STANFORD, Calif. — Christian McCaffrey had two long touchdown runs and Ryan Burns threw a scoring pass in his first career start to lead No. 8 Stanford to a 26-13 victory over Kansas State on Friday night.
STANFORD, Calif. — Christian McCaffrey had two long touchdown runs and Ryan Burns threw a scoring pass in his first career start to lead No. 8 Stanford to a 26-13 victory over Kansas State on Friday night.
With the Wildcats focused on stopping McCaffrey after he set the major college football record for all-purpose yards and finished second last year in Heisman Trophy voting, Stanford turned to its new quarterback to lead the offense early and the defense late in the opener for both teams.
“The defense bailed us out a lot in the second half,” McCaffrey said. “We just have to be better in a lot of different areas. We have a lot of new guys on this team playing their first college football game. Sometimes that comes back and haunts you, especially Week 1.”
Burns completed his first 10 passes, including a 40-yard touchdown strike to Michael Rector on the opening play of the second quarter.
McCaffrey then got into the act with an electrifying 35-yard touchdown run. He froze safety Kendall Adams with a juke and raced to the end zone for the score.
“When he touches the ball enough, good things happen,” coach David Shaw said.
McCaffrey shattered Barry Sanders’ 27-year-old record by gaining 3,496 all-purpose yards last season when he finished second to Alabama’s Derrick Henry in the Heisman.
But Stanford’s offense stalled in the second half before McCaffrey iced the game with a late 41-yard TD run. He finished 126 yards on 22 carries and 210 all-purpose yards.
“They run the heck out of it,” Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said. “McCaffrey is a tremendously talented player and a nice kid. You take away the two runs, one was a blitz and he ran right by guys. The first one he had a lot to do with, bouncing off guys. I counted at least three broken tackles on that first run. We were inconsistent consistently, let’s put it that way.”
BAYLOR 55, NORTHWESTERN STATE 7
WACO, Texas — Seth Russell threw four touchdown passes in less than a half and No. 23 Baylor beat FCS team Northwestern State 55-7 on Friday night in its first game since the dismissal of coach Art Briles.
Russell was the top-rated FBS passer when he suffered a season-ending neck injury in the seventh game last season. He completed 14 if 20 passes for 163 yards. 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.
Baylor’s offense looked very similar to what it has in recent years under Art Briles, the two-time Big 12 champion coach who lost his job in the wake of a May report from an external investigation into allegations the school mishandled complaints of sexual assault, including some against football players.
Acting head coach Jim Grobe retained the rest of the coaching staff, including offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, the former coach’s son.
Baylor had 498 total yards, 275 rushing and 223 passing.
NO. 12 MICHIGAN St. 28, FURMAN 13
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Tyler O’Connor threw for 190 yards and three touchdowns, and Michigan State held off upset-minded Furman.
O’Connor went 13 of 18 with an interception, a generally efficient performance in his second career start. The fifth-year senior is taking over as Michigan State’s No. 1 quarterback after spending the past three seasons backing up Connor Cook.
Michigan State was merely serviceable on offense for most of the night, and that was good enough against Furman. LJ Scott ran for 105 yards and a touchdown, but the Spartans let the Paladins hang around for a while in the opener for both teams.
Down 21-13, Furman took over at the Michigan State 44 with 11:49 remaining after O’Connor’s pass was intercepted. But P.J. Blazejowski’s pass was picked off on the very next play — linebacker Andrew Dowell made a diving, one-handed grab to give the Spartans the ball back.