The first half was shaky. The second half was all Miami.

Mark Fletcher Jr. rushed for 106 yards and a career-high three touchdowns, Miami’s defense was airtight for much of the game and the ninth-ranked Hurricanes pulled away for a 42-7 win over Stanford on Saturday night.

Carson Beck — coming off the first four-interception game of his career in last week’s loss to Louisville — completed 21 of 28 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown to CJ Daniels for Miami (6-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), while Jordan Lyle and Girard Pringle Jr. also ran for touchdowns.

It was Miami’s biggest victory margin in an ACC game since beating Duke 47-10 on Nov. 27, 2021.

“Mark Fletcher showed why he’s such a great player and why he’s so important to this football team.” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said.

Miami had touchdowns on six of its last seven possessions; the one drive where it didn’t score in that span saw the Hurricanes stopped on a fourth-down try at the Stanford 21.

“Proud of the way our guys stuck with it,” Cristobal said.

Malachi Toney had 138 all-purpose yards, 73 of them coming on a pair of punt returns for the Hurricanes.

NCAA ordered to pay $18M to ex- player, wife

The NCAA owes a former college football player and his wife $18 million, a South Carolina jury decided while finding college sports’ major governing body negligent in failing to warn the player about the long-term effects of concussions.

Following a civil trial that wrapped up late last week, Orangeburg County jurors awarded $10 million to 68-year-old Robert Geathers, who played at South Carolina State University from 1977 to 1980 as a defensive end.

His wife, Debra, was awarded $8 million, according to a court document.

Top 4 bracket seeds remain unchanged

The top four seeds remain unchanged on the College Football Playoff bracket based on the Associated Press Top 25 released Sunday, but three of the four first-round matchups would change and Memphis returned as the Group of Five representative.

Only slight alterations were required on the mock bracket because the significant changes in the Associated Press poll came toward the bottom.

Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M and Alabama would be the top four seeds as the Nos. 1-4 teams in the AP poll.

The top four seeds receive a first-round bye.