before halftime for Alabama.

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 officially announced Tagovailoa would remain the starter Monday, but both were big parts of the plan again.

Tagovailoa finished 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 DeVonta Smith – all in the first quarter – and tacked on a 14-yarder to Derek Kief.

No. 3 Georgia 41, No. 24 South Carolina 17: Jake Fromm threw for 194 yards and a touchdown, all three of Georgia’s latest running combo scored touchdowns and the third-ranked Bulldogs turned an expected Southeastern Conference showdown into a blowout with a victory over host South Carolina.

The Gamecocks (1-1, 0-1 SEC) came in ranked for the first time in four years, and some thought they had a chance of upsetting the defending SEC champions early in the season.

Instead, the Bulldogs (2-0, 1-0) used dominating offense and suffocating defense to win their fourth straight over South Carolina.

Vanderbilt 41, Nevada 10: Host Vanderbilt overcame two early red-zone disappointments and bottled up a high-scoring Nevada offense, 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 first half and 250 overall, a week after coach Jay Norvell’s team scored 72 points on 636 yards against Portland State.