Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Seales, Sanders help No. 21 Oklahoma St. beat SE Louisiana
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Jhajuan Seales caught two touchdown passes, helping No. 21 Oklahoma State roll past Southeastern Louisiana 61-7 on Saturday afternoon.
Seales finished with three catches for 61 yards.
Barry J. Sanders compiled 76 all-purpose yards and scored a touchdown. Sanders, whose father, Barry, won the Heisman Trophy for Oklahoma State in 1988, is a graduate transfer who played for Stanford last season. The younger Sanders scored on a 1-yard run in the first quarter and nearly scored again later in the quarter. He was stopped at the 1-yard line after weaving through the Lions for a 57-yard punt return.
Mason Rudolph completed 18 of 26 passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns for the Cowboys (1-0).
Kaelyn Henderson ran 13 times for 68 yards and a touchdown for Southeastern Louisiana (0-1).
Madre Harper recovered a muffed punt in the end zone for Oklahoma State’s first points of the season. Chris Carson barreled through several Lions on a 9-yard touchdown run, and Seales stretched out for a 24-yard scoring grab to make it 21-0 with 8:10 left in the first quarter.
Henderson scored Southeastern Louisiana’s only touchdown on a 26-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.…
No. 23 Baylor 55, Northwestern State 7: With a coach named Briles still calling the plays, and Seth Russell throwing touchdown passes, Baylor’s offense certainly looked very familiar.
Russell threw four touchdown passes in less than a half, and the No. 23 Bears beat FCS team Northwestern State 55-7 on Friday night in their first game since the sudden dismissal of coach Art Briles just more than three months ago.
Two-time Big 12 Conference champion coach Art Briles lost his job in the wake of a May report from an external investigation into allegations the university mishandled complaints of sexual assault, including some against football players.
Acting head coach Jim Grobe retained the rest of the staff, and had no issues with the younger Briles having the initials “CAB” written on his hand — presumably for Art Briles.
Kendal Briles wasn’t available for comment since Baylor isn’t making assistant coaches available to speak to the media this season.
Russell was the top-rated FBS passer when he suffered a season-ending neck injury in the seventh game last year. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 163 yards with TDs to four receivers, including two tight ends. The Bears led 41-0 when he threw his last pass, a 10-yard TD pass to Pooh Stricklin with 5 minutes left in the first half.
Really, the outcome should have been no surprise. Northwestern State had lost its previous four meetings against Baylor by an average margin of 50 points, including 70-6 two years ago. Brooks Haack, the second graduate transfer in a row to start for the Demons, was under constant pressure and completed only 3 of 13 passes for 14 yards, but did run 3 yards for their only score.
The Bears, who are down to about 70 scholarship players, got some valuable playing time for true freshman quarterback Zach Smith and plenty of other non-starters, including third-teamers on offense and defense after halftime. Smith went through spring practice after graduating high school early, and was thrust into the role as backup when Jarrett Stidham left Baylor this summer. Smith was 5 of 7 passing for 60 yards and a touchdown and two other freshmen got into the game as well.
The defense was overwhelming, holding Northwestern State to 78 total yards, but will get a much tougher test against SMU, where Bears defensive coordinator Phil Bennett was once the head coach.
Baylor had 498 total yards (275 rushing, 223 passing) . ... Terence Williams ran a Baylor-high 11 times for 72 yards and two touchdowns . ... Shock Linwood, who ran nine times for 97 yards, is 107 yards shy of becoming Baylor’s career rushing leader. Walter Abercrombie’s record of 3,665 yards has stood for 35 years . ... The last time two Baylor tight ends caught TD passes in the same game was Sept. 8, 2007, when Justin Akers had two TDs and Brad Taylor one in a 42-17 win vs. Rice. ... The Bears led 48-0 at the half, when Northwestern State had 3 total yards and eight punts.…
West Virginia 26, Missouri 11: Skyler Howard played through a rib injury and Rushel Shell missed most of the second half with leg cramps, yet West Virginia overcame setbacks to their top two offensive threats to break a five-game losing streak to Southeastern Conference teams.
Backup running back Justin Crawford rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown filling in for Shell, and Howard stayed in the game to lead the Mountaineers to a 26-11 win over Missouri on Saturday.
So does Missouri, which lost in the debut for coach Barry Odom and fell in an opener for the first time since 2001, which was the first season under previous coach Gary Pinkel.
Howard was hurt when he was tackled by Missouri’s Donavin Newsom while sliding during a run near halftime. Trainers worked on his ribs before the second-half kickoff and he returned to the game.
Holgorsen said Howard is sore but no ribs were broken.
Howard didn’t attempt a carry the rest of the game. He finished 23 of 35 for 235 yards with no touchdowns and an interception.
In the brief time Howard sat out, backup quarterback William Crest lost a fumble and Chris Chugunov threw an interception.
Crawford did. The junior college transfer got most of the carries after Shell walked off the field gingerly early in the third quarter and didn’t return. Holgorsen said Shell had leg cramps and “he’s fine.”
Shell finished with 90 yards, including a 23-yard TD in the first quarter. He said he didn’t want to return to the game after leaving and “mess up the flow and the tempo” of the offense.
Missouri struggled most of the game under sophomore quarterback Drew Lock, who threw an 8-yard scoring pass to Chris Black with under two minutes left. …
Kansas 55, Rhode Island 6: Montell Cozart threw three touchdown passes, Ryan Willis tossed two more and Kansas gave second-year coach David Beaty his first victory by routing overmatched Rhode Island on Saturday night.
Third-string quarterback Carter Stanley also threw a TD pass, LaQuvionte Gonzalez caught seven passes for 78 yards and a touchdown, and Taylor Martin and Ke’aun Kinner ran for scores as the Jayhawks (1-0) won for the first time since beating Iowa State on Nov. 8, 2014, a span of 665 days.
They went 0-12 for the first time in school history last season.
The Rams (0-1) were held to 219 yards of offense by a Kansas defense that gave up at least 40 points eight times last season. Wes McKoy was 6 of 29 for 43 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Rhode Island has never beaten a school from the Football Bowl Subdivision in 14 tries.
The big question surrounding them Saturday night was who would be under center.
Cozart was the starter before a season-ending injury a year ago, and Willis took over the rest of the way. The two battled until the final week of training camp and Cozart won the right to take the first snaps of the game, though both played a significant amount of time.
Cozart wound up going 18 of 25 for 199 yards, while Willis was 7 of 9 for 144 yards.
Still, there were times they looked like the same old Jayhawks.
Late in the first half, Kansas failed to convert third down, got called for illegal substitution and missed a field-goal attempt. Cozart threw a pick in the end zone midway through the third quarter, while Derrick Neal botched a punt return midway through the fourth quarter. …
Northern Iowa 25, Iowa State 20: Aaron Bailey threw for 135 yards, ran for 114 more and had two touchdowns as Northern Iowa rallied to beat Iowa State 25-20 Saturday and spoil coach Matt Campbell’s debut with the Cyclones.
UNI’s J’Veyon Browning scored from 1 yard out with 2:49 left after a Joel Lanning interception, putting the Panthers ahead by five.
Cyclones running back Mike Warren fumbled it right back to Northern Iowa, and Lanning’s final pick with 1:10 left sealed what could hardly be considered an upset for Northern Iowa.
Lanning finished with 256 yards passing, three touchdowns and those two costly interceptions.
The Panthers scored touchdowns after an Iowa State safety, fumble and interception in beating the Cyclones for the second time since 2013.
The Takeaway
Iowa State: The Cyclones reworked and inexperienced offensive line, down a starter to suspension, looked shaky at best in its first performance. Iowa State couldn’t get their ground game going, as Warren had just 30 yards on 12 carries. That left the Cyclones unable to sustain drives, which kept its defense on the field longer than it needed to be. Iowa State was also killed by penalties, nine for 89 yards, which wiped out big gains by its offense. Lanning made three big throws for TDs, but his inexplicable fourth-quarter interceptions cost the Cyclones dearly.
Northern Iowa: The Panthers entered play ranked fifth in the FCS — and they showed why they’ll likely be a national title contender. Northern Iowa made the Cyclones pay for their mistakes and made the plays down the stretch that their FBS rivals couldn’t. …
Texas Tech 69, Stephen F. Austin 17: Patrick Mahomes threw for four touchdowns and ran for two more to lead Texas Tech past Stephen F. Austin 69-17 on Saturday.
The Lumberjacks couldn’t stop the Red Raiders offense and couldn’t get theirs on track for much of the game.
Mahomes, who was pulled midway through the third quarter, completed 30 of 43 passes for 483 yards; he rushed for 57 more.
Six Red Raiders receivers had yardage totals greater than 47 yards and the team had 10 plays of 20 yards or longer.
The win gave Texas Tech (1-0) its 16th straight win over FCS opponents, including three against the Lumberjacks (0-1).
The Takeaway
Texas Tech: The Red Raiders, who finished 126th in total defense last season (547.7 per game), looked improved. But the quality of their opponent probably didn’t provide the most accurate test. The defensive line is benefiting from two transfers, Kolin Hill (Notre Dame) and Ondre Pipkins (Michigan), and freshman linebacker Jordyn Brooks looked strong and fast. The defense showed its grit when it stopped the Lumberjacks inside the 10-yard line in the second quarter and took over on downs.
Stephen F. Austin: The Lumberjacks have plenty of work to do to polish their offense. The Football Championship Subdivision team didn’t score a touchdown until late in the third quarter and had just 60 yards rushing.