Quinn Ewers threw for 288 yards and three touchdowns Saturday as No. 5 Texas beat No. 25 Vanderbilt 27-24 Saturday in its Southeastern Conference road debut.
The Longhorns (7-1, 3-1) bounced back from the loss to Georgia last week that ended their stay at No. 1..
Vanderbilt (5-3, 2-2) snapped a three-game winning streak in its first game ranked in the Top 25 since the 2012 Music City Bowl. This was the Commodores’ first regular-season game as a ranked team since Oct. 18, 2008, when they played three games as a Top 25 team.
They had a chance late as Diego Pavia threw for two touchdowns after Texas went up 24-10 in the third. Pavia’s second TD pass, an 8-yarder to Eli Stowers with 46 seconds left, pulled Vanderbilt within 27-24y.
The Longhorns opened slowly as a tipped Ewers pass was picked off by Martel Hight. Vanderbilt needed only five plays before Pavia scrambled 18 yards for a touchdown and 7-0 lead.
Ewers completed his next 17 passes. He threw a 3-yard TD to Matthew Golden on the Longhorns’ next drive, and he connected with DeAndre Moore Jr. for a 27-yard TD late in the first quarter for a 14-7 lead.
The Texas quarterback found Moore again for a 25-yard catch-and-run up the left sideline for a 21-7 lead in the second.
NO. 6 MIAMI 36, FLORIDA ST. 14: Cam Ward passed for 208 yards and caught a touchdown pass, Damien Martinez ran for 148 yards and two touchdowns and the host Hurricanes remained unbeaten by beating the Seminoles (1-7, 1-6 ACC).
Mark Fletcher Jr. rushed for a score and Andres Borregales kicked three field goals to help Miami (8-0, 4-0) snap a three-game losing streak against Florida State, which started 13-0 last season and won the ACC, but is assured of its fifth losing season in the last seven years.
NO. 14 TEXAS A&M 38, NO. 8 LSU 23: Quarterback Marcel Reed came off the bench to run for three second-half touchdowns and the Aggies beat the visiting Tigers.
Texas A&M (7-1, 5-0) picked off three of Garrett Nussmeier’s passes after halftime to get its seventh straight victory since a loss to Notre Dame in the opener.
The Aggies scored touchdowns on four straight possessions after Conner Weigman was benched for Reed in the third quarter. They improved to 5-0 in SEC play for the first time as they chase their first appearance in the conference championship game.
LSU (6-2, 3-1) led by 10 with about eight minutes left in the third when BJ Mayes grabbed an interception and returned it to the Tigers 8. Reed came in and scored on a keeper on the next play to cut it to 17-14.
A second 8-yard run by Reed put the Aggies ahead 21-17 with about a minute left in the third.
NO. 11 BYU 37, UCF 24: Quarterback Jake Retzlaff threw for 228 yards and two touchdowns and added another on the ground to lead the Cougars to a road win over the Knights.
BYU (8-0, 5-0 Big 12) got a 62-yard touchdown pass from Retzlaff to Chase Roberts with 27 seconds left in the first half to head into the locker room up 14 points. They came out of the locker room with a 10-play, 72-yard drive capped with a 1-yard throw from Retzlaff to tight end Mata’ava Ta’ase.
BYU outgained UCF (3-5, 1-4) 483-350.
LJ Martin rushed for 101 yards and a TD on 15 carries, and Hinckley Ropati rushed for 83 yards on 13 carries to lead BYU’s ground attack.
No. 12 NOTRE DAME 51, No. 24 NAVY 14: Jeremiyah Love ran for 102 yards, two touchdowns and extended his streak of rushing for a TD to eight games in leading the Fighting Irish, who knocked the Midshipmen from the unbeaten ranks.
Love scored on runs of 64 and 2 yards and quarterback Riley Leonard ran for a touchdown and threw two more as Notre Dame (7-1) beat Navy (6-1) for the seventh straight time in this 97th meeting, which was played at MetLife Stadium.
The Midshipmen, who had not lost a fumble all season, lost five and that led to 28 points for the Irish, with Jaylen Sneed recovering a Blake Horvath fumble in the end zone for a score.
Love’s shorter TD run, a 6-yard TD pass from Leonard to Kris Mitchell and a 4-yard TD run by Kedren Young also followed turnovers.
NO. 15 ALABAMA 35, NO. 21 MISSOURI 0: Jamarion Miller rushed for two touchdowns and the Crimson Tide defense had three interceptions in a home rout over the Tigers, who played much of the game without starting quarterback Brady Cook.
Alabama (6-2, 3-2 SEC) bounced back from its second loss in three weeks. It had already lost multiple games before November for the first time since 2007 but took this one over after the Tigers (6-2, 2-2) lost Cook to an upper body injury late in the first half.
Jalen Milroe was 16-of-26 passing for 215 yards for Alabama. He also ran for 50 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown.
Miller scored on runs of 3 and 11 yards and Justice Haynes had a 35-yard touchdown run.
Pyne was 6-of-12 passing for 42 yards with the three interceptions.
No. 18 MISSISSIPPI 33, OKLAHOMA 28: Jaxson Dart threw for 306 yards and the host Rebels beat the Sooners.
Oklahoma was up 14-10 at the half before Ole Miss scored two touchdowns in the third quarter behind Dart and tight end Caden Prieskorn, who had five catches for 71 yards.
Oklahoma (4-4, 1-4 SEC), in its first game since last Sunday’s firing of offensive coordinator Seth Littrell, was productive in the run game in the first half but struggled out of the gate on the back end. The Sooners did not cross the 50 in the second half until the middle of the fourth quarter.
That drive reached the Ole Miss 13 but ended with three straight sacks of quarterback Jackson Arnold and a turnover on downs. The Rebels (6-2, 2-2) sacked Arnold nine times.