SPORTING ALERT — The 2017 college football season is now up and running and the following is the AP Top 25 scores and results on Saturday (26).
No. 14 Stanford and No. 19 South Florida opened their respective season on a winning note and doing so by double digit winning margins.
NO. 14 STANFORD 62, RICE 7
At the Allianz Stadium in front of a crowd of 33,101, Stanford kept Rice off the scoreboard for the first three-quarters in a comfortable 62-7 victory in the Sydney College Football Cup, which was a season opener for both sides.
Bryce Love, the man who is to replace Christian McCaffrey at Stanford, proved he was ready to do the job after delivering an impressive performance in the opener.
Love, who now seen as the main man at the running back position, following the departure of McCaffrey, who was drafted in the first round by the Carolina Panthers, carried the ball 13 times for 180 yards and a touchdown.
The junior who was limited after the middle of the third quarter, also burst through the Rice line for an effective 62-yards on Stanford’s opening play from scrimmage.
“Bryce is going to be our lead dog. But it’s nice to know we’ve got some guys who can back him up,” Stanford coach David Shaw said.
“I’m excited about where Bryce is heading into this season. We don’t want to wear Bryce out in any one game, so those guys have got to come out and make plays like they did today.”
One of those guys was redshirt freshman Cameron Scarlett, who had three rushing touchdowns and finished with 68 yards on nine carries.
He also took a catch for 56-yards in the win for the Cardinal, who scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and led 38-0 at halftime.
Quarterback Keller Chryst showed he’s recovered fully from the torn ACL in his right knee in December in the Sun Bowl after finishing with 14 of 24 pass completions for 253 yards and two touchdowns before handing the ball over to Ryan Burns with Stanford leading 45-0.
K.J. Costello, who took over later from Burns, scored the final Cardinal TD on a 25-yard run.
There weren’t a lot of highlights for Rice, which trailed 55-0 before Austin Walter’s 23-yard run got the Owls on the board with 6:19 remaining.
Rice head coach David Bailiff expected better from his team.
“We’re a better team than we showed today,” he said. “When you play against a team like Stanford, or any elite team, you have to be at your very best. And we made some poor decisions early.”
Both teams have a week off before heading back into action on Sept. 9.
The Cardinal are at the Pac-12 chosen side for 2017, USC on Sept. 9, while the Owls are playing at Texas-El Paso.
NO. 19 SOUTH FLORIDA 42, SAN JOSE STATE 22
In the other game involving an AP Top 25 team, the 19th ranked USF beat San José State 42-22 at CEFCU Stadium – Home of the Spartans.
It was the first game under new head coach Charlie Strong, who moved on from Texas.
The Bulls, however, didn’t get off to the best start, as Bailey Gaither scored touchdowns on two short runs to help the Spartans jumped out to a 16-0 lead.
After that, though, it was all South Florida, which kept the home side off the scoreboard in the second and third quarters to take a 42-16 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Quinton Flowers threw two touchdown passes on 11 of 23 attempts for 212 yards and D’Ernest Johnson ran for two scores in a dominant second quarter performance that saw USF scoring 28 unanswered.
