ATLANTA >> Carson Beck threw for 278 yards, including a pair of touchdowns, and No. 1 Georgia opened another season of enormous expectations by stifling 14th-ranked Clemson 34-3 on Saturday.

Leading only 6-0 at halftime, Georgia finally got its offense rolling in the third quarter with a pair of 75-yard touchdown drives, capped by Colbie Young’s 7-yard reception and Nate Frazier’s 1-yard run. Beck tacked on a 40-yard TD pass to London Humphreys that sent the Clemson side of Mercedes-Benz Stadium heading for the exits.

Clemson was held to 188 yards and Nolan Hauser’s 26-yard field goal.

Texas 52, Colorado State 0 >> Quinn Ewers passed for 260 yards and three touchdowns and No. 4 Texas rolled past Colorado State in the opener for both teams.

Ewers connected with Matthew Golden for a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter, and had another strike to Isaiah Bond as the Longhorns built a 31-0 lead by halftime.

Penn State 34, West Virginia 12 >> Drew Allar threw three touchdown passes in the second quarter, Nick Singleton rushed for 114 yards and a TD, and No. 8 Penn State beat West Virginia in a season opener delayed for more than two hours by lightning.

Allar and Singleton were able to generate the explosive plays that were lacking from Penn State’s offense in big games late last season and led to a change in offensive coordinators.

IOWA 40, ILLINOIS ST. 0 >> Cade McNamara threw three second-half touchdown passes and the No. 25 Hawkeyes cruised to a season-opening victory without coach Kirk Ferentz.

Ferentz served a one-game suspension imposed by the university for a recruiting contact violation that is under investigation by the NCAA. Assistant coach Seth Wallace ran the team in his absence. It was the first game Ferentz had missed in his 26 seasons as the Hawkeyes’ coach.

McNamara, who missed the final nine games of last season with a knee injury, threw touchdown passes of 7 and 19 yards to freshman wide receiver Reece Vander Zee. He also tossed a 31-yard TD pass to Jacob Gill to help the Hawkeyes pull away after leading 6-0 at halftime.

TENNESSEE 69, CHATTANOOGA 3 >> Nico Iamaleava threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns — all in the first half — in his first regular-season start to lead the 15th-ranked Volunteers to a victory over Chattanooga.

Dylan Sampson rushed for 124 yards and three scores in the first half as the Volunteers had an easy opener against an in-state FCS foe. Chattanooga, ranked eighth in the FCS preseason poll, didn’t cross into Tennessee territory until its first drive of the second half.

Oklahoma State 44, South Dakota State 20 >> Alan Bowman threw three touchdown passes, Ollie Gordon II scored three times and No. 17 Oklahoma State ended two-time defending FCS national champion South Dakota State’s 29-game winning streak.

Bowman, beginning his seventh year of eligibility at age 24, completed 24 of 33 passes for 265 yards.